This blog coincides with Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. Diwali symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. It is celebrated on the “darkest night” that ends the lunar month of Ashwin and starts the month of Kartik, coinciding with the second half of October or early November in the modern calendar. The festivities begin two days before, on Dhanteras, and extend two days after, concluding with Bhai Dooj.

Motivations for celebration vary. People of North India celebrate Diwali to mark the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after his fourteen-year exile. People in the South celebrate it as the victory of Lord Krishna over the demon, Narakasura. In Western India, Diwali is celebrated as the rescue of Goddess Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali by Lord Vishnu in his Vamana incarnation. Jains celebrate Diwali as it was on this day that Lord Mahavira attained Nirvana. Sikhs celebrate Diwali to commemorate the laying of the foundation stone for the Golden Temple in 1577. 

The celebration of light is indeed universal. People in different parts of the world celebrate their own festivals of light. The Chinese celebrate it on the fifteenth day of their new lunar year, which falls anywhere between late February and March. From August 2 to August 7 each year, in the Aomori city of Japan, people float gigantic boats with lights. Jews all over the world celebrate it as Hanukkah, for a period of eight nights and days anywhere between the end of November and December. 

In the Netherlands, it is St. Martin’s Day on November 11 each year. In France, it takes place on December 8 every year, to express gratitude toward Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Lewes, England, people have bonfires on November 4/5.  On the 12th day of the Thai Lunar calendar, usually in November, the Thai people float beautifully decorated baskets with lamps in water bodies. In the Keene Pumpkin Festival in New Hampshire, USA, people light jack-o’-lanterns each year before Halloween. 

Light is one of the most universal and fundamental symbols of the spiritual and the divine – तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय – Lead me from darkness to light – mentioned in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.3.28).  The appearance of God is linked to brightness, and light is seen as the source of goodness and the ultimate reality. In Paradiso, Italian for Paradise, poet Dante Alighieri ascends to a region beyond physical existence, which is the abode of God, and becomes enveloped in light. In the Bible, when the Lord created, He began with “Let there be light.”

When Prophet Moses went up to Mount Sinai, he got to see “a light much greater in brightness than the sun.” When he came down with the two tablets engraved with the ten commandments in his hand, the brightness of God’s appearance was reflected in Moses himself. Christ is called, “the radiance of the glory of God” (Hebrews 1). In the Sufi tradition, the soul illuminates the mind-space as kashf, the personal experience and direct vision of God. Any worship starts with the lighting of a lamp.

This Diwali has assumed more significance as the world is living under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic hardships that it brought along. In the course of just few months, the virus spread out from Wuhan in China to across the whole world. Frightened with uncertainty, governments declared “lockdowns,” which had pervasive impacts on economic activity across the globe and millions of people lost their livelihoods.

But the “lockdown” also brought back clear skies over traffic-choked cities, improvements in local water quality, people working from home, and reductions in noise and air pollution. Glimpses of a transformed society with integrated families, reduced pollution and lowered environmental impacts were visible. 

However, the early signs of improvements in environmental quality have already succumbed to the rush to achieve the lost economic growth levels. Cities like New Delhi are once again choked with smog. Migrants are back in city slums more quickly than they had left, without any change in their living and working conditions. But thinking that the pandemic was a bad dream that is done and over with would be like brushing the real problems under the carpet. Unless the lessons are learnt, nature is not going to spare us. There is no promotion to the next class here without passing the exam. 

What are the three exams that we must take to advance into a higher level of  living? 

(1) The rebirth of medium and small-scale industries to feed local consumption, and a firm “no” to cheap imports from China and other countries; (2) No going back on new laws, making agriculture a profitable enterprise for the farmers, and investment in silos and supply chains to mitigate any distress sale and spoilage of agro produce; and (3) An Internet-driven education system ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all by bringing every single family online and giving them free connectivity. Adoption of technology to prevent the misuse of bandwidth is also important. 

As goes the famous line of American poet, Robert Frost – Two roads diverged in a wood – mankind is standing on an evolutionary crossroad in 2020. Rising to the occasion with grit and determination will usher in a new era of sustained living and social harmony; succumbing to fear and insecurity would throw us back into the past of conflict and chaos.  

