The Beauty of Nothingness!

An article I read recently inspired me for this post - aptly called Benefits of Soul Crushing Boredom, the article published in the Online Wall street Journal is a tribute by its author, Scott Adams (the creator of the Dilbert series) "to tedium" and the "heady thrill of having nothing to do!" I agree totally in letter and spirit to the thoughts conveyed in the article...and have often wondered the same myself.....is the amount of stimulation, exposure and constant barrage of information that our children receiving every day - good for them? is it necessary for them? were we without the luxury of gadgetry diversions better off or worse off than kids of today? Kids apart, I also wonder if the phenomenon of multi-tasking and overt stimulation/ flurry of constant activity has made us adults forget the beauty which lay in nothingness....the sweet joy of doing nothing; the tedium which let us value the surprises in life; the boredom which made us look forward to interesting things in life with unabashed enthusiasm! I reminisce often about the time when this nothingness was an acceptable state of mind and not a sign of inefficiency.

Each time I see kids totally engrossed in their portable playstations, their iPods and other fancy gadgets on a drive or when traveling on vacation - I grimace inwardly....where is the romance of a car ride or a train ride gone? I still remember how my siblings and I held our breath as our parents readied up plans for our school holidays. When they finally announced that we were going for a vacation (usually in our case, it was a short stay at the hills in Uttar Pradesh, now Uttranchal) our collective excitement knew no bounds. The charm was not only in the place we were visiting but the impending long train journey held an indescribable fascination for us- it was almost like a gold-hunt for us.... what sights await us both outside and inside the window of that train? will a Jeep carry us from the station up on those mountain slopes? how would the cottage be? my sister and I would huddle up at night and discuss every possibility till we had exhausted all conceivable ones and settled for the sweet promise that suspense is made of!!!

Our packing was simple & quick too- clothes, sneakers, we were allowed one story book each and a notebook and pencil case which we had to share. I think it was lesser than what kids pack up when they are on a family outing in the city these days- I wonder if we would have bothered about gaming consoles, e-book readers, iPods and portable DVD players had they existed then? Did we get bored?- no way! Till there was daylight- we lapped in the scenery and when night fell we talked, sang songs (played Antakshri) and fell on to our berths asleep in an instant. I still remember with clarity how on one such excursion to the hills...we were traveling from Uttarkashi to Almora in a Jeep and as the vehicle swerved up the hills, the apple juice I drank an hour back churned inside me (i do not have motion sickness) but was horribly sick that day....but even that did not deter me from staring non-stop at the meandering roads as we passed them and drove ahead. It also prompted me to write an essay on the beauty of the mountains (which was published in the school magazine that year) and remains one of the most heartfelt write-ups i have ever done.

So, we had summer holidays for 2 months and our excursion would use up only 4 to 5 days of that....so what did we do in the rest of the holidays? Unlike kids of today who are sent to summer camps and hobby classes, we literally whiled away most of our time doing nothing except in senior classes when we were required to study for some time every day. (I envy the patience my mother kept in channelizing the energy of 3 kids at home)... Television then was only a sorry picture of what it is today and no one fought over TV channels simply because there were no options to fight over! The whole family congregated to watch a half an hour program two times a week. Some of the kids were packed off to their grandparents' homes for some more freewheeling fun, lots of sleep and loads of yummy food. The others among us kept occupied by reading books borrowed from a library (our parents could not keep pace with our voracious appetite for books). We read, wrote, sketched, colored, studied, played, slept, wrote letters to our friends and relatives and for a good part of the day just dreamed....dreamed of things we knew we could not have, dreamed of things we wanted to do or wanted to become when we grew up- and then for the rest of the day did literally NOTHING! But doing nothing meant we were actually processing thoughts, observing, grasping, learning practical skills round the house, and refreshing our brains.....without any extraneous stimulation unlike children today who need constant stimulation but still end up feeling bored after every few hours! so we use more extraneous measure to keep them stimulated and occupied...till it becomes a vicious never-ending cycle!

In fact when I look around today summer vacations have become even busier and more stressful than school days for parents and children. Parents start planning activities for their kids and the kids do everything except relax in their vacations. They are bundled off to classes as vacations are considered the perfect time to learn new skills and hone existing ones. As in everything, a multitude of choices exist- depending on your child's age and your preference -from karate to piano classes, from art to sports camps, from story-telling sessions to bakery classes...take your pick.

For me there was, is and always will be a beauty in nothingness, the nothingness which has its own soft rhythm, which inspires, which creates, which offers a scope for thoughts to get processed and imagination to take wings....which allows us to be soulful beings in touch with our innermost aspirations and which surprisingly makes us stronger from within, gives us indomitable values.....so we do not get swayed by a random comment later in life! (I hope I can also make my son value this underrated concept of nothingness and let him chose his own balance).

And, even though this is the generation of multi-taskers (the generation Z) and as a mother who is trying to work from home, multi-tasking is something I cannot avoid many a time...I continue to value and cherish the simple life of yesteryears when we did one thing at a time and sometimes did nothing at all! At the risk of sounding technically challenged, I seldom check my mails, texts and post comments on Facebook when I am commuting or when I accompany my child to the playground. I still like to enjoy my cuppa' tea in peace; I like to sit quietly and just listen to nature's myriad sounds; I still get perked up at the thought of a long drive and still romanticize long train journeys and meandering mountain roads....and perhaps always will!