My 300th Post

[Written by Subhorup Dasgupta; for introduction, see My 299th Post]

What happens instead… 

When I received an invitation from Micky to write something to celebrate 300 posts on this blog, I was more than a little stumped. Like many aspiring writers, I write about stuff close to my heart without necessarily letting on how close. My posts are usually built around wordplay and emotional thievery, and a little substance once in a while. The reason for that is that as a writer, what I have to say can be summed up in very few words, perhaps even two. Live, stupid. Thank you. Love more. All of which ultimately mean the same thing. 

As I reflected and tried to fit in with the editorial slant of this blog, I realized that the one thing that I could write about with some authority was the one thing that I have never written about. At least not in a direct, honest, factual manner. So on the occasion of three centuries of posting on this blog, here is my story. 

My wife and I live in Hyderabad. After spending nearly three decades clawing up the corporate ladder, heading large multinational healthcare BPO’s, I hit the proverbial hump. I like to believe it was the other way around, that midlife hit me, an ignorant, if not innocent bystander unaware of the fast flowing traffic of a materialistic world. However, instead of buying a shiny new red sportscar and growing a ponytail, I decided to quit my job, and use my limited skills to encourage people to lead simpler, kinder, more responsible lives. I took stock. I realized I had at my disposal a reasonable willingness to talk (write) about things, a useable computer, and an affordable internet plan. I chose to use my blog, which till then had been more an online journal for my jejune life, as the vehicle for my mission.

My father and I

What was I going to write about? My life situation was too close for comfort, and I do not believe in using public fora to wage personal wars. I looked at what else about life bothered me. Strangely, in spite of my fundamentally non-litigious nature, almost everything did. I realized that the times we live in had given greed, ignorance, anger, and intolerance a level of respectability and acceptance where they seem to be character assets rather than liabilities. At the core of this lies what we term development, both economic and social, and the emergence of lifestyles dictated by corporate strategies. 

The effects can be seen in every area of life – education, health, welfare, relationships, religion, commerce; you name it, and you will find it has been corrupted to a point difficult to trace one’s steps back out of. As a matter of fact, the illusion of a “good life” is so skillfully woven that we are no longer able to see that the ills of our times are actually by-products of the behaviors we are being goaded into. Initially, I would write directly about these issues, about values in public life and governance, about the need to downsize and adopt responsible economic behavior, about seeking gratitude and compassion in a sea of discontent, distrust and hate. I realized very quickly, and contrary what the occupy movement would have us believe, that that was not what the 99% wanted to read. 

It took me a while to figure out how to put the same thoughts into formats that people would want to read. Though satire was never my preferred style, I studied it to see how I could sow the seeds of change in the minds of my readers as they read my film reviews, recipes, writing on music, writing on writing and on poetry, and poetry. I also began studying the way the internet works. I learned a little about search and social, optimizing my writing for search engine results and promoting my work on the social media. I learned about the best practices – writing attractive and effective titles, using just the right density of keywords, and alt-tagging my images. 

This period of trying to write for the billions that make up the internet, the billions who rely on searchbots and spiders to tell them what they are seeking in life, was, thankfully, relatively brief. However, it did leave me with the realization that the new “marketplace” was a powerful tool for change. I put my toddler skills in social media to use by promoting the various social change organizations that I was part of. To my surprise, it yielded good result. I then put a price to my time and went back to where my heart was – writing to enable change. In the process of writing about change, I began encountering more and more people who were far ahead of me in what I was trying to do. Many of them were engines of change, whereas I was still theorizing. I also realized that at a personal level, I was too lazy, perhaps too hypocritical to pledge my being in its entirety to what I believed in. I decided to pull together my writing, my network and my social media skills to add power to an engine that was already in motion – the magic bus that would take us to a better, kinder, more just society. 

In spite of the multi-billion-dollar enterprises that work day and night to convince us that we are ugly and incomplete, that business schools know better than grandmom, that war is justified, there are countless pockets of reason, repair and resistance. All you need to do is look. One of the main reasons that I had not considered a more frugal, minimalistic, ethical lifestyle was the lack of support systems and role models. I didn’t want to stick out, and I didn’t want to rough it out. But as I began exploring alternate ways of thinking and being, I encountered similar initiatives by the dozen, each vying with the others in innovativeness and inspiration. 

