On Following Rules

People will follow rules, even those which are to their advantage, when it is made convenient for them to follow those rules.

Oh, That!

Being a psychology student, I hear a lot of lectures, theories and research of human behaviour. Everything seems to make sense in the moment because everything has been logically explained and seems rational. And it's like, ok, yeah it makes sense. And you walk out of the class, you take an exam, write about that phenomenon, trait, theory etc, and almost forget it and move on.

But then there are those times. Those aha moments! When someone's reactions, feelings, some words just click and make you think of that particular thing you'd heard of or studied! And there in that moment the little voice in your head goes, "Oh! (or rather oooooooooh!) That's what it is about!"

All of us go through this at some point of other. Think of some some song you have heard once or twice and maybe forgotten later. Or some poem you have had to study as a part of your syllabus, and it all seems nice
but you don't really get it. You may have heard it, appreciated it for its poetry and let it go.

And then some day, you just stop in the middle of something you are experiencing or doing, because it strikes you, it sinks in and you go 'oh!'. You want to hear that song again or read that poem again right then! Or go back to the one who shared that song with you or to the teacher who taught it to you and want to talk to them again about it. Share this reaction to it and this understanding of it that you've just had with them!

Such aha moments, all of them! 

The Progress of Humans

Homo sapiens or we humans are the newest species on the evolutionary block. Just about 200,000 years old. For perspective, the first living organisms came on earth  3.6 billion years ago, the first vertebrates 485 million years ago and the first mammals 200 million years ago. Our closest ancestors the great apes came about 20 million years ago.

But if you think about it how cool is our intellectual and cultural progression!

Take the simple example of a hot water shower. Yes, I have just stepped out of one and that is where the chain of thought started, so, a hot water shower.  The concept of cleaning the outer body and skin using water is there among other species also, so okay, we won’t consider that. What is unique to humans that came to hot water showers is this. First we tamed fire for domestic uses such as providing light, cooking and heating. Then there is the idea of heating water to take a bath that is unique to us humans. Going forward, we discovered electricity and put it to its various uses including heating. Phew!

But it’s still not done. That was the heating of water part. Now we come to showers. We have metals and the durable alloys made from them. Along with it are the making and building of tool like pipes and showers and using principles of physics like gravity to control the flow of water. That really requires quite some intelligence, doesn’t it? And this is just a simple shower of hot water, (excluding soaps, body washes, shampoos, conditioners, loofahs, towels etc) an everyday occurrence. (Side note: everyday things can be so elegant and profound if you really think of it).

And today, with the rapid progression of technology, we are trying to create intelligent machines. So we not only have this intelligence, we are trying to map it, emulate it and pass it on to inanimate objects like machines.

Now compare this to the other older species who are still working on the basics of survival and reproduction.

Pretty cool, isn’t it?! 

The Feeling of Coming Home

I was entering the main gate of my building when a bright yellow school bus honked its way to parking in front of the gate. A 10-12 year old girl got off the bus and there her father was waiting for her with her toddler brother in his arms. The minute her brother saw her, he expressed his enthusiasm with a loud shout calling out to her and by jumping up and down in his father's arms. The girl who had a slow tired demeanour on getting off the school bus suddenly got an enthusiastic spring in her step and she smiled and just simply started walking quicker to reach them.

It is that that is the feeling of coming home where the people you love and who love you have been waiting for your return and are happy to see you, not just the physical fact on entering the doors of the place you reside in. Ask anyone who is living alone, even in the most comfortable house that money can buy, what to them is the feeling of coming home and you will get very interesting answers that cannot really capture what a feeling is.

Communication

It's amazing how a gesture or a simple sentence can speak volumes when the other person is really listening; and how volumes of speech can convey nothing when the other person isn't listening...

Grace

You may not be a conventionally beautiful person but when you are completely engrossed in doing something that is your passion, you could simply be the most graceful...

Thankful

When you don't meet much decent people in life, you can't help but be doubly thankful for all the good ones that are. 

Amen to that feeling!