Reflection

Living Tall

April 28, 2020Mumblr Byteschoices, corona musings, Dave Wimbrow, living tall, lockdown, mirror, Poem, poetry, Reflection

The world is locked down. From New York to Madrid. Dubai to Moscow. From Delhi to Brisbane. Everybody is at home. Or at least is supposed to be. There is a real opportunity at living tall if only we look deeper within and farther than what Netflix offers.

Now is a good time to move the mind around while being locked down. We lack the legitimate distractions that provided us routines and structure to our life, like work.

Have you checked out the new sights all around? Some of them are real pretty. Like the blue skies and quiet all around. The rush of flowers that spring brings?

Some other sights are not as arresting. Like what the mirror shows.

For, the mirror shows unkempt selves. The lady who usually touches up the blemish on the bridge of the nose is adhering to the lockdown rules. Result: Unruly hair and the honest wrinkles that are up and about.

Oh, by the way, that special night cream is out of stock. Sorry. It is not an essential product. The idiots in the office insist on video calls. That’s one more worry induced wrinkle.

So, what do we do?

Now that there is less traffic all around, it is a good time to shake the mind a bit and see what all is in there. How about looking into the mirror and see beyond what’s readily visible.

Like the thicket of emotions that were stuffed away last year. Or that lump of guilt swept under the carpet of a busy life. Perhaps the call to say ‘thank you’ to someone. Maybe a text to acknowledge the role that someone one played in your success long back?

You see, in some time, when we crawl out of this house arrest and sniff the air around through our masks, it is going to be a new way of life. The time to tie a few loose ends together is now.

Living tall

Living tall is a function of looking deep within. The lockdown does not stop us from doing that. To look into the mirror and to look beyond unkempt hair and peruse the kerfuffle of memories, hopes, aspirations and emotions kept locked away, is a good idea.

Speaking about living tall and memories, have you read “A Guy In The Glass” by Dave Wimbrow?

It goes like this.

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

Because this is a lockdown and there is no escaping the confines of your house. And because the image the mirror offers to you at first glance has seen better days, the chance to look deep within is now! Perhaps a search for lost loves and forgotten passions are long due. Maybe a set of timeless memories that we haven’t had the chance to relive and relish because, well we didn’t have the time, can be given their due.

With some curiosity, courage and humility, the mirror can get us to start living tall. Try.

Wake-Up Call

May 13, 2019Mumblr Bytesdiscard, gmail, junk, mailbox, Reflection, wake-up call

It was a busy morning and I had a bunch of things to do. Something that I was reminded of as I scrambled out of bed and shut the alarm down. A short while later I read the first message of the day. It was from Google. It said that I had used up all the free space, some 17 GB. If I need to continue receiving email and such else, I have to pay-up (upgrade). Or else!

I was fully awake now. This wake-up call had woken me up.

Over the next few days, I started parsing my inbox and deleting with a methodical frenzy. I said that in one sentence. Those who have trouble discarding stuff that they have accumulated over the years will know the trouble. It’s always painful for me. Gift wrappers, user manuals of gadgets that have long gone out of service, notebooks, clothes and much else pile up, until one fine day they are despatched away for want of space! The accumulation of fat on the hip is a different story.

Back to google. Within the first hour of my effort to clean up my mailbox, it was apparent that there had to be a better way of doing this. I had to make a few rules and play by them.

A few rules.

1. 25 minutes every day

2. Bunch email into a few buckets.

3. Apply filter and delete. (Don’t look too much)

It’s not been easy. I have been like one marauding warrior on a sea of silliness. Even as I cleaned pages and pages of emails, I was awestruck by the magnitude of the mess that my inbox played host to.

One category of news from numerous international, national, regional, local community publications from over the years. Washington Post, New York Times, The Guardian, India Today, Caravan, Vikatan and the like. News that has moved past its point and sitting pretty in the mailbox!

Random newsletters from the optometrist to the car showroom attendant all announcing something new that they wanted me to open up my wallet further. ‘We have opened a new store’. ‘We have something on discount’. ‘It’s been some time, we miss you’, some screamed. Yeah right. DELETE.

