Discover the Art of doing Nothing - proudly claimed the home page of a website for a beatific, and pristine as heaven must be for higher mortals, holiday resort in Kamshet ( yes, I do like planning holidays though I may never take them).
I read the sentence a few times over, looked at it from various angles and the word nothing took many different manifestations in my head. And yet I could make no sense of it. Do nothing? How can you plan, travel, spend money and do nothing?
Nothing doesn't make for a good answer when it comes to those what-did-you-do-for-the-weekend questions. Nothing is certainly not a good financial investment where holidays are concerned. Nothing doesn't turn into facebook pictures. And nothing most definitely does not give you experience, metamorphose into memories or even build character.
Isn't it? Isn't that what we have been told?
And so my boxed tourist mind, with the agility and ferocious determination of a woman at a shoe sale, started hunting for things listed under activities and adventures.
What a relief. There were caves to be explored in the sordid heat, treks to be undertaken by cushy corporate legs, orange jacketed boat rides to be signed up for, early morning fishing to be endured, paragliding to be braved without throwing up, barbecues to be devoured (after the paragliding of course) and bonfires to be enjoyed in the company of complete strangers. Even the nothing part of it could be given socially acceptable names like sunbathing, reading, relaxing, meditating etc.
Hey I am not doing nothing. I am relaxing...
(Please make sure this is accompanied by a holier than thou expression for optimum effect)
Holidays today have become an exhausting whirlwind of things to be done and a choc-a-block schedule to be followed. While the summer holidays of my childhood, where two months disappeared without any certain plans having being put into action, have become meteorized dinosaurs.
And frankly, it's not just the holidays. Nothing seems to have become a word that perennially sets off alarms which ring with voracious earnestness, screaming out cliches lifted straight from cheap self-motivation books in their vile, shrilly voices.
Which is why, as I sit in office today with no work on hand and the dreaded nothing to do, I feel this compelling need to fill up my time by writing. Even if it's just a blog post.
I read the sentence a few times over, looked at it from various angles and the word nothing took many different manifestations in my head. And yet I could make no sense of it. Do nothing? How can you plan, travel, spend money and do nothing?
Nothing doesn't make for a good answer when it comes to those what-did-you-do-for-the-weekend questions. Nothing is certainly not a good financial investment where holidays are concerned. Nothing doesn't turn into facebook pictures. And nothing most definitely does not give you experience, metamorphose into memories or even build character.
Isn't it? Isn't that what we have been told?
And so my boxed tourist mind, with the agility and ferocious determination of a woman at a shoe sale, started hunting for things listed under activities and adventures.
What a relief. There were caves to be explored in the sordid heat, treks to be undertaken by cushy corporate legs, orange jacketed boat rides to be signed up for, early morning fishing to be endured, paragliding to be braved without throwing up, barbecues to be devoured (after the paragliding of course) and bonfires to be enjoyed in the company of complete strangers. Even the nothing part of it could be given socially acceptable names like sunbathing, reading, relaxing, meditating etc.
Hey I am not doing nothing. I am relaxing...
(Please make sure this is accompanied by a holier than thou expression for optimum effect)
Holidays today have become an exhausting whirlwind of things to be done and a choc-a-block schedule to be followed. While the summer holidays of my childhood, where two months disappeared without any certain plans having being put into action, have become meteorized dinosaurs.
And frankly, it's not just the holidays. Nothing seems to have become a word that perennially sets off alarms which ring with voracious earnestness, screaming out cliches lifted straight from cheap self-motivation books in their vile, shrilly voices.
Which is why, as I sit in office today with no work on hand and the dreaded nothing to do, I feel this compelling need to fill up my time by writing. Even if it's just a blog post.
7 comments:
"Do nothing? How can you plan, travel, spend money and do nothing?"
I like that bit. In the let's overplan, pose click pose click, upload on Facebook frenzy, travelling has almost been relegated to an inconvenient corner.
Nothing is SO underrated.
so true.
nothing is pregnant with possibilities. it's good to mother nothing!
Certainly fascinating. Especially the bit where you describe how clichéd the images associated with holiday activites have become.
Maybe its just the quality of advertising, that everyone sees the same thing offered.
@animesh: How ironical that i work in advertising. :)
as a fellow 'vacation planner' i cant vouch for how difficult it is to do 'nothing'... even in a small group of 3-4, there are different expectations.. in the end a vacation ends up being an exercise in expectation management rather than true relaxation.. but even if we really want to go and relax and do nothing, how many of us would find travel companions who'd be willing to do just that.. and not make the trip a VFM exercise..
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