If only we could learn that very little is needed to live, as we have lived through the lockdown, and that the rest is indulgence and wastage! Quality of work is more important than keeping busy. Spurious travel is best avoided and no more business trips for fun in disguise! The incessant availability of food, electricity, water, law and order, communication, medicines, television and the internet even during lockdown proved that we are not only a robust, but also a resilient social system, better than many Western countries, including the hyped United States. 

Darkness has no real existence; it is merely the absence of light, but shadow and light are forever coupled and they fall on the same landscape. In a year from now, COVID-19 would be fully understood.  It is the learning or ignoring the lessons of the pandemic that would decide whether Diwali 2021 would be brighter and I have no doubt that it definitely will be if shadows are handled well by leading lives differently. 

One thing is clear – the coronavirus pandemic is not going anywhere soon, and worst still, scientific understanding, claims and predictions have all proven hollow, tentative, and even contradictory. How is the changed world going to affect our lives and the lives of those around us? These answers should have come from experts, scholars and leaders, but most of them seem to be imprudent and talking differently about the same thing. In the absence of any rational explanations, it seems best to sit back and take a pragmatic look at what is actually happening and what is going to happen down the road, beyond the next turn, as is proverbially said about gauging unpredictability. 

Let me first state what is seen. Three changes are apparent.

First and foremost is the huge loss of jobs for a very large number of young people in sales – pharma, financial services, insurance, property dealers, share markets – the ubiquitous ‘agents’ in business. The second is the ‘new normal’ of ‘work from home’ as it is economical for employers to not maintain expensive offices. This has affected taxi services, eateries and a hundred other small businesses that thrive on people commuting twice every day. And the third is media overkill. During the lockdown, people were forced to watch TV only to realize that most of our politicians have really no idea what they are talking about. 

Unfortunately, people in the esteemed scientific professions have turned out to be clueless. Seemingly holy global health institutions are puzzled, and their chiefs have made a mockery of science by speaking too frequently to the media and providing meaningless updates. What good are all the collective scientists if at a time of crisis, they cannot even conclusively confirm the transmission medium of a meagre virus! The rush for the vaccine for a virus not fully understood is another irony of our times. Worse still, it has already become a political tool. 

The lesser said about medical industry, the better. Even after ICMR declaring plasma therapy unnecessary, politicians and hospital chains are out to promote it. Millions have been minted on this by the hospitals already, so why to take it out of the menu? The way hospitals feasted on the pandemic ‘opportunity’ has taken the last veneer of trust off the private medical profession. It is basically another business, like all other businesses. I am not undermining the service that public hospitals and select medical professionals have rendered in these troubling times, thus saving their countrymen at great risk to themselves and their loved ones, but milk and water have been so thoroughly mixed that no swan can separate them.

There are three prominent features of a pandemic-affected world.

(1) Automated, corporate funded supply chains connecting producers with consumers with the least number of intermediaries. Even geopolitics will get aligned to where the money is and who controls it. Unfortunately, corporations own more money than governments in the modern world.

(2) New education is making the old obsolete but, in the process, half the population is going to be denied basic education and a huge digital divide is looming on the horizon; and

(3) Politics based on primordial identities and family loyalties will die its own death with the mainstream of aspirational young people seeking and getting a better quality of life from the people they elect and defeat.

Of course, the drama of democracy would continue. TV and social media will also continue, politics and businesses will get adjusted to the new realities. I have seen narratives of high and mighty leaders change so many times. Each leader knows how to do talk in public and they will call whatever happens as their ‘achievement’ and rejoice in their positions. Markets and politics always support each other, whatever be the theme of the day and the slogan of the season. India especially, excels in adapting to change. 

The wheel of time is always moving – what goes up, comes down. It really does not matter who opposes and who supports, when the tide of time rises, entities ride or are drowned under it depending upon whether they are on it or beneath it. Therefore, it is time to reflect and see where you, your family, especially children, people around you, connected to you, and dependent upon you are and then align yourself with the tide and not against it. 

The beautiful Latin word, ‘Renaissance’, has no exact equivalent in English and even in Indian languages. It originated after the Black Plague devastated Europe, to describe a new cultural rebirth and the rise of the Modern World beginning in the 14th century and concluding in the 17th century. So, in that way, it makes perfect sense to use this word to define the present times – a new viral infection erupts in China, spreads with great speed in the highly connected world, forcing long periods of lockdowns as the only way to survive and in the process killed the globalized world marked by free movement of goods, people, and money across the globe.

