Drop your guard

Growing old is tough. You have all these beliefs, opinions, prejudices, experiences that keep piling on to the baggage that is you. The baggage just keeps growing. You learn a lot of things, think in a certain way, are moved by certain things and work in a certain manner. Not everyone is going to operate in the same manner. There will be certain disagreements amongst people. Older people really dislike people who disagree with them.



Actually, I don't know if we are fine with that even when we are younger. Even then, we want things to happen our way. Only thing is that your baggage is less. You are still learning and exploring. New experiences is what you seek and most people at that age will answer a call from the unknown.




But then, you grow older and wiser. Actually, less stupid. But people don't believe that (that we just grow less stupid). We really think we are smarter than the rest. We think we have seen and done it all. Try new things, why? You might die doing something you haven't done repeatedly for all your life. Repetition is good. Monotony rules.



Because of our baggage, we are willing to give new ideas less chance. Differences lead invariably to conflict, even without any preliminary effort to seek knowledge from them. I don't like your opinion, so I don't like you. It's not even a question of you want to do things differently, but WHY do you want to do things differently. Can't we stick to our plan? Our well-rehearsed routine boring plan.




Part of it, is down to the fact that like kids in cars, we are in a hurry to get there. The journey is not important. Only the destination is. Literally, during our tours, we are in a hurry to cover locations. We have a perfect term for it. Point. Maine ye point cover kiya. Matheran main 6 point hai, dekhe kya? But what did we do there? How long were you there? Did you enjoy being there? Did you learn anything new?




A while ago, I was at an Indian classical music workshop (unfortunately my only one) and the lady conducting the session told us something that I will never forget. "Drop you guard".




Our baggage justs stops us from that. In fact, drop your guard equals drop your baggage. Give in to the moment. Because of the fact that we are not in the moment whole-heartedly, we don't allow the experience to soak in. We have already decided that this new thing we are doing, isn't worth our time. So, let's get it over and done with and move on to the next new thing. The cycle repeats.




Only when you drop your guard, can you allow a sense of wonder to fill in. Let what you are doing, where you are, shape the moment. Not how you feel about it. That you can dissect later. Right now, just enjoy the fact that life is doing something wonderful to you.




I also went to London this weekend.