The mutual funds and the banks. I think there ought to be a law that they have to pay me for the amount of storage space they occupied in my inbox! Incorrigible.

The delete button must have felt the heat as I deleted emails with more emphasis and emotion, wondering why I hadn’t done so in the past. There were newsletters from Becky, Phil, Mamta, Sapna, XYZ store. I would have identified them and deleted them, only to find that a Mamta was still sitting in my inbox, a short while later. Because she had countless other email IDs!

Mamta@abc.com.

Mamta_123@abc.com.

Mamta@1bc123.com.

Mamta@i4u.abc.com. And so on.

Every airline I have flown, every handkerchief I have bought, every ice cream I have eaten seem to have followed me and sat pretty inside my inbox. And like a scene from a mythological story, they kept morphing their identities that destroying them has been a task. To put it mildly.

Half an hour every day has meant I have managed to cut the obvious flab. I have unsubscribed from 36,798 newsletters! Or so it seems. Most of them, I am sure I didn’t subscribe in the first place. I am reasonably sure I did not sign up to receive a newsletter explaining the virtues of settling down in a community in west Kalyan. Or of a coffee from Kumbakonam.

There was one that announced the virtues of a certificate course on world peace or something akin to that. Again and again.

Vacancies of jobs in random organisations I don’t remember ever knowing existed! The merits of being a tri-athlete. Phew. The list is never-ending. I am still at it.

And about Amazon. I realise they have emails for every move of your finger.

You look for a product – you get an email.
You order a product. You get an email. ( and messages, but let’s stick to email now).
Your order reaches the vendor. You get an email.
Your vendor scratches the glue. You get an email.
Your product is on the way. Your product has turned the corner. Your product is in the building, where are you?
Your product has been delivered.
Can we have feedback?
By the way, because you ordered your product, we think you will like the exact replica of the product and we will send you emails every now and then, about the replica.

And then, we will send you an email so that you start all over again. It doesn’t matter if what you ordered was a pen or a porcupine! Phew!

And if you take a decade of such stuff that sits in your email box, you can imagine the stack. That could easily outspan a huge Amazon warehouse!

Its been some wake-up call. I think it will take a while. And I am more than determined I don’t want to be woken up this way. The other learning that many others have advocated, is this: “Reduce at source”. I have filters in place now. Plus dedicated time to clean up stuff.

The real wake-up call

This entire inbox experience also is a metaphorical stand-in for the accumulation that happens in the mind. Accumulation happens over time. As I wrote in the OWL despatch the other day. It happens whilst we are busy doing other things. The staid interactions. The WhatsApp venom. The ridiculous expectations. And so on. In the digital world, these stay back forever. Coming back to remind and haunt.

To move on requires cleansing of the mind. Often. But better still, is the idea of using strong filters and ‘reducing at source’. I am working on setting up strong filters. Coming up soon are some exits from more WhatsApp groups and social media platforms. Pruning work areas, drawing clear lines on the ground and staying within.

The digital landscape gives a false sense of infinite space, omnipotence, and width. This wake-up call has rekindled the desire for depth and deep work. I wonder if it’s just me. Would you have a story to share?

Ok Google. Can you stand down now please?

Image Courtesy : Pixabay

Coffee and Conversations: Wisdom in Every Sip

May 27, 2018ByteSizeblogger, Blogging, Children, coffee, culture, dad, filtercoffeee, India, instapassport, instatravel, kaapi, kids, lessons, Life, Love, Metaphor, Mumbai, ordinary, Parenting, Play, purpose, Reflection, startup, Stories, traveladdict, travelblogger, traveller, traveltheworld, wanderlust

My dad always said, “Coffee drinkers are better thinkers.” He was a wise man. I’ve never had a reason to doubt him.

These days, “Coffee?” is the answer to everything.

Questions, answers, problems—it doesn’t matter. Coffee solves it all. Especially in Mumbai. The city hums with its energy, fuelled by endless cups.

Maybe it’s the caffeine. Or maybe coffee is just a great excuse to pause, talk, and think.

Either way, I’m not arguing. Coffee?