It will take years, maybe decades before people are welcome in foreign lands again for work. Extraterritorial investments will now be seen with suspicion and as soft-imperialism. The Cold War world order will return, this time, with China replacing the USSR, opposing the U.S. and its allies. India will find itself once again in a ‘neither here nor there’ predicament. And Self-Reliance as the only way to survive, will be a tough test for a mediocre system built for profit by trade rather than production.

Habitually, brilliant and intelligent Indians seek ‘advisory’ and ‘administrative’ roles rather than ‘doing’ and ‘implementing’ things. This must now change. Going abroad and bureaucratic job will not be an option hereafter.  I am writing this because it must be written and read. In the famous story of the ‘writing on the wall,’ a commoner, Daniel, had to read a warning that no one in the court of King Belshazzar was willing to notice.

Life is not about sitting in front of the TV, watching reality shows and playing games like ‘fantasy cricket.’ Real life bites if ignored. Plan for your career, your children’s education, your healthcare needs and start living within the budget, avoiding all credit purchases, no matter how lucrative or irresistible the deal. Know that all deals are eventually designed to take money out of you. 

Learn something new, make one dollar on the internet, pursue excellence in your rusty hobby, mend your relationships with friends and family, spend thriftily, supplement your earning, and in your free time, if you still find it, choose your entertainment wisely, by listening to some old songs on a radio, perhaps. 

Today is October 15, the birthday of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (1931-2015). Upon being elected the President of India in 2002, he decided to spend this day, away from Delhi, at a sacred place. For the five years of his Presidency, I was with him on every occasion—at the Twang Monastery in Arunanchal Pradesh (2002), with Acharya Mahapragya at the Terapanth Bhavan in Surat (2003), at the Sri Suttur Math near Mysore (2004), with children from Tanzania brought in for their heart surgeries in Hyderabad (2005), and at the Sri Adichunchanagiri Math in Mandya, Karnataka (2006). 

There are many ways to define sacred—both as a noun and as an adjective. When used as a noun, sacred refers to a higher power that is bigger than we are. If we use it as an adjective, it can mean something that is spiritual or holy. By deciding to meet Tanzanian children in 2005 in Hyderabad, instead of going to a religious place, Dr Kalam had integrated both these meanings. What I find a common theme in the five different places that I visited successively on this day with Dr Kalam was that he was setting aside time or setting aside a space and sanctifying time for his own experience in touching divinity in order to be mentally clear and emotionally calm.

I studied mechanical engineering at the G.B. Pant University, where I could get deep into the techniques of perspectives about how to see things in imagination and draw them on paper. We had a sprawling lush green campus and vast open skies with hardly any feature on the horizon except for the distant mountains in the north that appeared blue. There were long power cuts and we could see the night sky in its full splendor including the Milky Way band a few times. I used to imagine God beyond them, overseeing everything. 

It was at Pantnagar that I discovered the beautiful connection between man, nature, the spiritual world and the Universe. There is a cavity inside your physiological heart, where God resides as consciousness, watching our every breath, whether pure or tainted with passion. Anytime we are feeling adrift, we can connect back to the Infinite Source Energy or Spirit. In fact, the truth is, we are never disconnected.

In almost all ancient cultures, a lot of emphasis is placed on directions. The direction where the sun rises is the east; where it sets is the west. The Pole Star defines the north, and opposite to that is the south. The east is renewal, the giver of energy. If we are looking at the east, we are reconnecting to our visionary selves, our destinies, learning to fly and soar like a bird in the morning. We look at the west to learn the ways of the luminous warrior—the Sun goes down to return without fail. The North is eternal, permanent, that which never changes, never decays, and never dies—the abode of Lord Shiva. The south is for releasing what no longer serves us, and shedding our skins just as a serpent does, all at once. During the last rites, a dead body’s head is turned towards the south.

Again, in all cultures, the earth is the mother, and the sky is the father. To feel gratitude, to find support, we prostrate as if to embrace Mother Earth, the provider of food and abundance, and the great diversity of life—the two-legged, the four-legged, the finned and the furred, the winged ones, and the creepy crawlies. We request the earth to mulch all of the denser, heavier energies that are too great and too intense for us to handle. Looking up to the sky with our arms and hands raised and open, we beg the Supreme Spirit, the Infinite, the waxing and waning moon, stars as the guides, angels, ascended masters, and benevolent luminous beings for help. 