Towards this end, we began creating various platforms to help add momentum to change. One of these was an online fine tea catalog to promote the meditative and healing aspect of tea drinking as a cultural activity. Another was a platform for change-makers to pitch their projects to decision-makers who could connect them with the resources they need (read about SoCh later in this post). We created and supported groups promoting poetry, music, the arts. Many of these initiatives later took on lives of their own, and we saw them grow beyond our imagination with a mildly parental pride. It took close to three years for my work to crystallize around my beliefs. These three years were extremely instructional.

SoCh Hyderabad

What did we learn? 

If you are willing to read on, here are some of the important lessons. 

1. Debt is the biggest trap, and it does not always come dressed as debt. It comes as EMIs (equated monthly installments), mortgages, investment plans, all of which are ways to spend income that one is yet to generate. Sometimes it comes in the form of lifestyle costs that, with time, you are unwilling to do without. 

2. Housing and food are the two main cost heads. If you can find ways of addressing these, a lot is taken care of. Health and education costs are largely perceptions. If you eat, exercise and rest with wisdom, only accidents and aberrations need to be addressed, and usually when they do arise, they bring with them the resources to deal with them too. Education cost is largely a myth. Every single corrupt politician, every cheating businessman, and every clever criminal is a product of the existing education system. On the other hand, most of the brilliant minds of all times are self-educated. Homeschooling and democratic education are practical and more dependable than sending kids to schools where all they learn from their teachers and peers is jealousy, discontent, lusting, and violence. 

3. There are countless ways to make your life count. It all begins with intent. Create the intent and the avenues will appear. The price of letting “someone else” clean up the mess we have made of our world is much higher than the price of dedicating your life to a higher cause. 

4. We can all significantly reduce our carbon footprint without making large sacrifices. Any impact on the future is better than no impact at all. If what we have outlined seems scary, do what little you can to scale back. Anything you do is of immense value. Do not underestimate the power of small change. 

5. Frugal does not mean cheap, miserly or even austere. Austere is a wonderful word but is often associated with deprivation. Going frugal and responsible can actually enhance the quality of your living, you can take more pleasure in activities of life, eat better, dress better, and do more for those around you. The association of frugal and deprivation is a devious marketing ploy by those who profit from your consumption. 

6. True riches are the treasures of the heart. Our decision to simplify our living led us to discover who we were deep within, something that is often tarnished by the dust and clamor of a materialistic life. We have learned to love each other for who we are, love ourselves for who we REALLY are, and to love those around us for being expressions of the universe’s desire to heal itself. We have discovered the riches of music, books, films, food, flowers, gardening, dance, mornings, nights, winters and summers. 

7. The tipping point is for real. All you need is the determination to hang in there. 

How has our journey been and what have we achieved? 

The first two years were an experiment in taking rational economic exchange to a metaphysical level. We had no savings, no earnings, and no livelihood. Perhaps it is better to say we chose to do without savings, earnings and livelihood. Instead my wife and I embarked on a program of service, making our time, skills, and attention available to anyone we felt needed it. The initial months were truly turbulent, testing our belief, and filled with many anxious days and weeks. However, as people around us began understanding and perhaps appreciating what we were trying to do, the balance began to return. We found our environment taking care of us in mystic ways. During this phase, we found ways to use our skills to help others that they could pay for in more conventional economic terms. 

The next phase dawned with the realization that individual economics had been hijacked by governments and corporations to a point where the desire to lead a responsible life was challenged at every step. Our tea catalog and our work as social media consultants are our experiments in responsible business. In addition to the more prevalent concepts of green operations and organic products, we have tried to consider the 360-degree impact of our business decisions, and exercise the most viable ethical options. In scenarios where it is not possible to choose ethically, we have chosen to exclude it from our field of operation. 

We also lent our time and energy to the creation of SoCh, a community building initiative that uses the tools of social media to bring people together. SoCh uses the unconference format to connect change-makers with thought-leaders. There is no agenda, no call to action, no expectation. Once the pot comes to the boil, it dictates what ingredients it most needs, and it is our experience that when it does, the ingredients emerge. We know that what we are doing is nothing more than an echo of several similar initiatives being undertaken across the world. We hope that our work will encourage others to join the bandwagon