Thursday, September 07, 2006

Needs...


























Photo by - Endevourme


4 years back. Our society is located outside the city. A society of independent houses with around 600 plots. Some people have built houses, but most of the plots are still empty. Once the so called manager of the society did some blunder with electricity bills, and put out electricity of our society for fifteen days.

After initial fighting-shouting, we were face to face with the problem. Managing life without electricity! No TV, no fans, no lights, darkness... Our problems started with television. We couldnt watch movies, favourite serials, mom couldnt see recepies, afternoon lunch time programs etc etc .Here I was on holidays, with nothing to spend my time. No lights, means mom had to cook diner in advance. We had to go erly to sleep, without fans, when mosquitoes are hovering around. Fortunately there was enough water, just we had to pull it out everyday from tank outside.
All these seeming like troubles lasted for around four days. After that we started getting used to this lifestyle. As there was no TV, we started talking more in our family. We started going more to our terrace, have walks there, chatting and talking. I picked up my old habit of reading. I started enjoying sitting in the corridor outside. Reading books, drinking tea or lemon juice. I started getting more aware of what was happening around, watching people passing by and observing everything around and also our neighbours as well.
Things started feeling more serene soon. Life gradually become slower. Slowly, with this, the noise levels in my mind were coming down too. I realized there were so many different kinds of birds that came around and realized how refreshing fresh air can be.
Darkness seemed a problem only initially, later to realize that sunight is unmeasurably better than electric lights. Natural soft light flowing through curtains, and it was like retuning to natural rhythm of day and night. We used to sleep erly at around 9 at night. No more watching TV at night and no artificial lights to burden our eyes. We used to communicate more amongst ourselves, touching new and fresh topics which we erlier missed somehow. This awareness and little bit of isolation from artificiality helped me focus more on what we had. Like i started to appreciate that we had enough water, and understood its value. Somehow if we get everything effortlessly, we dont appreciate what we get. We need a drama, and we create needs, virtual needs and we try to satisfy ourselves with them. We extend our needs from food,shelter,clothing to cellphone, PC, i-pod, TV, blogs, mails, onsite trips...the list is endless. We want what others have, or maybe we want what others want. We have become like flock of sheeps, dumb sheeps, they dont know where they are going, what they know is just to follow others. We create needs, maybe they satisfy us, but we need listen to ourselves when pleasure turns to dependency.
Yes, electricity, TV, cellphones etc are necessory, but these things have their own place. And they cannot replace other things which are more natural and more human, like communication in a family, and our connection with the surroundings. Maybe that is one reason why people in old times seem more serene and sane than we are.
Finally after some settlements the electricity came back....and i mentally thanked the person who invented the ON/OFF switch.

25 comments:

Junius said...

........
the place in the pic is in AP
big huge rocks all over....

Has to be me said...

Super one Endevourme! And it is so damn true. We just forget the basics with all these modern gadgets & dont even spend time with each other which is the root of all relationships. Getting addicted to the idiot box is no good. For over past year I've cut down my TV watching drastically. Its almsot nothing now. However I m bit addicted to the movies! :(

Aditi said...

Well it would be nice if life and people had on off switches, but then see what happened in click.
Yes things were mere serene in the older days, when they enjoyed everyday instead of thinking let me struggle today and enjoy tomorrow..
but tomorrow never comes does it?

Junius said...

#has to be me
Yep!
and the thing is we dont listen to our own self,
what it needs and what it expects from us....
there is a person more serene inside us that we need to find out.

#aditi
if we cant appreciate what we have today,
we cant do it tomorrow as well...
good thing is that, we DO have a choice...

and things can be much better than we can imagine,
i have realized this during the past few months....

Rani said...

u hit the dart on the bullseye!! i mean with recent events in my life, i have found going back to the SIMPLE THINGS just simple things like the ones u mentioned, makes life soooo much saner.
although i havent completely gone away from tv and movies, although drastically reduced it.

Junius said...

#chocolteluva
yaa....me too.....control is essential :-)

Pritika Gupta said...

aaahh.. all u need is simplicity.. may be thts the reason every weekend..i just want to run away from my house.. far away from tv, tubelights and fans.. thou now not much places are left for tht purpose.. but still at i hate idiot box on weekend..

Junius said...

#pritika gupta
why run away from house da?
thats the space where we are supposed to feel secure,
our own place...maybe you want to run away from urself as well :-)

Shankari said...

hmmm, picture- now where in AP? Seems to like an old friend, praps the cussin of a rock friend I met some place??

Varsha said...

ahh! Nice one. Happened to me once when I had been in Goa. Electricity was around but we had no TV in that house, so we connected well as a family...played business, boggle, scrabble..had a lovely time! Glad you reminded me of it!

Junius said...

#shankari
mmm...this is near tirupathi...
so dont know exact place, i took this from car window... :-)
...i have seen smaller ones in hyderabad...

#varsha
hey thank yu for coming here :-)
quality time naa...

deepsat said...

cant deny this simple truth which u have put there. we as humans find innumerable ways to make ourselves busy! but end of the day when that silence comes, nothing else matters!!

good post!!!

;-))

Junius said...

#deepsat
hey thank yu for coming here :-)
truth is simple naa?
seeking simplicity to find it... he he...

Neer said...

hmm.. and how do you know??

Junius said...

#neers
'cause i know everything...
i know how it starts...how it proceeds...how it ends...
i know.:-)..the purpose...is to grow...and to understand...

think said...

Hey,
Changed my comment moderation.Hope you can comment now.
Good picture.

Neer said...

oh absolutely!! you know and grow!! heyy that rhymes!

Junius said...

#priya
thank yu for coming here :-)
yup i will...

#neers
hehe...thank yu da ;-)

Unknown said...

i remember when thr used to b a powercut how we used to gather and chit chat and used to disscuss alot...the whole family..those wr really sumhappy memorable sweet moments...virtual neccessties are overtaking those...miss those days....wish i cud go back...playing in moon lite vt frnds..on dat day....very nice post...:-)

Sangita S said...

That was nice and so true..Fortunately for u realized ti soon..Many of us do not want to :-( Me still trying to force my husband into having dinner with us rather than in front of tv ;-)

Junius said...

#nirmala
that was interesting :-)
even i too remember having diner with friends, in moonlight!
i was a kid then...

#sangita
hehe...pati...patni...aur woh(TV) ;-)

Shankari said...

See, I knew I could recognise a friend- even if in your blog! :)


Thanks for giving me the chance to meet up with a friend - mebbe its time I went across to look it up, hmm?

Junius said...

#gangadhar
hey thank yu so much for coming here,
yes i saw ur blog and its intersting :-)

#shankari
hee hee,
in hyderabad, there is a place 'phisal-pandya',
its a natural rock formation, place is nice,
like going in hot afternoon and siting in shade of trees and all...
:-)

#i,me & the one
hey thank you so much for coming here,
yippu, but there is a a difference between being comfortable
and being compulsive :-)

Shankari said...

endevourme said...
in hyderabad, there is a place 'phisal-pandya',
its a natural rock formation, place is nice,
like going in hot afternoon and siting in shade of trees and all...


And what does that and all include?

:p

Junius said...

#shankari
hehe...
i guess u can imagine that one ;-)