While life on the earth is billions of years old, mankind is recent in comparison. Human evolution reached the goal of becoming Adam (in Hindi, the word for human being is Adami), possessed with free will, capable of inculcating divine qualities, able to use the physical forces for his own benefit and that way, the crown and the acme of all creation. But this unique gift of free will, not enjoyed by any other creature, also makes us capable of becoming the opposite of the divine by giving up self-control and succumbing to choose immorality, selfishness and rebellion.

When we access the sacred, inside or outside, we connect with our original ground, the source code, the innate truth, consciousness, bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda). We connect with the sacred to disconnect from the ever-changing world, our haughtiness, our selfish desires working against the collective good, our feeling of superiority, enmity, lust, greed, enticement, ill thoughts, immoral desires, negative emotions, lewdness, plotting evil, and a thousand other facets of evil. 

When we go out and connect with nature—feel the wind, look at the moon and stars, bask in the sunshine, visit a garden or a water body – we indeed connect with the divine. Sometimes, it may be difficult to do so. We can see the sun shining, but the rays don’t seem to touch us. The moon seems to be just a shining disc and the stars, distant dots. The burdens of our lives have obscured our divinity. During these times, accessing the ‘sacred’ helps us to appreciate that life is to be experienced, rather than solved. It is a journey. There are no destinations. 

A touch with the sacred connects us to the basic pillars of well-being: wholesome food, quality sleep, living in the present moment, and in harmony with the people around us. We can nourish ourselves and let go of any expectations. We can remind ourselves that what will be, will be, and at the same time, all will be well. The emphasis shifts from my own good to the good of all – ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः, सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः – May all sentient beings be at peace, may no one suffer from illness. We no more seek comfort; we seek and relish peace.

The timeless sacred is there to teach us—unmoved behind the ever-moving flux— everything that matters, everything that is truly important, the ground on which everything moves. The family, co-workers, neighbours, friends, even the birds, dogs, and all seminal beings for that matter—these are the foundation stones of our happiness. We start seeing everything else—work, money, reputation—like a game. They are fun, but they are not really the issues of life or death. The secret of the sacred is that there is no secret. It is so obvious. 

Dr Kalam was a wise man to avoid the flowers and bouquets brought to him on his birthday by the high and mighty of the society and connect with the sacred distant and secluded instead. He would have been 89 today, but again that is this world’s count. He is now immortal, part of the sacred.

What started as the sad end of a young, promising actor, gradually built up as a media frenzy wherein the person departed was turned into an analytical object and as many versions have been created of his life as the fancy of the analyzer allowed. The truth that emerged out of this hectic media coverage, that has not yet abated, like the calmness at the axis of a storm, is that a person’s life does not have an unequivocal meaning. There are as many stories as there are people telling them. And they are telling these stories because people are listening. But why are people listening? Are they distracting themselves from their own multiple stories?

We find a myriad of biographies written and there are even autobiographies in case of famous people. I had the privilege of assisting Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in writing “Wings of Fire.” Twenty-one years after it was published, it sells in large numbers, purely because both Dr. Kalam and his story are liked by many people, most of whom had never met him. But why do they like him? They like in him what they themselves wish to be – a celebrity, in spite of his humble background, his average academic record, and a simple, no-frill lifestyle that makes him famous and the hero of millions of ordinary people. 

There is a marvellous book, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” by Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher Carl Jung (1875-1961), wherein he wrote about the “self-story” – about what his life meant to him, sharing a privileged insider version of the life to help others to understand their lives better. The point Jung makes in his book is that there is no ultimately privileged point of view in any life.  Each person lives circulating stories that stand in a dialectical relationship with each other, demanding continual revision, as if different actors are playing the same role in a drama, and different singers, rendering the same song in their own styles.

However, there are some “facts” which belong to the deceased – indisputable existential life facts, deeds and dates about which there is consensus, and artefacts – mementos and possessions. People have created institutions that lasted much beyond their lives and their personal values have become the hallmarks. In stark contrast, we now have various chat apps, social media posts, light-hearted musings, and carefree exchanges that become “truths and facts” after our bodily death. There are no more footprints on the sands of time; there are “records” of every careless word you utter, a picture you click, and a joke you crack.

