YOU
GET OLD ONLY WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE A PROJECT TO DO
As
our reading abilities evolve, so does our choice of literature. After the usual
classics of school years, one ventures and discovers, the other literature,
which to me was Alberto Moravia (Italian, Jewish) and Agnar Mykle (Norwegian).
Australia provided the local literature, Nevile Shute who was a celebrated
Brit-Oz writer and of course I was already interested in understanding what
made Australians, Aussies. I recognized the unique nature of Australian Humour,
and The Outcasts of Foolgarah by Frank Hardy was a favourite. If you ask me
what defines an Aussie, I can flatly claim: An Aussie is a person who has an
Aussie sense of humour.
All
that was gobbled up when I was introduced to the West Indies and its
literature, I fondly remember my good friend Lincoln Myers from Trinidad who
told me about VS Naipaul who was to be a constant companion and eagerly read
each and every book he published, especially his travel books, starting with
India: An area of Darkness. Visits to various Caribbean islands made me want to
read other writers from the region, before plunging headlong into the magical
realism of Latin America.
I
am reading this morning Inner Engineering by Sadhguru.
Here
is something he writes:
Learn
to place your intellect in the sheath of your awareness rather than in the sack
of memory and identification.
That
reminded me of what Naipaul said: you feel old only when you don’t have a
project, something to look forward to.
Whatever
your age, rather than dipping into the memory captured by your experiences or
thoughts, look forward to creating experiences and thoughts. In this way you
invigorate yourself: mind and body
What
projects do I have?
Apart
from planning travels which are always a pleasant task…
A
Diabetes and Wound Clinic in Easter Island helped by my Omaha Indian friends
Disease
Prevention Public Health Education in a village along the Amazon
And
Cuba that unending feast is always an unending project!
