Of Birthdays and Reflections

Birthdays are sure reminders of how fast the time evaporates, especially around forties. And if no one else, facebook reminds how you looked a decade back with your hair still at the right place.

I keep telling myself that I am keeping up pace with the technology and the new gadgets around me, only to realize that some habits are stubborn and probably need much more work to adapt. Of course I debate if it is worth it to change on those lines at all. Will the world be so difficult if I stay with those few difficult to give-up archaic habits? Some of the habits those have latched on, announce that I am from the previous century.

Love for reading physical books. I have a kindle, a kindle app on my iPad and on my phone. I also purchase kindle books. Still I keep drawn towards the physical books. My heart rises when I caress the cover page of a new book. To open the first few pages gently. To bury my nose in middle of those pages, close my eyes and take a deep smell of paper. To get transported to the universe the author has created for me (specially for me) while I read the book on my bed as I go to sleep.

I still think that running or walking on road is better (how safe it is, I don’t know) than the tread mill, even better without ear phones, though I am advised that running on roads harms your knees. They also advised me to give up drinking frooti, since someone in frooti factory has infected the drink.

I still take notes in my physical old style notebook instead of iPad, though I am training myself hard to give up this. Since I make a lot of page margin doodles, it is as good as giving up an addiction. My wife thinks, that as a withdrawal symptom, if I don’t have a notebook for a long time to write on, I would start drawing or writing on hands and legs, and that includes the limbs of the person sitting beside me!

Speaking of my wife, she just dropped in to see what I was punching (as usual late at night). Hovering over my shoulder, she read few lines and said, ‘you are writing like an old man’. So I give up taking the technology-block rant any further. This also is a sign that I listen to my wife like an obedient husband, but this is not my generation habit, it is a timeless male characteristic.

Continuing on some more evidences that tell that I am from the previous millennium.

As leaders in our corporate world we stress a lot on plan and planning which is a great thing. However, as you age you realize, there is certain amount of happiness in the dance of uncertainty. There is a reason why there is a beautiful word called serendipity. There is a reason, why sometimes you should take a leap without knowing all the consequences, just on the strength of belief, of faith, of spoken words, or of unspoken promises of eyes.

You realize that it is okay to have the other fellow have the last word especially on the inconsequential matters. And that can save a lot of energy, effort and relations. However the challenge is to train myself hard to understand what is really inconsequential.

The people who were born the day I joined my current organization, today they would be legally drinking alcohol for more than a year. I do consider loyalty as a value.

I do value solidarity from time to time. Between choosing a party with fifty people (the ones usually engaged in flash mob) in a night club or a gathering of four, five close friends in a nondescript restaurant over a good drink, I prefer the later. I do regale a laidback luxury in canopy of evergreens with a favorite book.

However all that is secondary, the one thing that really lingers as I pass the time milestone is, am I getting kinder with age? The answer is, I am making a sincere attempt at that.