Be aware that an average person is watching over three hours of television each day. We have indeed become a “time pass” society, watching others. Play-acting has become a living for us, and we are selling our attention for free. We are expected to stick around, glued to the same television channel, irrespective of the number of commercial breaks. It is time to introspect how far you are willing to go, diluting your own personal and inter-personal life for these shows. 

In our super-competitive modern life, the ladder of success is hard to climb. For every person who makes it into public celebrity and culture-hero status, hundreds, if not thousands of others of equal merit and ability go unrecognized and suffer the agony of defeat in the winner/loser creed of modernity. The success and publicity market devalue the accomplishments of the unrecognized; their genius goes largely unacknowledged. In every scientific laboratory, there are people doing high value work that is “not in sync” with the powers in control of their times. They need affirmation, encouragement and energy to continue with their work, which may even bring them immortalization.

All of us are “luminaries,” carrying a speck of the immortal soul. It is the degree of muck that covers it, sometimes due to circumstances, but mostly due to carelessness about not cleaning it, and almost always by the willingness to live with it. The drama of this world is a crowded show – there are no pantomimes and monologues – each one of us carries circles of our existential cast of characters: the people whom we encounter in our lives and with whom we establish a lasting and meaningful personal relationship. If these circles are not harmonious, we are not only wasting our time but are also carrying the ignominy of show-spoilers. 

We are living in an age of upheaval – what was normal when 2020 started, is unlikely and remote in the future and by the time 2021 comes, we will be living in an altogether different world. Don’t resign yourself to the fate of living in a flux. Be not some virtual ghost but the author of your life story. Include in the story, real people around you, family and co-workers. The members of the existential life-community living in genuine reciprocity do share a fate together and are meant to better each other’s lives. Be the star in the eyes of the people around you, the flame in their hearts, and remove the muck so that your soul can shine through. 

You are complete, full, and gloriously gifted already. Know yourself, put your act together, and perform without the fear of someone else’s disapproval. The world is designed to bow before those who dare to rise. Know yourself as a superstar in your own ensemble, an irreplaceable, valuable person, best suited to “perform” the role that has come your way. There is no life that cannot hold a work of art, worthy of appreciation. Once, travelling in a train, I met an old man, who sang a song so soulfully that tears rolled out of every eye in the compartment. People paid him generously. Life, for this person, had obviously not turned out well for his talent, means, and circumstances, and yet, he articulated and preserved his gift and was displaying and celebrating it. 

So, arise, awake and claim your own fame!

This blog coincides with Engineer’s Day. Every year, September 15 in India is observed, if not really celebrated, as Engineer’s Day as a tribute to Bharat Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya (1860-1962) on his birthday. I had fond memories of celebrating it at the GB Pant University in the early 1970s. For the engineering students in the University, it used to be like a festival. Hostels, especially Hostel No. 5, were decorated with lights, a special dinner was made, and a slew of programs were organized for a fortnight starting September 1. A sense of pride was instilled in young minds that they were going to be important people. 

When I joined DRDO in 1982, I found my designation awkward. Everyone in the organization was called and continues to be called “Scientist” and not “Engineer.” I worked under the towering leadership of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and continued to live in my own bubble of feeling important about doing some great work. This idealism led me to the indigenous development of medical devices. Inspired by the Chitra Heart Valve made by Dr M.S. Valiathan at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology and productionized by TTK, guided by cardiologist Dr B. Soma Raju, we succeeded in making an indigenous coronary stent in the early 1990s, by developing Delta-free 316L stainless steel alloy at DRDO. It was reverentially called the “Kalam-Raju stent.” 

And then I realized the system that was loaded in favor of supply chains rather than making things in India. Between producer and user, there are multiple gateways, each collecting its own toll fee. In the Y2K rush, the dot.com boom and bust, and China dumping whatever India needed at “China Price” (something impossible to compete by fair play), I saw the aura of the engineering profession disappear. This became a trend when IIT graduates started entering IAS and business schools, in significant numbers. On the other hand, the opening of thousands of private engineering colleges, diluted engineering education to an extent that many colleges had to be later closed for want of fee-paying students. 

All this was not without costs. 

