The Art of Performing Art

I happened to go to a show yesterday.  Not like a televised drama, or a movie but specifically a musical show by, if I am to believe it VH 1, India's "Next Biggest thing (2014)". Seeing the fact that it is  2016 I did have my doubts about their rankings. I mean by now he should be a big thing right?

Anyway, pedantic humour aside (yeah, like that's happening) what I took away from the show was a lesson on what differentiates the world into two broad categories, 

a)Performers.

b)Yeah, no just give me a minute.

These shouldn't be considered as categories of people, more like categories of reactions that people give. The kind of attitude people generally keep. The difference between the two? The 2 percent. 

I believe both these attitudes are like competing political parties, or pizza toppings. They have covered about 98% of your pizza.So, what is going to decide whether you can call this a pepperoni pizza with pineapple or a pineapple pizza with pepperoni? (I mean you know other than basic sense of gastronomy)

You. You and your confidence (or lack of thereof) and will to act are the three instincts that are going to push you into one of those groups. It should not be considered that one is worse than the other, but what should be a matter of consideration is what do you stand to gain from both. I have happened to realize that there is always more knowledge to be gained from doing something rather than postponing it (unless it is something like being Wiley Coyote's stunt double) . As I saw yesterday, a fine young man picked up the mic and might have lacked a certain elan, to break it down, or say request Mr Shady to stand up, but he did do a really good job of going out there and performing. He might have just started or might have been a hundred shows down, but more importantly, he picked up the mic and really put his heart and soul into it. He might've not known the words of the song, but he sure knew the song of his spirit and he sang it to his heart's content. 

That is what we all stand to gain if we try to tackle our opportunities and issues as "Performers". If we try to " keep the faith" . We stand to learn, and experience the thrill of performing, the thrill of using our skill, dexterity, and showing what you're made of to your greatest critic. Yourself.  

The 2% that I have mentioned is governed by your confidence and your will. Unless both of them are inline and aiming to really make it you will not be happy with whatever outcome you end up with. Confidence without will is arrogance and will without confidence is acting on fear. You need to control those two stallions. As long as they act opposing to each other you will always be where you are. Instead if you were to harness them and use them to complement each other and drive yourself ahead you have before yourself a chariot for your success.  In probably the wisest and simplest words on this matter, 

"If you say you can, or if you say you can't, you're right either way".

That is the crux of this argument. It is about how determined you are to just put yourself out there and give it a shot. In the long run of space and time, we're barely here for the time span of an Alien commercial advertisement. Why waste that little time and not do what we actually like and want to do?

CAT:Your Life Depends On It

The Common Admission Test. For those unfamiliar with this fascinating invention, this test is a three hour duration paper testing candidates across three sections, namely, their Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation/Logical Reasoning, and Quantitative Aptitude. For those familiar with it, yes it might have changed since you gave it or read of it last.

Changes in CAT:http://www.mbauniverse.com/article/id/9554/CAT-2016

This post however is not a review of it nor is it a commentary on it. This article is inspired by it. The CAT has always been, not about scoring aces but just trying to find a balance between accuracy and the numbers and pardon the generic response that will follow, but it seems so much like life. (Yeah big surprise that right?)

Lesson 1: 

You Know it all. (Pun intended)

Well, almost everyone.

This examination asks you to utilise skills you learnt far back in school. Till 10th. The lessons that you learnt as a kid. It asks you to use those basic principles to solve problems of a not so  basic nature. For example as you go out in the world, you realise not all people think the same and what you heard in stories like,  "everyone is special" and "everyone deserves to be heard", might actually be a little poisonous but is a absolutely essential because our entire is society is based on mutual principles and the act of simply denying them to others can have repercussions for the entire species.

So what this paper asks you is to use that knowledge but not in a manner as black and white as one would want because honestly nothing in the world can be seen through that lens. Our actions are black and white, however our motives are extremely variations of grey and it is impossible to separate the two. Hence you need to employ your maturity and what you've learnt in the years since your lesson forming years to actually take decisions about things that matter now.

Lesson 2:

The Divides of Life.

Your life is made up of a lot of things. Work, play, school, college, family, friends, hobbies etc. Over dependence on one is an exceedingly short term view of things and honestly will never be enough to bring you overall satisfaction. Excelling in one section but ignoring a lot in the others or even in one is enough to throw a monkey wrench in your entire plan for a smooth running machinery. Nothing in your life can be entirely compartmentalized away from the other. There is just a certain level of balance you need to maintain. If you ever want to receive a higher call (I am not referring to IIM A. They might need you to also be an ET Neurosurgeon).

