I sit on the couch waiting for the sun to rise. It’s 430am. There is silence.i don’t hear birds chirping. A distant flight flying few thousands of feet above is heard but only for few seconds. Again silence.
Life is generally the other way around. Try to sleep at 4.00 am with lot of cars whizzing past to wherever Important they have to be there! Buses slowly getting filled with more and more ‘early to bed early to rise’ people.
No sound of distant alarms getting snoozed. even cows and horses haven’t woken up at this time. No car sounds. No one waking up to reach any place that early. No train sounds. No cycle sounds. No one jogging at this hour to keep themselves fit. No factory starts at this time.
When the world is this still and you are wide awake, fresh and completely raring to take the world on by its horns – you feel this stillness – the void you see in movies about how silent space is. It’s like the world telling you.. “hang on a minute! What are you doing!!”
A person who generally never misses an opportunity to call his family/friends or sends that WhatsApp message to that old friends group who are in different time zones – now finds – “hang on a minute! What am I rushing for?”
Your laptop is just next to you. You want to crack it open and finish that pending item hanging down your neck like a dagger waiting to destroy your world. “Hang on a minute! Am I really enjoying what I am doing?”
You decide to see updates on your favourite app or social media – Facebook, twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn etc., You see things like.. “oh Tuesday! Bring it on.. few more hours “.. also you automatically relate to it to so many over abused topics on sitcoms like big bang theory, friends, two and half men etc., You suddenly get this revolting thought “what am I doing? Hang on a minute!!”
Now,the sun is lazily rising. You suddenly hear in your mind all the successful gurus in business, philosophy, entrepreneurs telling you how to “view the world”.. you shut yourself from those recorded thoughts which are your muscle memory after all these years.. “Not now man! ”
What happens after this is something you need to experience personally.. the outputs isn’t a finite set of experiences.. it’s infinity! You got to be there to listen to it and see it happen and unravel.
What is this mystical thing? It’s called “vacation” which we deny ourselves seasons after seasons convincing ourselves to be more patient! We are perennial “vacation slackers”!
Vacation is a controversial word in a controversial world because it is only for those people who have achieved what they should have in the eyes of the world.. it’s never going to happen and one gets into the trap of entering the club of “I like my work and routine is my vacation”.. one gets hypnotised into believing that 18 hour day hustling is life from Monday to Friday.. Saturday and Sunday you have day off.. etc etc..
Vacation need not be fancy and frenzy of pub hopping/check ins on foursquare and selfie sagas or building a nice video and showing it your colleagues or taking vacation for “showing off”.. it truly is a “private” activity.. you and your loved ones deserve a vacation to renew everything in life..
With this I end my blog – I hear birds chirping- sky is visible and sun has announced his presence and I know what I should be doing!Cheers to “Vacation” !