In 1978, the Indian GDP per capita was more than that of China. By 1991, China had reversed this. The shame of pawning gold to receive a billion-dollar loan led to economic reforms, which were used more for making money, naturally by those who had it, and India turned itself an importer for everything – every home had bought a TV, fridge, washing machine coming from abroad. Then came cars and finally, mobile phones. The only thing we exported was our raw material – especially iron ore. A beautiful place like Goa was turned into mining pits. The red waste on the green lands seemed like savage wounds inflicted upon Mother Earth. And now, there is not even a comparison with China. In 2019, China’s GDP was 4.78 times higher than India’s. 

So, when on the 74th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for Atma Nirbhar Bharat, I saw an end to the long dark tunnel, which had appeared too long to end for a while. This call was made after some careful homework. After winning the elections in 2014, PM Modi did two things. First, he revived the Golden Quadrilateral Highway building project of Prime Minister Vajpayee and expanded it to connect all major ports and economic hubs with good roads. Second, he called for “Make in India” with an automaton lion as a logo. 

The fifty thousand-crore Setu Bharatam Project was rolled out to make highways free of railway crossings and overhaul 1,500 British-era bridges. Government-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is laying a 2000 kilometer LPG pipeline from the Kandla coast in Gujarat to Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Inland waterways are being developed on mighty rivers like Ganga, Brahmaputra and Mahanadi. Viable solar power has become a reality, and electricity from solar panels now costs less than that generated at thermal power plants. When PM Modi had pitched for “One Sun, One World, One Grid” at the first General Assembly of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in October 2018, it was clear that India had woken up.

But then, the “Make in India” lion did not roar. Actually, it did not even prowl. The share of the manufacturing sector in India’s GDP had stagnated at around 15%, and remained there. In the larger industrial sector, which includes mining, manufacturing, power and construction, the GDP contribution was stuck at around 26%-27%. Red-tape and corruption were rightly seen as important deterrents for entrepreneurs setting up their factories. India actually did well in upping its EDB (Ease of Doing Business) rank from 142 in 2014 to 77 in 2018. Most of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), required for key drugs, continued to come from China. Indian drug-makers, actually pioneers of the industry, turned to importing around 70% of their total bulk drug requirements from China.

We have a national mission of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, when India completes 75 years of independence. I am happy to see that engineers are finally getting involved with farmers. Last week, a long-standing friend and engineer, Venkat Kumar Tangrila, briefed me about the Wind-solar cold storage that he installed in Warangal. It can store three tons of tomatoes. I learned from him that a tomato crop gives five rounds of fruits over three months. Farmers make their money in selling the first two rounds. By the time the third round comes, it creates a supply glut, bringing down the price. The fourth and fifth rounds are sold, many times at no price. With cold storage right there in the field, every round is released into the market at a proper interval. The cold storage, running with 7.5 kW alternative energy, costs about Rs. 10 lakhs and earns back its cost in three years’ time. We need more of such works. Let engineers join hands with farmers. 

It is heartening to see Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, and Arvind Krishna leading the world’s top three technology companies. India might have failed its engineers, but they did not fail their profession. I consider Sundar Pichai, 48 years old, thoughtful and incredibly kind, Chief Executive of Google since 2015, and promoted last December to lead parent Alphabet Inc., replacing the company co-founder Larry Page, as the modern-day Sir MV, and celebrate Engineer’s Day this year in his name. By next year this time, Chandrayaan-3 would have landed on the moon, transparent and rational flow of capital by technologically advanced banks and services would have recovered the economy, Tata’s electric car, Tigor, would be running 200 kilometers on a single charge and we will have many new engineering feats and engineer heroes to celebrate. 

Commenting on the blog article – Hack Your Time, Do More of What Matters – a long-standing friend and a spiritually evolved and worldly successful person, RN Bagdalkarji, suggested to me to “write one more blog wherein you can bring out how effective people make use of their time.” This led me to wonder how confusing this issue actually is. While I was pondering over this, an image of a person from a small town, who has been watching films in an old theater since his childhood, now going to a multiplex with eight screens showing different films with no one really restricting entry if one wants to see a little bit of every film, came to my mind.

What if this person decides to maximize his expenditure by enjoying the best of eight different films – a song here, a dance there; a fight here, a love-making scene there; a courtroom argument here, a devotional song there? Of course, it is funny and silly. But this is exactly what most of us are doing with our one life – we are not living through the drama of our own world as our seers advised. We are indulging in the various dramas going on around us, including those where there is no role, or even a dialogue for us in the script. Surprised? See people betting during an IPL cricket match; getting emotionally involved with the characters and events in soap operas; investigating suicide-murder mysteries and passing judgements on the happenings of the world.

