Keep it Simple!

Hey there! how are you all doing? Hope things are rocking at your end. But before that I have a bag of apologies for you, since I got occupied with college and wasn’t able to write. It’s a phase of transformations; falling, crawling, standing up, walking a bit then again falling, and the cycle repeats (enough of my MBA struggles :p). So in between all this, I tried catching up on certain things I enjoy and this piece of writing starts from there.

I am a big fan of old Hindi movies, and lately, I watched this movie called ‘Bawarchi’ again (15th time I guess; insane I know). No matter how many times I watch it, the feeling is always fresh and believe it or not every time I add a new line to my dairy; it’s like I discover a new facet of the movie. It’s one from my bag of ‘must-watches’.

So, one of the characters in the movie quotes Rabindranath Tagore:

“It’s simple to be happy, but difficult to be simple”

I might have heard those words more than fifteen times before (believe me on this!). But this time these words just stuck with me (and they are still there). Suddenly I paused the movie and started pondering-‘Aren’t those two things complementary’. I had my angels and demons arguing over the same, but unfortunately, they didn’t get to any consensus (There comes my purple glasses to the rescue!).

As living creatures, nature gifts us with a little power to retaliate. All of us try to resist change, but can’t dodge it. Conventionally, change leads to intricacies. But the question is can intricacies ever make you happy? Isn’t it like we all want things to be simple; simpler than two plus two equals four :p or maybe even more(kidding!).

The question remains- Is it that simple to be happy? People might have clashing opinions over that argument. But how can something complex seem happy! Or maybe the quote talks about something in between the extreme opposites of simple and intricate. But then also even if we tend to be happy, how much would that be? Would it be sufficient enough to call that Happy ‘The Real Big Happy’ or ‘The small Happy’ or what! Perplexing, and not at all simple or happy in any way :p

This not so simple thought made me do my research. So, I reached out to some closed ones, read some articles, and yes spent some time with myself (An MBA life seldom gifts you with that one). Honestly, talking to people didn’t do good; don’t want to mention that again, but the rigmarole got even more complex (hahaha…I have used that word 10 times up till now. God, am I obsessed?)

I came across a lot of new things during my research, and one of the things that I understood is that people associate simplicity and ultimately happiness with minimalism. It’s a lifestyle, where people chose to-be less materialistic; instead of looking for happiness in tangibility, they work on some intangible stuff like inner self, feelings and relationships. To me, all of it is like easier said than done. Kudos to all those, who are already there.

For me, it’s like sipping water through a broken straw. Even when I know that no matter how hard I try I need to change the straw or maybe be just throw it away and simply sip in the water. But hey that is how much we love our complexities. No matter how much they break us, we don’t give up. Isn’t it! Aren’t we taught – ‘Keep trying until you succeed!’ I feel one more line that needs to be added here is that - ‘Keep trying until you succeed but try in the right direction, at the right time and with the right set of people and things.’

I understood that people relate simplicity and ultimately happiness with minimalism because it helps you to maintain that balance.

Most of us (which included me :p)feel that simplicity is about giving up on our possessions and likings. But that’s not what it is. While this whole process I understood that Simplicity (or minimalism) is about making the right choices in terms of things and people with whom we chose to live. And when we get them right, quality is what comes into play. Simplicity helps us to maintain that balance so that we become aware, when we overindulge into things or people. That balance is what ultimately leads to happiness.

The changing times have bombarded us with so many things to choose from that we have no idea about the right place to keep them. We have a lot of variety, but is that variety a boom or a bane? Strange! We don’t have sufficient space to keep them all and we need to choose. But variety makes it exhausting; it makes it complex.

Luckily somehow after struggling hard, even if we manage to get on to something or someone, we forget that the other someone or something has his or her variety to choose from, and we might not be a part of it (Oh God this is getting more complex! Hahaha….).

The cause is our attachment to our complexities. We are surrounded by them throughout. It's difficult to leave them or maybe to imagine anything without any element of it. No, I won’t ask you to stop doing that. I know how tedious (and sometimes painful) it is. I would just say- Beware. Just try and be-conscious before making a choice, not in terms of it being simple or complex, but in terms of how it is going to be for you. Believe me, it’s not going to be easy but messy (don’t want to feed you with falsity). You will get confused; you will tear pages and break things (like I do that sometimes :P). Finally, you will land up there.

We all know that before starting anything, we all have an inner voice asking us whether it’s a HELL YES or not. But again, the voice gets suppressed. The loud voices around us make the inner one sound so feeble and over time it become oblivious. The voice is your guardian (tried and tested!). Initially, it will be difficult, but with time, the complexities start to unfold, leading to simplicity and ultimately happiness.

So, let’s stop getting influenced and driven by our need to seek approval of our peers (and avoid complexity) Instead let’s give power to that unique inner voice, pause for some time and listen to what you want. I assure this endeavor will make simplicity simple.