The book I've been reading for the past couple of weeks is called 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' by Haruki Murakami. I'm enjoying it. If anything, it has stoked my desire to get back to full fitness soon and train hard.
As a fellow runner, I identify a lot with Murakami's experiences while running. In case I left you guessing, that's what the book is about. I love the little bits when he throws in some of his philosophy. Here's an excerpt I loved:
"Usually when I approach the end of a marathon, all I want to do is get it over with, and finish the race as soon as possible. That's all I can think of. But as I drew near the end of this ultramarathon, I wasn't really thinking about this. The end of the race is just a temporary marker without much significance. It's the same with our lives. Just because there's an end doesn't mean existence has meaning. An end point is simply set up as a temporary marker, or perhaps an indirect metaphor for the fleeting nature of existence."
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label words. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Don't Get First Class...
...Be first class!
That's what a teacher at school would say to us. Unfortunately he passed on before we got to senior school, but in many ways, his teaching has outlived him.
He taught English Literature, did Mr. Joe Sheth. One of those aristocratic teachers, he had an aura about him. An air of class and panache. His leisurely afternoon smokes in the Gent's Staffroom were commonplace, much to the chagrin of fellow teachers and most certainly the school principal. His faults notwithstanding, the man left an impression on you.
I only wish he had taught us Julius Caesar like he did for the batches 3 or 4 years senior to us. I love the play even without him teaching it to me and I can only imagine the effect his interpretation of the play would have had on me.
I loved school life, the rowdy lunch breaks in an all-boys school, playing dodge-ball, this sometimes painful game called abba doobi, volleyball, cricket, football... the works. The days we got detention for making nuisances of ourselves, the few classes that I enjoyed, art, physics (at times), english literature and a few others.
But one of the things I'll be grateful to my alma mater for is the times spent with a few wonderful teachers who were also outstanding characters.
While I may have taken the first part of Joe Sheth's quote ("Don't get first class, be first class.") a bit too seriously, it is the second part of the quote that will always be an aspiration and an inspiration for me. I didn't learn very much academically throughout my education. I was an average, or at best a slightly-above-average student. But I remember the little lessons that our teachers taught us that never there in books. And those are the lessons that I find help you through life the most. The good times and the bad. Not some Pythagorean equation to find the hypotenuse length of a right-angled triangle.
Of the many many important lessons I've learned in school, the one that is reverberating through my head these days is... Don't get First Class, be first class.
That's what a teacher at school would say to us. Unfortunately he passed on before we got to senior school, but in many ways, his teaching has outlived him.
He taught English Literature, did Mr. Joe Sheth. One of those aristocratic teachers, he had an aura about him. An air of class and panache. His leisurely afternoon smokes in the Gent's Staffroom were commonplace, much to the chagrin of fellow teachers and most certainly the school principal. His faults notwithstanding, the man left an impression on you.
I only wish he had taught us Julius Caesar like he did for the batches 3 or 4 years senior to us. I love the play even without him teaching it to me and I can only imagine the effect his interpretation of the play would have had on me.
I loved school life, the rowdy lunch breaks in an all-boys school, playing dodge-ball, this sometimes painful game called abba doobi, volleyball, cricket, football... the works. The days we got detention for making nuisances of ourselves, the few classes that I enjoyed, art, physics (at times), english literature and a few others.
But one of the things I'll be grateful to my alma mater for is the times spent with a few wonderful teachers who were also outstanding characters.
While I may have taken the first part of Joe Sheth's quote ("Don't get first class, be first class.") a bit too seriously, it is the second part of the quote that will always be an aspiration and an inspiration for me. I didn't learn very much academically throughout my education. I was an average, or at best a slightly-above-average student. But I remember the little lessons that our teachers taught us that never there in books. And those are the lessons that I find help you through life the most. The good times and the bad. Not some Pythagorean equation to find the hypotenuse length of a right-angled triangle.
Of the many many important lessons I've learned in school, the one that is reverberating through my head these days is... Don't get First Class, be first class.
Friday, July 11, 2008
A Life is Lived in an Instant
Just came across this super article about how life must be lived for the now. I often balk at these modern ideas of retiring at 40 and early retirement to move to this fancy house on the beach you've built for yourself.
40 is too late. What if I don't make it to 40? I don't mean to be fatalistic but it's a possibility. It's a lot of thoughts like this that have changed the way I live my life. I live for the "now". Earlier, I would spend hours and hours thinking about whether I should say something to someone, labour over how the other person would react, what the other person would think of me if I said what I wanted to and all kinds of other useless thoughts. Today I ask myself one question, 'If I were to die the next moment, would I say/do what I wanted to?'. The answer isn't always yes. But it makes my life a lot simpler. No doubt, there are times when I look back and think how stupid it was to say or do what I did, but people make mistakes. I try and learn from them. No regrets.
I'll shut up now. Go read.
40 is too late. What if I don't make it to 40? I don't mean to be fatalistic but it's a possibility. It's a lot of thoughts like this that have changed the way I live my life. I live for the "now". Earlier, I would spend hours and hours thinking about whether I should say something to someone, labour over how the other person would react, what the other person would think of me if I said what I wanted to and all kinds of other useless thoughts. Today I ask myself one question, 'If I were to die the next moment, would I say/do what I wanted to?'. The answer isn't always yes. But it makes my life a lot simpler. No doubt, there are times when I look back and think how stupid it was to say or do what I did, but people make mistakes. I try and learn from them. No regrets.
I'll shut up now. Go read.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Inevitable
in·ev·i·ta·ble [in-ev-i-tuh-buhl]
–adjective
1.
unable to be avoided, evaded, or escaped; certain; necessary: an inevitable conclusion.
2.
sure to occur, happen, or come; unalterable: The inevitable end of human life is death.
–noun
3. that which is unavoidable.
Yeah, for some inexplicable reason, that word is just stuck in my head!
Needless to say, the consequences are inevitable. ;)
–adjective
1.
unable to be avoided, evaded, or escaped; certain; necessary: an inevitable conclusion.
2.
sure to occur, happen, or come; unalterable: The inevitable end of human life is death.
–noun
3. that which is unavoidable.
Yeah, for some inexplicable reason, that word is just stuck in my head!
Needless to say, the consequences are inevitable. ;)
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