Lesson 3:

Time.

 It is all about time. Every question in the CAT can be done by anyone if you give them all the time in the world, but that s one thing we do not have, Since the day we are born our clocks are set and boy are they running. Before you know it your years of philosophical clarity are replaced with protests over vegetables and in the twisted ways of the world a few years down the line you are the one buying those green leafy ironic plot twists. 

Personal Experience Talk: Don't giving soliloquies in the vegetables section 

As is what goes down here. you need to time yourself and play against the clock. You have an hour for each of the parts and you need to make the best of it in that regard. With the latest change you have to spend an equal time on all, but previously it was up to you to decide how much time to spend on each. It might also be interesting to note that while at the first go that might seem to be slightly different from the reality but if you think about it, it does happen right? You're at work and suddenly everything for the day is done and you are left with this excess which you could spend, say with family, or friends or collecting stamps or making the Death Star, but as reality bites you think that the traffic might probably reduce that advantage. Or that maybe your family/friends might still be out and busy or that Harrison Ford is in town so probably not the best day for intergalactic imperialism. (Note:Not a good day for Nazi Treasure collectors or Russian Separatist leaders looking to infiltrate Air Force One either) 

Of course it goes without saying the crunch you feel when there is a paucity of time. Which is always. Be it the five more minutes to defeat the final boss, or the five more minutes you want before you present to your first boss. There isn't nearly enough of it for all the things you want to do, so it becomes essential for you to pick up what matters to you and show that in your actions. The wayside is filled with incomplete manuscripts, Tyre swings, skills, books, even people. It is absolutely essential for  you to be able to identify what has to be with you in this entire journey because things in life are just always a few steps from just fading away. 

Lesson 4:

You Win Some, You Lose Some. 

This paper is known for lulling you in with a false sense of security till you actually see how many questions you got right or wrong, and you can bet on it you will get things wrong.  Mistakes my friend are such an integral part of life that if you think you can move on without them, you have probably made one with that assumption. However unlike your usual exams in formal education you won't be told what is a mistake at that point of time. Similarly, a mistake you make here won't actually register to you as a mistake because you wouldn't have made it in the first place and there is no retake unless you wait a year. By which time you probably have a whole different load to work with. In life you will do somethings right, you will do somethings wrong. But it is important to realise that the mistakes you make will have a negative impact and they will reduce your metaphorical score, but that doesn't mean it has to affect everything you do after that. Every different issue you tackle has boundaries beyond which the only thing connecting them is you. So there is no point saying that the reason you missed your aim in Sniper school and duck hunt was because of wind. Probably you just aren't a great shot. (On the bright side you'd probably never shoot yourself in the foot intentionally. Pun and paradox intended)

There is going to be a lot to make you happy in it and plenty to make you tired of it. The thing to remember is to bash on regardless.

Lesson 5:

Happy Birthday!

It is an annual affair. It makes you think what you've actually done in the past year. Most prefer to go at it alone and yes your extended clan and brethren will be aching to know what and how you did it. Ugh. Is nihilism not mainstream yet?

Lesson 6:

There is a start, there is an end. It has all the twists and turns in between my friend.

The three hours will probably not be like an hour of video games or an hour at a buffet or an hour at work (in case your work is in the overlying area between video games and buffet). But it will still be something that gives you a challenge in a make you feel alive way. You will like it. More importantly you will make it through it. Of course what happens after is kind of better left to a matter of faith.

So there you have it. A learning lesson from an exam. Funny how these things usually happen when you're actually supposed to be doing something absolutely else.

Drift

Somewhere in the race around,
We jumped up high
But couldn't touch the ground.
We floated of far into space,
we floated away into this maze.

There isn't any anchor to hold us down,
we celebrated as we went away.
Joyous as we flew away.
Half past 10 as things settled in
and as there ceased to be
The effect of a routine,
we felt the change and a repeated burst,
of happiness and mirth, for we had set sail
for far away.
Joyous as we flew away.

Then as the last things to see,
ceased to be recollections,
but only remained memories,
There was a twinge and break
something snapped fast and quick.
You couldn't see what was left behind
nor where you were headed blind.
Then it struck once more as you went ahead,
you were far gone beyond your bed.
Away away you spin and swim,
one way channel, no fantasy or whim.
Away away you swam and spun,
away from kith, away from kin.