We exist in two states – the waking and the sleeping – divided into 16 hours and 8 hours respectively. Wise people divide the 16 hours of waking into two equal parts of 8 hours of work – their livelihood, and 8 hours of leisure – family commitments and pastime. The eight hours of sleep are also divided into two parts – the sleep with dreams, and deep sleep. In dream sleep, our mind “watches” a grand emotional drama where we are naked in a public place, have lost our way in a maze of lanes, are being chased by a beast, bitten by a snake, or flying over things and people, and so on. 

In his 2017 book “Why We Sleep,” Matthew Walker, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, explains that we naturally sleep for 5 cycles of 90 minutes each, totaling seven-and-a-half hours. Most of the earlier 90-minute cycles are deep sleep and later, towards morning, most of it is dream sleep. So, if you are sacrificing the initial cycle by staying up late partying, or watching TV, or whatever, you are losing deep sleep, meant to repair your body. If you are sacrificing the later cycle, getting up early to catch a flight, you are losing the dream sleep meant to repair your mind. Of course, some people do recommend getting up early morning to take advantage of the calmness and the solitude. However, if one follows the saying, “Early to bed and early to rise…” one can do so and yet fulfill one’s need for proper sleep. 

Bill Gates recommended Matthew Walker’s book for everyone saying, “I realize that my all-nighters, combined with almost never getting eight hours of sleep, took a big toll.” So, all of us, who are nowhere near Bill Gates in our accomplishments live ignorant about the importance of sleep, causing our health – both physical and mental – irreparable damage. The damage caused by inadequate sleep is compounded by sleeping with the mobile phone under the pillow, the LED light in the bedroom, watching TV in bed till your eyes close, and drinking tea/coffee after 8 p.m. Alcohol is a big disruptor of sleep cycles, leading to permanent damage of the brain over time. 

So, having made a mess of your sleep, the Rta of repairing your body and mind, now come to the waking hours. Commuting long distances to work is a curse for a large number of people, especially those living in metropolitan cities. Doing a job you don’t like is another torture, the stress of which does not end after finishing the day’s work; it lingers beyond that and comes home with you. Similarly, arguments and fights at home reach the workplace. 

Now enters the TV with a “manufactured reality” presented by every channel in its own taste and style. And finally, the Internet, the free-for-all gutter of profanities, sacrileges and misinformation that initially started with the omnipresent stream of knowledge with good intent and has now turned into an “Indra Jaal” – hacking human minds like insects trapped in a spider net. The AI engine knows what you are doing, where are you going, what mails you are typing, which calls are you taking and making and then turns you into “an ideal consumer.” And then we are taught to manage our time, when in reality, we have lost control of our lives – like a drowning man holding a stopwatch to see if his sinking is perfect!  

Shakespeare wrote so sagaciously, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.” So, first and foremost, live your age. Allow your children to live like children, take risks when you are young, travel, live your dreams, and as age sets in, settle down, withdraw from the world gradually and then bow off the stage with grace.

Know yourself as a soul – an eternal witness – now in this body, watching this particular film in the small-town single screen theater. Connect to your childhood. Remember your grandparents, and your primary school teachers. Life is like a yarn over a spindle, everything is right here, with you every moment. In your struggle to become somebody, you have lost somewhere your real self. But the good news is that it can be recalled and felt. And it will also bring you a lot of healing. 

Close your eyes and remember sitting in a theater, enjoying a movie. None of us is born to sit through different screens in the multiplex. Still better, don’t miss out on the drama of your own life, while watching the film that is this world. Find out your lines in your drama, say them with conviction and get out of the limelight as soon as your part is over. You will find yourself living with a deep sense of satisfaction, peace and fullness during the time that you spend on earth. 

Say “Thank you” and “I am sorry” more often, even if you are not. This is the easiest way to participate in the world. Don’t manage time, manage yourself. You are actually the eternal consciousness, which is true, pure and blissful – Sat, Chit, Ananda. It is the ever-changing mortal body and drama around it that is not this – that is false, deceptive, and painful – allow it to roll over, like a scene in the film. Cry, laugh, jump or sink in your seat, but don’t try to run into the screen and break your head against the wall behind it.