Do It for the Little People
When N got caught with a
guitar hurriedly stashed behind his bed, his roommate looked at him strangely
and said, 'Ah. Is that what you do in here when I don't see you for hours on
end? You play guitar for the little people.'
Mortified, N tried to figure out if he had just been insulted.
He looked around his empty room, and there he saw them, hundreds of little people looking expectantly at him, waiting for him to pick up the guitar and serenade them. Waiting to be dazzled by every strum, applaud his every riff, nod encouragingly as he struggled to master the more-difficult chords.
Not wanting to keep his adoring audience waiting, N picked up his guitar and sunk back into himself.
Mortified, N tried to figure out if he had just been insulted.
He looked around his empty room, and there he saw them, hundreds of little people looking expectantly at him, waiting for him to pick up the guitar and serenade them. Waiting to be dazzled by every strum, applaud his every riff, nod encouragingly as he struggled to master the more-difficult chords.
Not wanting to keep his adoring audience waiting, N picked up his guitar and sunk back into himself.
Pursue
your passion
It's an
enviable thing, this ability to pursue your passion for passion's sake.
Not for laurels or awards, not for glory or fame, not even for the good ol' pat
on the back.
As children, we're trained to expect a reward for good behaviour. You'd hope that by the time we grow up we'd have shaken the need to collect 'gold stars'. But that rarely happens.
We become addicted to acknowledgement - to the point that we make choices that deliver the greatest external reward, rather than internal satisfaction.
How often do we worry that our chosen professions are not as lofty and respectable as they should be, or as much as our neighbour's?
How often do we worry that no one noticed all the hard work we did on that last project, and we will never get due credit?
How often do we wear ties to an event - a noose around our necks - because 'I don't want to be the only person not wearing a tie'?
This isn't a bad thing. External motivation encourages us to be better. To not be the slob who never takes a shower, is never on time for anything, and only reads the Bombay Times and never The Economist.
It's fine to collect gold stars. It's fine to improve yourself everyday so that one day someone says 'good job'.
But it's not fine to forget you only get one life.
And you don't want to wake up one day, too late, only to learn that you spent all of it chasing the gold stars that you thought others were handing out...and you never got what you needed.
Because that star is an illusion. Every time you reach out for it, you realise it's just out of reach.
Every promotion you get is just going to put you on the path to a bigger promotion, and you will keep reaching... Every raise will only leave you hungry for the next... Every achievement will seamlessly dissolve into another goal... And that's how you'll end it - arm outstretched, fingers grasping, empty...your mind repeating the consolation, 'I'll be happy when I get there...'
Until every chapter of your life starts echoing with the same mundanities...
Sorry I'm late, the traffic was so bad...where did I put it now I'm losing my mind more every day...come now it's okay hota hai...arre again you're going on holiday didn't you just go...look, it's raining thank God...bhaiya mochi kahan hai...God, it's raining, how annoying...I lost my umbrella/phone/keys...Chinaka maal hai...something wrong with the trains today, he will be late...the problem with Diwali, yaar, I'm telling you too much mithaai...
And so it goes - your life, your chakravyuh...and if you're not careful, you will reach the end of the spiral and find that it's all over... You will learn with some amazement that your one life was not a series of long years but a series of short days that all looked and sounded the same...
So how do you make time stop - so that you can collect within your short days long moments of 'living' that will eventually create the dots that, when connected, will draw a picture you actually want to see as your life?
Maybe that's what N was doing, in his room, playing guitar for an invisible audience...stopping time, changing the sounds of life, leaving the spiral, getting elevated, 'being N' in a way that his life doesn't really allow him to...
Playing for no one, playing for nothing...not for glory, nor passion...not for love or attention, not for progress or growth, nor a sense of achievement...playing, only, to play.
Do you play?
Do you do something for the little people who live just in your head?
Do you slow down and stop time when no one is looking, just to be you...
I love descriptions of falling in love...when I fell in love with you time stopped, the world disappeared, it was just me and you, I could hear angels playing violins...
Those are moments we need to create and fill our lives with... When I sink into a good book, the world recedes; it's just me and my book...it's my moment, just for me.
I read for others too. I read books I think I should. I read books that make me seem smart. I read books so I can write better. I read so I can get better at my job, so I can learn more about business and life.
But when I'm creating a moment for me, I read a book that fulfils none of those purposes. I read...to read. I read to make time stop. To step out of my spiral. I read for the little people.
As children, we're trained to expect a reward for good behaviour. You'd hope that by the time we grow up we'd have shaken the need to collect 'gold stars'. But that rarely happens.
We become addicted to acknowledgement - to the point that we make choices that deliver the greatest external reward, rather than internal satisfaction.
How often do we worry that our chosen professions are not as lofty and respectable as they should be, or as much as our neighbour's?
How often do we worry that no one noticed all the hard work we did on that last project, and we will never get due credit?
How often do we wear ties to an event - a noose around our necks - because 'I don't want to be the only person not wearing a tie'?
This isn't a bad thing. External motivation encourages us to be better. To not be the slob who never takes a shower, is never on time for anything, and only reads the Bombay Times and never The Economist.
It's fine to collect gold stars. It's fine to improve yourself everyday so that one day someone says 'good job'.
But it's not fine to forget you only get one life.
And you don't want to wake up one day, too late, only to learn that you spent all of it chasing the gold stars that you thought others were handing out...and you never got what you needed.
Because that star is an illusion. Every time you reach out for it, you realise it's just out of reach.
Every promotion you get is just going to put you on the path to a bigger promotion, and you will keep reaching... Every raise will only leave you hungry for the next... Every achievement will seamlessly dissolve into another goal... And that's how you'll end it - arm outstretched, fingers grasping, empty...your mind repeating the consolation, 'I'll be happy when I get there...'
Until every chapter of your life starts echoing with the same mundanities...
Sorry I'm late, the traffic was so bad...where did I put it now I'm losing my mind more every day...come now it's okay hota hai...arre again you're going on holiday didn't you just go...look, it's raining thank God...bhaiya mochi kahan hai...God, it's raining, how annoying...I lost my umbrella/phone/keys...Chinaka maal hai...something wrong with the trains today, he will be late...the problem with Diwali, yaar, I'm telling you too much mithaai...
And so it goes - your life, your chakravyuh...and if you're not careful, you will reach the end of the spiral and find that it's all over... You will learn with some amazement that your one life was not a series of long years but a series of short days that all looked and sounded the same...
So how do you make time stop - so that you can collect within your short days long moments of 'living' that will eventually create the dots that, when connected, will draw a picture you actually want to see as your life?
Maybe that's what N was doing, in his room, playing guitar for an invisible audience...stopping time, changing the sounds of life, leaving the spiral, getting elevated, 'being N' in a way that his life doesn't really allow him to...
Playing for no one, playing for nothing...not for glory, nor passion...not for love or attention, not for progress or growth, nor a sense of achievement...playing, only, to play.
Do you play?
Do you do something for the little people who live just in your head?
Do you slow down and stop time when no one is looking, just to be you...
I love descriptions of falling in love...when I fell in love with you time stopped, the world disappeared, it was just me and you, I could hear angels playing violins...
Those are moments we need to create and fill our lives with... When I sink into a good book, the world recedes; it's just me and my book...it's my moment, just for me.
I read for others too. I read books I think I should. I read books that make me seem smart. I read books so I can write better. I read so I can get better at my job, so I can learn more about business and life.
But when I'm creating a moment for me, I read a book that fulfils none of those purposes. I read...to read. I read to make time stop. To step out of my spiral. I read for the little people.
By Anisa Virji
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