So we float on with this current,
shaped and moulded by forces far from elastic.
We spread on a thousand treads,
linked to the past with breaking threads.
We float on up and away,
we float on, to look back some other day.

One At A Time

"How do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time"
-Quoted by some guy clearly not aware about the concept of binge eating


The above line is something I picked up while reading Mark Owen's  "No Easy Day". The story about the SEAL team that went on the mission to Abbottabad (and makes me think twice before ordering pizza at night).
The line however which the protagonist says pushed him was something that stuck with me. No not because it is an elephant. Well kinda. It is because those small words carry some big meaning. Of course those words at first go did not make much impact. Like most things we read, or hear or experience, their relevance got highlighted only when I found myself in a position to appreciate their depth. For a better part of my life, my athletic achievements have been limited to retrieving the TV remote from one room within an hour or reaching across the bed for it, and while my physical prowess is spoken with awe among sloths, among the social animals such as ourselves it is more at a value mathematicians would like to denote to be just a scrap above zero.

Will shortly be arriving.

However, in my final year there was just a push that sort of motivated me to probably cross the threshold of exertion to the limit that you can at least beat a spider trying to make a web around you. So I set out to battle my first foe, running. It has been chronicled by great many a minstrels that there was a mother who wanted her son to run, but the son preferred to watch Pokemon and that's why his tryouts for the Olympics were undone. 

Ain't no one taking me away from Kanto.

                 

Basically my years of being a politician about running around came back to bite me (yeah they ran their bit) and I finally had to push myself to at least not collapse into a human puddle. Or like collapse either. I'll spare you the details of that, but it was during one run on a particularly trying day that those words about consuming an Elephant struck me. Every step I was taking, every millimeter I moved ahead, every panting breath, gasping for oxygen (or like the light at the end of the tunnel) was one step more than what I had previously done. Every movement ahead while barely a dent was in fact a movement ahead,  and that pushed me. Every run henceforth, every length of the pool, every  skip, every extra sweet dish at Barbecue Nation, encouraged me. Just one more, just one ahead. just take the large challenge  and break it down into small pieces, till the waiters at an all you can eat buffet look at you like the physical incarnation of world hunger.         

What happened ultimately was that the run wasn't about how far I ran the race, it was about HOW I ran the race. Whether I ran it like a chore, or if I ran it as a battle. If I ran it as a compulsion or I ran it as a challenge. If I ran it, convinced that I'd have a better chance of completing the circuit if I flew or if I decided to cut the self expensed  humour and actually do something I had aimed for and that made all the difference. 

That year, those month of running imparted me the wisdom which I think actually pushed me into adulthood. Don't get me wrong, I am still in denial about maturity, but I actually feel that achieving anything isn't about conquering the thing you target. It is about conquering that part in yourself that thinks it can't. It is about shutting down your opposition. It is about taking that huge trek and breaking it down smaller and smaller till every step and breath is charging you towards your goal. 

I took that lesson with me, for this last year that I spent betwixt and between. Correction, that I continue to spend betwixt and between a lot. Aims, aspirations, cuisines etc etc. Every mammoth task that befell me at work, or every change that had to be induced was done one twirl and spin at a time.All I had to do was ensure that I did my small bit towards myself and just maintained that flow. 

While that book might've not been the pinnacle of literary achievements, or my running around been the peak of human fitness, that phase, that mindset gave me a bigger and better gift just short of the best one (life) I ever got. It taught me the best way to deal with it. To deal with life.Simply, one bite at a time. 

Parrying the Perturbing

Yes, I love alliterating. Sue me. Anyway. This post should've been in continuation of the promised trilogy, but as everyone does not crucify Marvel for muddling their trilogies, I'll hope for the same. Yes, marvel at my presumption.
To those who might benefit most from reading this, for their sake (and mine because quite frankly having small talk on paper just seems like talking to myself and I'd rather do that without written proof of it) I'll cut to the chase (this phrase always bothered me, isn't the chase but a delay to the climax?).

"Anxiety?"
"No thank you good Sir. I think I'll skip that"
"I don't think you will......*muahahahah*"
- Your brain and thought when you think about taking chances.

