Two Days In The Lives Of...

...us all.

Daddy turned 85 on the 21st and today, Mummy and Daddy had their Diamond Jubilee - sixty years of togetherness. We took a conscious decision to postpone the large-scale celebrations for a bit, when a few more family members can gather. Maybe we will await Siddharth's return later this year. I wonder if Chachaji is getting encouraged to make a plan too!

Here are a few snaps, taken on those two days - of a visit to the Mansa Devi temple, a tea-party complete with cakes and some photo-sessions. There is also a priceless reminder of the day in 1952.

 Has a great deal changed in 60 year? I don't know. But, as you would notice from the pictures of 1952 and 2012, when it all began, she stood on his left a s a junior partner. Somewhere down the line, the roles quietly reversed.

 These pictures were taken at the nearby Mansa Devi temple.

 Everyone in the family called to wish. Here is Sid Bali using his charms on a long-distance Google assisted video call. Others in the picture are his Dada, Dadi and Nana.

 This photograph is sponsored by Mummy (she gifted the shirt he is wearing).

 Is anything ever complete without a 10,000 calorie cake laden with enough sugar to sweeten a mid-sized lake?

Punam bhuaji, Vijay uncle and the young Arnav joined us.

On Being Successful

Philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written:

A trivial and potent heuristic to figure out success: 

a) you are absolutely successful if and only if you don't envy anyone; 

b) quite successful if those you envy you don't know in person; 

c) miserably unsuccessful if those you envy you encounter or think about daily.

Absolute success is mostly found among ascetic persons.

I agree. Weighed under the burdens of ego one compulsively compares and contrasts oneself with others, thus evoking feelings of envy and inferiority. But if one is largely bereft of such ego, envy of others' possessions or success naturally does not occur. One simply goes about life's business living in the Now and focussing on the work at hand. That is the only route to fit Talib's category of being 'absolutely successful'. 

The inhabitants of the other two categories have success and misery in direct proportion to the degree of influence of ego in their daily lives.

Simple. Profound.