Category Archives: life
And All I Did Was Type
I watch my colleague as he uses two fingers to painstakingly type and send out an email. It wasn’t a long message but it took him awhile to complete it on his laptop. I almost pulled the keyboard from him so I could do it myself but I held onto my patience.
I could so easily have been just like him. Instead, I have strong keyboarding skills that I learned a long, long, long time ago. Little did I know how much I would come to value them!
I had just finished my tenth grade of high school and my life was about to hurtle out of control.
Starting college – technically “Pre-University” to complete my 11th and 12th grades before starting on my degree, and then finding myself engaged to get married to some stranger in a country and continent far, far away. It was all too much!
I had a few months before I would be whisked away so I decided to quit my pre-university and go spend time living with my parents in the small town which they called home. I figured that I could always go to school later on in life but that that special time with my mom and dad would never come back again. Not sure where I got this wisdom but I never regretted that decision!
As the days passed, I found myself restless and had to something with all my free time. So my dad suggested that I spend a couple of hours each day to learn how to type. Maybe he thought I could be a secretary when I grew up? Whatever it was (serendipity?), I decided I would do it just to so I had something productive to do for part of the time.
What a lucky move that was!
In a small, dingy room no more than 10 X 10 feet were about five typewriters. Every morning for those few months, I would go and learn from this old man – a retired professor as it turned out, who was determined to teach me how to be a fine typist. I had to learn how the keyboard was organized, how my fingers should be positioned on the keys and practice, practice, practice. Then, practice some more.
By the time I was done, I was one fine typist indeed. But I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do with this skill. Soon enough (too soon!), it was time to get married and leave India for the US so there was really not much time to contemplate any of this anyway.
Little did I know that it was a skill I would use during every single day of my career. How much time have I saved all these years? I can guarantee it adds up to a large amount given how much written (typed!) communication there has been over the years. I can look back now and see that it was one smart move, unnoticed at that time. It turned out to be more worthwhile than whatever I would have learned in college for those few months.
No two-finger typing for me, oh no. No looking at the keyboard while I type. Just as I think about what I want to write, my fingers begin typing effortlessly. Such a basic skill, yet such massive dividends it has paid! There were no real goals, no big plans, just another small, accidental gift on my life’s journey.
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Hello Again!
Every once in a while it pays to visit New York city.
It doesn’t really matter where you’re from or where you live. Even a short touch-down makes an impact. But it has to be in “the city“, not one of the friendly, neighborhood boroughs (meh).
Either you will shake your head at the insanity of it all and want to head home as quickly as possible because you can’t take the heat (even in winter).
Or like me, you will breathe it in deeply to embrace and absorb that frenetic pace and energy. Hoping that it will sustain you for some time, even once you leave and head back into the more calm and collected auras that the rest of the world seems to desire.
Really, all it takes is a couple of days. It feels like a massive wave of energy is sweeping through you and over you – one that is peppered with jolting sparks – probably like the effects of a performance enhancing drug (that’s just my imagination speaking, ya’ll!).
They don’t call it the big apple, the best-est and the baddest with the most-est, for nothing.
Two days is all it took for me. I’m still feeling that jolt – no doubt it will level off as I adapt back into tamer surroundings (i.e. anywhere else in the world).
Oh okay, let me just say it, I ♥ NY.
If you ever felt like you needed some shaking and some stirring in your life, don’t wait, just head for the city. It’s go,go,go,go…where people only know how to move fast, think fast, act fast.
Has anyone ever seen an ambling pedestrian on the streets of Manhattan? I rest my case.
All you have to do is be there and simply let the whirlwind swirl around you and lift you up.
P.S. If you are from anywhere else in the country, be prepared for New Yawkers to look at you like you are a totally foreign being. And, god forbid, if you are from south of the Mason-Dixon line, you may as well be an alien from outer space.
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P.S. Again – Check out this amazing time lapse short video that I happened upon. This stunning video captures the essence and energy of NYC like no other. Just click on the picture below to watch. And love.
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The Yin and Yang of Life Anywhere 