To describe what it feels like to me. It feels like being in a situation where I have the power to decide, but am unable to because of myself. That is how anxiety strikes me. To some it strikes like an anchor completely weighing them down. To some it hits like the strike by a debilitating weapon. To some it is merely like a pin prick. (Yeah right.)


                                          

    Perturbation Theory in Maths. That's right, no one is safe.
                                        

The thing is, anxiety completely spread over you like the way water finds it way. It just flows and knows exactly the right places to go straight through your lows and start collecting in a puddle, increasing and becoming a reservoir for spreading even more. It is all covering. It is the night. It spread so completely around and destroys all physical representations. It blocks your mind. What's worse is it separates you from your one ally to best tackle it. Reality.

I know. Those of you in the 1920's reading this because of your time travelling descendant must be saying "Oh MY! What a sensational statement this screen seems to have. My word nothing jolly good about this. No sire no."

But wait, there's more. The reason for this gasp inducing statement is that quite frankly it is the truth! Your mind is a wonderful, imaginative, magical place that can imagine castles, dragons, wizards, heroes and seas. It can also however imagine villains, storms, darkness, and monsters. That's how beautifully honest a tool it is. Somewhere down the line however it needs to be controlled. Reality, the things happening around you, daily life, it doesn't have monsters or dragons. It  isn't a fairy tale. So why use a drastic scale of imagining the worse possibilities as the only possible outcomes?Maybe you're getting it a little bit.

Step 1. If you are in a situation of utter despair. Where you feel stuck and struck dumb. When your faculties seem to be as responsive as your faculty when they try to test you. There is one foremost action you must do. Imagine anything that gives you hope. Don't just picture it, picture it in all its glory. Highlighted, in all importance, the thing that stands out and demands to be seen purely by existence. Do this, because the only opponent to an unnaturally enlarged foe, is an even stronger weapon.
This might not win the battle, but it will give you the courage to tame this beast raging around in your mind.

Step 2. The tougher one. Open your eyes. Not just physically, but use that light that your courage gives you, to pierce that mist of fear, and anxiety. Open your eyes, to see what the real picture is . What the real story is. What is actually happening in front of you. Realistically try to see whether those shackles holding you are really there, or they are really nothing but  illusory wisps.

Those daily battles, which drain you, those struggles and contests which seem to have no rules and never give you a fighting chance are not real. All those battles, are not supposed to weaken you. They are meant to test and push you. They are meant to make a better you. They aren't meant to be roadblocks. They are checkpoints, to show you that every march forward in the world will bring you a new challenge, only increasing your capacity for bearing them, beating them and bringing yourself something better ahead. That is what you need to treat anxiety as. Not as the demon to slay, but the dummy to train with. It is an artificial intelligence based creature ready to try you at every turn, but secretly, it roots for you. It wants you to grow and go ahead.

 Tackle it hence not like an over-sized boggart/shape-shifter, but see it for what it really is. A test for a newer you. A test for a further progressing you. See it as the worst of the world, to make the best of you.

Hope and Wait

"Victory comes to those who believe in it, the strongest and the longest"
-Probably someone who had his confidence on steroids
(Just kidding, I paraphrase Lt. Col Doolittle)


Of the many flaws I have being a pessimistic optimist is probably the lesser of them. However, I am pretty sure it's not just an individual streak. Quite frankly, being a pessimistic optimist, ("poptimist" if you will) is what helps you be normal as compared to a either a sugar high toddler or what you get after the toddler crashes from the sugar high. It is also something which tends to colour opinions  grey. Just one shade of it.However a person runs a risk in this kind of a situation. A risk much bigger than the captain of a bowling team deciding to give a spinner the last over to bowl. That is, they might lose the will to win.

 The fact is, in no situation can you win without first agreeing that you really want it, second believing you can get it, and third actually doing something to get it. There is attrition in almost every step which only keeps increasing as you go to every successive step. Yes, this is maths working as Hydra.  So if someone already believes that a cause is the opportunity equivalent of a mosquito (worthless), you can be pretty sure that it won't be tough to swat them out of the sky. Or off your face for that matter.  So this battle is something, which you don't even come close to winning, because instead of even preparing or trying out of the waters, you've just looked out of your window and said "The sun's too bright for surfing." or "The pizza is too cheesy for my liking". Those kind of words should not be used because whatever might be the hindrance, what it really is hiding, is a chance for you to discover a part of yourself that will face a challenge in an entirely new fashion that can surprise you!

