Routine is the essence of a normal, natural flow of life, yet everyone is desperate to break it! Every now and then I hear myself, my wife and a generous portion of my daily friend circle- cribbing, frantically trying to break this "routine" from our lives to do something spontaneous, something interesting, something exciting, something different which makes us feel "alive and kickin" every single day. Then, there are bouts of honesty which creeps inside me every once in a while and I deliberate- Do I really hate this "routine" and would I actually be happy "breaking" it?
My "routine" says- Wake up in the morning, freshen-up, hit the toilet, read the newspaper, have some tea (sometimes breakfast), drop the kid to his school bus stop, then bask in the morning's solitary "smoke", take bath and leave for the day. All of this between 6-7:15am.
Imagine this routine gets broken one day- How?
I struggle out of bed to the wash-basin and discover that toothpaste is over, wifey has comfortably forgotten to inform in advance and hence the last ditch herculean effort to squeeze out some bare ounces from the already flattened tube! (Irritated). Open the door and find the newspaper is late (Pissed)! Go to the toilet for the morning ritual and try to read some news on mobile, only to find out that GPRS connection is down, so no luck baby, the browser doesn't work! (More piss(ed)- literally). Come out and expect some tea, wife tries "to break her routine" and bumps me with a new tea (with spices), hate it but grudingly drink the tea and mentally curse (both the tea and the maker!). (Hate). Take the kid to bus stand only to find bus is late and I lose some vital time waiting for it to arrive! (Angry). Take bath with cold water, only to realize that due to my hatred about toothpaste/newspaper earlier, I completely forgot to switch on the Geyser and can't wait for hot water as I was too late already! Quickly finish dressing/puja/breakfast and leave for work, totally frustrated and pissed. And then at work, I get to hear- "bored of the mundane and routine"!
The above incidents maybe purely figments of my imagination, so much bad luck should never happen on one day to anyone, God forbid! But for a moment if we assume the above is true, then I deeply wonder- do I really want to break free from the routine? "Grass is greener always on the other side", so we always feel that if things were more inpromptu, more unpredictable, we would have loved it so much! It would have been so nice. But do we really want that for everyday? If there was no balance and only new things for each day was the routine in our lives, would we have liked it? Do we really want to take the rollercoaster ride of so many negative emotions while making the beginning of a new day?
Somehow, when I start thinking in those lines, I begin to love my routine all the more, with renewed vigor! I love my "routine" morning newspaper on time, love my "routine" morning tea and definitely love my daily "routine" time spent in the loo! They say- "Charity begins at home". I say- "Routine is charity, as it teaches us to be happy with what we have"!
Think about it! Deja vu?
This Saturday went to Banashankari temple with Dad, and we met with accidents (minor) three times. Can you believe it? And I would have felt happy to blame dad for it, but all three times it wasn't dad's fault. We always termed dad's driving as boring, as he would never take an unknown turn anywhere, no shortcuts, nothing, but that drive on Saturday was anything but boring. and did I like it? Of course not! I like routine too!
ReplyDeleteThank god, the accidents were minor (but the dents weren't! :( )
I would have given anything to prevent those dents! Infact I would have sacrificed myself anyday, in case my car scratches could have been prevented. But I guess that's me!
ReplyDeleteDo you know the syndrome: during one drive, if you get a scratch, then you become so shaky that you can get more. Normal tendencies as your confidence is a little shaken!
If you want to see the philosophical aspect in it, look at it this way- probably you could have landed in a major accident that day, but because you all were temple bound, God just blessed you all and let you go scot free with minor bruises to your chariot!
-Nandi Baba.
I felt so too. Dad was so affected by the accidents that he wasn't in his usual careful driving mode. He was calm and didn't even get out to yell at the culprits, (I was tempted to) but still his driving wasn't normal after the 2nd accident. First dent in like 2 years!
ReplyDeleteTempted to ask- how much did the car do (in kms) in these 2 years? :-)
ReplyDelete