JUST ENOUGH TO BE FIT FOR LIFE
"Moderation
in all things, especially moderation.”
―
Do
you and I need to have a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s? Or, a figure like
Katrina Kaif’s? Or, a vocabulary like Shashi Tharoor’s? In other words, do you
and I need to do anything in life which is ‘extreme’?
I, always, think, that doing
things in moderation and consistency is enough. Yes, enough to feel good about
ourselves.
Let’s look around us. Rather,
let’s look at ourselves… Have we tried to push ourselves to the extreme in a
gym, Yoga class, music class, running track, sports coaching camp, diet plan,
our company’s sales target, or, even in academics… yes, only to quit soon… do
nothing at all, then on… no gym, no Yoga, no diet plan, no sports, music or
sales targets… just to get bogged down and give up?
On the other hand, let’s look
at those who have pursued the same things in moderation and consistency. They
continue to do those things, years and years on. Because, for them, it’s a way
of life – call it ‘life style’ – and, not something like a fashion and fad… the
jatkas and matkas!
In my own case, I have tried to
do Tai Chi in moderation and consistency. That’s why, I still continue with it
for more than six years, now. My wife and I have kept our morning-walk routine
for quite some time, now. We both wake up at 5 in the morning… After doing our
personal routine, we go out for a 45-minute walk… I, mostly, blog for an hour
or so before I leave for work. We try to walk on at least four or five days a
week. Whenever we break this routine, the old indiscipline tries to take the
better of us… We realize, that unless we assert ourselves, it’s difficult for
us to keep up. But, had we been on the extreme, I am sure, we would, most
probably, quit…
Even this 45-minute walk would
have gone for a toss! Then, nothing at all!
The other day, my doctor
suggested, that I should try to walk for another 45-minutes in the evenings. I
know, it would do a great deal of good to me… On and off, I try to. But, not as
I do in the mornings.
As we were getting ready for
walk this morning, I heard my wife mumbling, “Nothing like the Ashtanga Yoga.”
She is 52. Two years ago, motivated by an appealing ad in her social group, she
joined an Ashtanga Yoga class conducted by a very young and attractive woman,
where mostly young women practiced. My wife would come home, after sweating it
out, and keep raving about it (Though she wasn’t able to do most of those exercises!).
But, she knew it was something ‘exceptional’. And, after a couple of months,
the inevitable happened… She quit completely!
So, this morning, when my wife
was raving again, saying, “Nothing like Ashtanga Yoga”, I gently nudged her,
saying, “Chalo darling, let’s go”!
Means, let not our 45-minute
walk go for a toss!
Last week-end, I had been to a college
in Mumbai to conduct a session on ‘Self-confidence and Communication Skills’.
These young degree-college kids were very earnest. Towards the end of the
session, a young girl asked me, “Sir, can you tell us how to build a ‘great
vocabulary’?”
“Madam, do you want to sound like
Shashi Tharoor?” I teased her without offending. All of us, including the girl,
had a good laugh…
“I have been talking to you for
nearly three-and-a-half hours. Have I used any ‘great vocabulary’? I asked the
young girl.
Obviously, I hadn’t. “What you
need is a vocabulary which is moderately good and understandable,” I explained,
“You don’t have to sound too erudite like Shashi Tharoor.”
There was a girl in the same
room, who I saw reading a thick fiction during the break. Leaning against the
wall, placing her both feet on the benches, all alone, this girl was immersed
in the book. So, I pointed to this girl (with the fiction) and told the class -
what, incidentally, the inimitable Shashi Tharoor had said, when asked by a
young girl in one of his own sessions, “Sir, can you give us a ‘new’ word?” - “READ”!
I repeat: If we pursue anything
in life in moderation, consistency and joyfulness, that’s enough to keep us
young, enthusiastic, happy… and fit for life!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Harrison Haines
Video: Times of India
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