In professions like the military, research,entrepreneurship  hitting a roadblock is almost as regular as not liking the cafeteria food, but those professionals who really believe in their calling and who really want to sustain and grow keep striving on. In the National Defence Academy in Pune, there is a line scratched into a desk (at least that's what I've heard. Quote attributed to Winston Churchill). It says: "Going through hell, keep going". Probably the best thing to refresh a person to continue on in any battle they rage is to wage it on and not take one step back (no I am not trying to go all Stalin here).


(Credits:Pintrest)

SO even if you are a "poptimist" it is not an excuse to excuse your self of aspiring to win.
Everything in life is going to put obstacles and obstructions in front to of you, no matter how  prepared, confident, etc you are. Everyone will face the same opposition that you do when doing what you are and some might have it even worse. So if you feel crippled and unable to move ahead you need to realise that the best way to get through a storm (if you must) is probably through it, for no ship that stayed in its harbour ever realised what it was meant to do.

On a trip to Manali, my father and I thought we'd try our hand at para gliding. Now this was in a very controlled environment, but it doesn't help when you're at the top a peak in a mountainous region and see that what really the activity is a slow plummet. Now I don't have a fear of heights. No one does I think. It's a fear of falling probably, but anyway, I remember standing on that patch of flat land and the instructor told me to just run straight. Now when I started running I felt a tug and thought that my guide wasn't harnessed properly so I kind of slowed down. Turns out that was the wind, but what that stop did was it changed my direction so my 5-6 meter run up now became a 3 meter run up. I remember thinking how this game of chicken could probably cost me a lot, but I jumped. The first ten seconds of that jump were magical. Not because of the plunge, or just because of the silence, but because it was that time when I felt I had run against an opposition (gravity and my fear) to do something and was actively aware of it. Agreed this was in an extremely controlled environment but what it gave me was the confidence, that no matter what maybe the force pulling you down or the thing holding you back. What you have to do is just keep running and know when to take the jump.

It is what helped me in subsequent situations like, my first diving board, my first (can't say last) 12 feet jump to 8 feet (which I missed and kind of tackled the platform) before I went to 2 feet (my own that is. It was a spectacularly unremarkable fall. Good times.), leaving home, job interviews, creative pursuits, etc.

So this is kind of like the second part to the "Win" Trilogy. I've covered the one on inspiring yourself to make the change in "http://thepisceanwindow.blogspot.in/2016/05/the-honourable-leader-of-opposition.html".

Though this step is probably where maximum people lose out because the only thing that can help you get through this is your belief and your belief is something you can lie to the world about but never to yourself. So fair warning all fellow sailors towards the trade winds that the sea will be full of storms. To all the nomads, the oasis will be in the middle of the unforgiving sand land. To all the astronauts, that the celestial heavens lie outside the pull of gravity and to everyone who is trying to move towards a goal, remember that you're two steps away from attaining everything you've ever wanted. It's just you who needs to believe in you.

My Country

There isn't much to my Land
Other than hindi and
women putting on bindis.
Well except maybe that our civilization
is over some 1000 and greater years old.
Its population is diverse
as its geography.
Its culture is richer
than its business class.
Which are still lesser
than its past.
There isn't much to my Land,
other than all stages of history.
Even with all the science,
some parts of it are still a mystery.
It is an enigma, this frigid sub tropic.
Split it in the middle and brothers remain strangers of above and below.
Or even at the sides, mentioned as a strange connect.
People of a group having one thing  common in their select.


This area where the cradle of humanity sadly remains
as a child young but misguided.
Ready to be buried
as aged, idealed but tired.
As someone who is stuck betwixt and between
two polarizing teams.
Which scream of glory to their
and only their cause.
Or the other who cry at all the Lost cause.
There is something strange in my country
that everyone is alienated
but still cries more home
than any other of the dirt and leaf
anywhere around.


There is still some hope
for people dream.
There is struggle
for everyone has something
to make it worth it.
My country is strange,
My country is different.
So you'd probably understand if I tell you,
There isn't much to my Land
that you'd probably understand.
There is just so much this land holds,
love, hope, dreams and happiness
not just sorrow and loss.
It's like most others
this breath of warmth,
this wave of chill.
It's my home, my world.
I can roam everywhere see the wonders
to gape with awe and be amazed,
but it's only here near my horizon and
between the poles,
that finally my heart, will feel both frozen and burned.