Wednesday 4 April 2007

Balance of Terror

I am extra lucky to have this mean machine at my home- which makes me feel happy or sad, depending on what I want..! Before you let your imagination run wild, let me tell you that its a simple weighing scale gone wrong.

When stood upon, the scales point to some number - when body weight is shifted slightly more to the left leg, the weight decreases- And when I shift the balance to the right it increases exponentially. With such amazing linearity, it is one instrument you just dont want to believe. But on the positive side, on days when I want to feel supremely positive, I stand entirely on my left leg..! (Scale reading = (My weight) - 8 kilos, and lets not fix a value to the variable My weight)

The point is not about some malfunctioning springs. Its just that this is the only balance I have control over, and know how to get pleasing results. The other balances..?

We keep listening to this 'One should learn to strike a balance between bla-bla-blah'-- Think about it ; Is that insightful or useful or atleast interesting to hear? Without any proper definition for what exactly is the balance, most people are still left groping in the dark, figuring out the perpetually oscillating value shown in the scales of balance. Lemme describe 2 big ones -

Professional/Leisure activity : Among many things that young adults writing their resume or attracting their partners, like to portray themselves as, ia a well rounded personality. The ability to juggle a profession (to earn for the rice), and leisure activities (flavor the rice with sambar,rasam) is something everybody recommends. But as the author found out, it aint that easy.

It starts with 5 weekdays-2 sleepdays- 5 WD-2 SD.. kinda routine - leading to the jolting realisation that 28.5714% of ones life is being cruelly wasted. Then follows a scheme of enrolling into various sports, classes and other voluntary activities over a period of time designed to enrich life. The weekends get packed slowly, and the important yet insane things-to-do spills over into weekday evenings and nights(like this blog). Today I just realised I am more relaxed during regular work hours that outside or weekends..! Gotta work to achieve a balance in this.

Food and Diets : "Eat in moderation" claims every health bulletin. Good idea , but whats moderate ? I absolutely hate it when they gives figures in calories, which is quite immeasurable when I think of the variety of stuff we eat throughout the day.

Follow the food pyramid says the wise one. But wise ones havent seen through the different food pyramids thats available - for meat eaters, for lean meat eaters, for vegetarians, for vegans, for non-dairy diets, low cholestrol diet, low saturated fat diet, low carb diet, e-diets , and then ofcourse the McSpicy Double meal. All this for somebody for forgets what he is talking about, when interrupted by the very thought of lunch !
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By now you must be wondering where or when is this guy going to end this winding passage on the incompetance of regular humans to know what to do, and how much. You might even debate if you should spend time reading blogs in future, of people who do not want to think aloud but just type it down and forget all about it.

My last word here, would be to learn to strike a balance on the amount of time you spend online and the time rather spent on other equally worthless activities!


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