PITHY EXPRESSIONS FROM COVID LOCKDOWNS

Lockdowns and work from home during Covid offered ample opportunities for thinking and reflection, as well as a surge in creativity. This was possibly due to the experience of quietude resulting from a subdued assault for attention.

Whatever the causative factor, 2020 was a period of peak profundity for me. I regularly came up with quotes to share with my friends on WhatsApp, signing them with a flourish by ending them with a hyphen and my name. Some were repackaged existing quotes, while others were built upon quotes from others, either explicitly or implicitly, and some were original.

The topics of these pithy statements covered Covid, politics, business, psychology, and a range of emotions from sarcasm and humor to frustration, sadness, and contempt – a potpourri of sorts. Looking back, it also tastes like a multi-flavored curry.

Unfortunately, of late I have been suffering from a block in profundity. I guess profundity, like nostalgia, is no longer what it used to be (Salaam Sartre Saab).

Sharing all of them here with the hope that it may trigger my creativity.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I did creating them.

• Times were when a sneeze evoked a “Bless You”. Today it is “Bless Me”.
• Strange are  these times when we wish our positive friends to be negative.
• Only bodies with antibodies can be busy bodies.
• For an ecosystem to thrive, it needs 80% creators and 20% critics.
• Every activist reaches a crossroad. One path leads to bitterness and boorishness. Another to reticence and reflection. I tread the latter.
• To become or To be, that is the question.
• The 4 Cs essential to Dharmic leadership are Conviction, Courage, Competence and Course Correction. Most leaders seem to have another *C* in abundance – an unwavering conviction of their greatness.
• Sweat equity has moved from getting equity for your sweat to giving away your equity not to sweat (in the context of politicians asking for a stake in companies).
• Affirmative action should continue till the diversity mix of your country’s’ population matches the diversity mix of your close friends.
• Between the option of lending your ass or lending your money, always choose the former, however painful it might be, for, if you choose the latter, you will end up lending both.
• NOTA, NOTA is the modern version of NETI, NETI technique for meditating on justice. At a gross level you reject all political symbols and parties, at a subtle level you reject all ideological symbols of Left, Right, Liberal, Conservative. What remains is eternal Dharma that teaches us to deliver justice based on time, place and context.
• Fear no failure. Every failure can germinate a new idea. Allow Vaat lag gayi to become Watt lag gayi.
• Every moment spent satisfying your ego is a moment lost in realising that you are not the ego.
• The intellectual paradox wherein you must be an intellectual before becoming anti-intellectual.
• Here are five reasons why I like the “Rule of Three”.
• According to the Godfather, “revenge is a dish best served  cold ”. I would say that revenge is a dish best left unserved, for, the law of Karma will serve a sumptuous buffet on your behalf at the right time.
• The long term benefits of friendship far outweigh the short term joy of winning a political argument with your friends. Politics and politicians are simply not worth losing friends for.
• The Left and the Right really have the same goal. The Right wants to mind its business, the Left also wants to mind the Right’s business.
• Meditation is less about calming your mind and more about realising that you are not the mind.
• Upcoming entrepreneurs value the valuations they get, struggling entrepreneurs value money they seek, successful entrepreneurs value the advice they received.
• Well-intended incompetent action is always better than strategic sloth.
• Make your living no-frills and writing no-shrills.
• Successful ideas are attached with egos whereas sustainable ones are detached from egos.
• Without scriptural study, any spiritual pursuit is futile. Remember that in your search for God, the Devil lies in the details.
• Use your intellect to control the mind through reason and your mind to transcend the intellect with devotion.
• Entrepreneurs and social activists share a common trait. Both always run out of money but never of ideas.
• The only growth that is sustainable is an organic one, be it of vegetables or companies.
• Victimhood is the first line of defence for the intellectual coward.
• Your need to have an opinion about others prevents others from improving their opinion about you.
• The business of fighting for Dharma is no different than show business. You are as relevant as your last hit. Don’t act like an ageing superstar resting on past laurels. Reengineer your role to deliver a new hit.
• Treat your relationships as you do your assets. Account for both annually through a “mark to market” test.
• Move from being an ego with a body to being Consciousness with a body.
• Using your power for an ego massage might make you happier than a Thai massage. The ending, however, will always be sad.
• Dishonesty is deliberate and conscious design, honesty is natural and subconscious art. Understanding this difference is craft.
• An attitude of gratitude will lead your mind to quietude.
• I asked my friend if I could gift him a watch. He smiled and asked me to gift him my time.
• Every man reaches his level of incompetence and then exceeds his level of hubris.
• We must evolve from “work from home” to “work from ashram”.
• The only cure to cognitive dissonance is self honesty.
• I often make mistakes, bloopers regularly, and blunders consistently.
• It’s the followers who make a Guru exclusivist.
• Ponder over these Ps for peace – a program of pursuing pleasure from people, power, possessions will be perilous, precarious and pernicious.
• Get real, life is a working hypothesis.
• Compliment first, criticise next.
• Fulfil your dreams by living your reality.
• If your thought word and deed are aligned and spontaneous you are causal, if there is a gap between them you are considered and if they are not aligned you are calculating.
• When faced with a dilemma between following a tradition or your intuition, go with your intuition, for a tradition began as someone’s intuition.
• Missing : academics with empathy, activists with perspective, enablers with patience.
• When did timelessness enter time?
• Social media adds to our level of ignorance. In addition to Avidya that prevents us from recognising our true timeless Self, we are now prevented from recognising our true hypocritical self.
• Social Media debates should be done after you disclose your agency and establish your humility.
• Social Media discussions should result in tangible action – be it research, an article, a book, a course, an event, a product, a service or an experience.
• Empathy sans action is apathy.
• Wilful inaction is also a cause with an effect.
• For a Sanatani, being a sceptical-traditionalist is not a contradiction in terms.
• A liberal pretending to sleep can never be woke.
• Right creates, Left captures.
• The more political power one has, the less human one becomes.
• Perception creates value. Performance sustains it.
• Traditions, like species, evolve through a process of natural selection.
• One of the biggest hypocrisies of contemporary times is tweeting about liberal values using an iphone manufactured in China.
• Pay more attention to your creativity and less attention to the attention you will get for your creativity.
• The last human frontier is not a mountain peak or a distant planet but conquering one’s ego.
• Swami Chinmayananda once said ‘Humility is a strange thing – the moment you think you have it, you’ve lost it!’. I think hubris is even stranger – the moment you think you don’t have it, you have gained it !
• Some Governments are “Left”, some are “Right”.  While some are “Left – Right, Left – Right “, marching past its citizens’ aspirations.
• There are three kinds of political corruption: 1. Grease – Making others pay to obtain something they are already entitled to. 2. Grab – Making others pay to obtain something they are not entitled to. 3. Glory – Making society pay for what you believe you are entitled to. The last one, despite not involving cash, is the most  detrimental to society.