Awesomeness of simplicity

Post date: Apr 1, 2015 9:09:17 PM

Few factual things first -

- I meet awesome people, and everyone I meet always has something to teach me.

- Tough-to-believe level of simplicity impresses me like nothing else.

- I know a few people who don't like publicity (read showoff).

Now fictional part –

I met a girl last week who once was a professional model. As I was talking to her, I felt like show off is terrible, but then what's the point doing anything in life if no one even knows about it?

In this narcissistic times, when I see people posing, doing photo shoots for FB, posting all possible pics of food, streets, museums, selfies, collages, and what not! I see people shouting after each click "delete karo achchi nahin aayi hai". This girl was like… "I don't like getting clicked!" how a girl, visiting for the first time, will not like pics with New York landmarks? Maybe it is not that surprising, but soon I realized it was not just about getting clicked. She likes to keep her professional pics private to herself, as well… That was one of the most contradictory statements I have ever heard. A girl who appeared on cover pages and likes to keep her pics private? Does it even make sense? How can such a public thing be individual? But soon, I learned what it means and how it is possible.There are people who fascinate me and this was one of those moments.

She tried to explain – "maybe I lost the charm at a very young age. or maybe I don't like people commenting about me even if it is a praise, or maybe I don't see a value in these things." Looking at my unconvinced face, she continued - "Ok, think this way... You see empire state building every day on your way to office. How many days you feel like clicking a pic? Perhaps it is the most clicked thing in New York, but why don't you click then? Maybe I find clicking myself the same as you not clicking the empire state?"

I laughed, but I was still not convinced… the conversation changed a little and -

"…listen! I am a model and modeling to me is what maths to you. At the age when you were doing maths I was doing photo-shoots. My things can be as alien to you as maths is to me. It's just that… that's how I am."

I wanted to say that I am not a mathematician; I just studied it. I love it, but that doesn't make me a mathematician. …but ironically while I was enjoying the thing of not showing off… I loved to be called a mathematician so much that I didn't say anything. Probably that is where the difference lies. Seldom are people who can renounce a-beautiful-looking-illusory-life (read online-life-praises-likes-comments)!

Then I thought... It is easy to meet people who buy fake Rolexes from Canal Street*... but you rarely meet people who own real ones but they don’t even wear it or the rarest kind who wear but either not talk about it or at times lie that it is not original. No attachments kind of people. Maybe it sounds ridiculous… but the highest form of such people is like Yogis, who see everything around with indifference! I know she is not like that, but that’s how I interpreted :). That can either be seen as dispassionate about everything around or equally passionate about everything.

Maybe I still don’t get it... why in the first place you buy an original Rolex then. ? :)

Perhaps she has it without desire for it, or maybe it’s just like any other thing to her. Or whatever… all I know is - I was impressed. …awesomeness of simplicity is highly underrated.

*Canal St is China town market of New York City.

PS: All characters appearing in this post are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

PPS: If you believe this disclaimer (which you will not) then it is a failure of my blogging abilities, because I tried my best to make it look real :P

[added later -]

A valid question is "https://twitter.com/tushti/status/583428969694887936” - a person comparing herself/himself to empire state and simplicity?

True that ! Thanks for reading Tushti, I generally think - chhod na padhta hi kaun hai :P

The state of my mind while writing this was very philosophical; I talked about it for almost half an hour with someone in office… then I just wrote it in a flow. But my point is -

She is not comparing herself with the empire state but with the phenomenon of not clicking a pic once that majestic view becomes part of daily life! The view of the empire state loses that charm for a person crossing it every single day. The same way she had enough of her pics, poses, praises and comments. It is not a comparison with the empire state but the desire of clicking pics. Maybe she was once obsessed with the glamour world and getting clicked was all she wanted! But once she appeared in magazines, she realized that it is not. Earlier, she thought maybe it would be an out of world experience, but in reality, it was not. The point is She was not born simple; she learned it with her experiences. She is comparing this learning process with a person who, at one point, wanted to see empire state, and when he saw it for the first time, he clicked hundreds of pics (which is true btw :P), but now he hardly clicks! I had enough of it thing.
Bhartrihari was a great king and a lover, and there is nothing that he didn't experience himself. Same way, Buddha was a prince. He learned that all luxury was but an illusion! I was thinking, Is there a single thing on which a human can put his/her fingers and say - "this and only this is happiness to me." No, right? But we think we know what happiness is to us, no matter how illusory (like virtual online life). We keep doing maths or photo-shoots at an age when it seems like this is what will bring happiness to me; that's my dream, but then someday we realize that it didn't! And then we look for something else… and we keep doing the next thing till we find it is also an illusion. That's how we learn many things, including simplicity! I am not saying we should renounce everything because everything is an illusion. But We should experience, achieve, be there and then experience if it is indeed an illusion or not, the way that girl realized after appearing on magazine covers! I say things like - “mil jaaye to mitti hai, kho jaaye to sona hai, unhi ko kahte shobha deti hai jinhein mil gayi hai”. like kshama shobhti us bhujang ko jiske paas garal ho…. and I want to be rich enough to realize money can’t buy happiness kind of things :) same way simplicity shobhti us insaan ko jiske paas showoff karne ko ho. main simple hoon kyonki mere paas hai hi nahin kuchh show off karne ko? Don't know i should put a sad or smiling smiley after this :)
And maybe the lesson I had in mind was - even if you are in the glamor world, you don't necessarily have to get attached to it. You can still be very simple... make it just another thing of life, just like any other profession. Utmost professionalism when needed but not for showoff. If we become like empire state, we don't have to show it, if We are not... showoff will never make us like empire state. If we own a real Rolex, we will probably hide than showing it off! If we have a fake one, even if we show it off, everyone can recognize that it is a canal st thing.
On another note, I love contradictions - I was reading somewhere that a yogi doesn't want anything else once he/she gets enlightened, including the fame and spreading the knowledge. What will happen to knowledge if they immediately attain Nirvana? When Buddha realized that everything is an illusion why he kept teaching after that? Why pupils? If everything is an illusion, so are his teachings ! if Buddha attained nirvana then how we still know about him and his teachings? how can there be an absolute nirvana with a remainder? buddhism answers that as well that in distant future there will be a final nirvana of Buddha... When it all will disappear including Buddha's stories, his teachings and his name. Someday (maybe) my character will also attain that final simplicity. Abhi to Buddha ka bhi final Niravana baaki hai :) :)

Make sense? some of it? I guess too much ho gaya :)