A CALMER YOU
Delete ho gaya,’’ he said, with a horrified look on his face. ‘Huh?’ “By mishtake ho gaya madam. All data erased,” he gulped, almost ready to duck if I decided to throw a brick at him. For a few seconds, I felt tizzy at what this IT guy, who was trying to help with some changed settings on my phone had ended up doing. My cellphone had actually been formatted, with all data gone. “Aap khud kyun nahi delete ho gaye, by mishtake?” I growled. “Backup toh hoga,” he retorted, painfully reminding me of how I had promised myself each week for the past … err two years, that I’d take a backup of my phone data next week. The ‘next week’ never came. “I had all my contacts, to-do lists, and notes in it, apart from loads of photos,” I mumbled to myself, with my BP shooting up at the thought of starting from a clean slate all over again.
In a few hours, however, it didn’t seem all that bad. At some level, I was feeling a bit free with the clutter suddenly vanishing from the gadget I was holding day and night. On another, I also realised the value of the comfort it was giving me by keeping all the info I needed, so handy. I mean, I didn’t remember or hadn’t noted down the number of my driver of five years. It was just in the phone and now that it was gone, I didn’t quite know DELETE small comforts to know their value: Simple funda hai. Till the time they exist, they are taken for granted. It’s actually true for human beings too, but we shall go that deep in philosophy some other day. Here’s the formula. Delete one comfort from your life for just one day each week, to realise its value and thank God for it. Ek din stay away from the AC. Trust me you’ll forever stop whining and cribbing about the electricity bill. Do the same with something as simple as cold water. Delete it for a day, and you’d be a more thankful person the next day. God has given us so many things we just grab as our birth right. Thank you kaun bolega, aapke papa? DELETE toxic people to add positivity: Every person who comes in our contact each day, consciously or subconsciously lends us vibes that stick to us. Great if they are positive, but most often one encounters people who are crying, cribbing or complaining about something, It’s easier to reach the moon on a bicycle than be popular all the time with everyone in your life. Try karna hi bekaar hai. Because it takes so much energy to please people, especially if you are having to do something that’s against your basic nature. Understand the difference between the need to be a nice, good person, and being a popular person. The former is a need, the latter is a desire. Focus on fulfilling the needs, and the desire may just get fulfilled on its own. Try too hard to
Khud ki zyada buraayi karo toh log usey seriously le lete hain. Self deprecating humour works, but in stand-up comedy shows. In real everyday life, you’ve got to keep a check on selfbashing. Feeling sorry for how fat, thin, short, dark, fair, blah you are, is inversely correlated to your self esteem, which is directly correlated to your joy quotient in life. Am sure this law of nature has some fancy name but I’m saying it in the language I understand. Love yourself the way you’d want someone else to do, and that someone else follows. Pity yourself over things, and it attracts pity from those around you. Simple. DELETE the temptation to borrow worries: Ek kahani sunayi thi is column mein kuchh saal pehle. There was a guy who was driving
Sonal Kalra was so involved in deleting that she ended up deleting this article before saving. She’s writing it again and cursing everyone in sight. Mail her at Follow on Twitter