Travel: More Than Just Seeing

April 8, 2018ByteSizeblogger, Blogging, building, calling, culture, Ideas, instatravel, latergram, lessons, Life, Love, Metaphor, notetomyself, ordinary, Reflection, resist, story, Travel, traveladdict, travelblogger, traveller, traveltheworld, wanderlust

Travel does more than take you places—it puts you face to face with your biases. It forces you to notice what you usually ignore. And suddenly, new possibilities appear.

It’s not about ‘just seeing.’ It’s about feeling, learning, and understanding. When you travel with intent, the world becomes richer. You notice details, connect with people, and see life from another angle.

That’s when travel truly keeps you alive—by opening your mind and reshaping the way you see the world.

There’s Always Something Higher

January 2, 2018ByteSizebetter, Korea, lotte, Musings, Reflection, relative, taller, tower, Travel, traveller, wanderlust

It’s all relative. You feel tall—until you see a taller tower. The Lotte Tower, perhaps. Then, as you marvel at its height, you look around and find one taller still.

Even when you think you’ve reached the pinnacle, the sky stretches above, vast and infinite. It’s a humbling reminder: there’s always something higher, something more.

A professor of industrial engineering once said, “There’s always a better way.” And perhaps, there’s always a better version of you waiting to emerge.

Growth never ends, and the journey to be better is the tallest tower you’ll ever climb.

An Open Window, A World of Calm

December 30, 2017ByteSizebench, blogger, Blogging, Book, Children, Coaching, culture, dad, day, future, Ideas, instapassport, instatravel, lessons, Life, Love, Metaphor, ordinary, Parenting, park, Play, purpose, Reading, Reflection, traveladdict, travelblogger, traveller, traveltheworld, wanderlust, window

An open window behind, a simple bench beckoning you to sit, a loyal plant keeping you company, and soft grass beneath your feet. There’s even a shade nearby, waiting for you to decide if you need it. Above you, the open sky stretches endlessly—a perfect invitation to pause and just be.

Now, imagine tossing in a book, a bottle of water, and a steaming cup of hot coffee. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? There’s just one catch: throw away the watch. This is not a moment for time to meddle.

This little setup isn’t just about comfort; it’s a rebellion. A rebellion against hurried calendars, buzzing phones, and endless to-do lists. It’s a reminder that life isn’t a race; it’s more like an unscripted performance under a limitless sky.

What happens when you sink into that bench? You’ll notice things—the subtle rustle of leaves, the changing hues of the sky, or the way sunlight dances on your coffee cup. Perhaps the book you brought along finally gets the attention it deserves, its pages flipping lazily in the breeze.

And if you’re lucky, you’ll discover the joy of doing absolutely nothing. Yes, nothing! It’s underrated, often mistaken for laziness, but oh, the freedom it holds. No notifications, no deadlines—just you, your thoughts, and maybe that sneaky plant that’s somehow photobombing your serene moment.

The best part? This isn’t a luxury reserved for sprawling gardens or countryside retreats. It could be your balcony, your backyard, or even a park bench nearby. What matters isn’t the setting but the mindset.

So, take the plunge. Open that window, grab your coffee, and let the sky remind you how vast your world really is—if only you’d stop to notice.

A Sense of Play: The Secret to Joy and Creativity

December 25, 2017ByteSizealibaug, Architecture, beach, blogger, Blogging, building, culture, daughterdiaries, Ideas, instapassport, instatravel, lessons, Life, Love, Metaphor, ordinary, purpose, Reflection, roadside, season, story, traveladdict, travelblogger, traveller, traveltheworld, wanderlust

All you need is a sense of play. A little ease. And suddenly, laughter and joy follow.

Play isn’t just for kids. It’s what makes things work—at work, at home, and everywhere in between. Experiment. Try. Run. Jump. Do something silly.

It works. Every single time.

If you need proof, look at kids. They don’t overthink. They don’t worry about failing. They just play. And in that play, they create, explore, and discover—things, and themselves.

What if we could bring just a little of that into our daily lives? A playful mindset might just be the secret to more joy, less stress, and surprising new ideas.

So today, try it. Play. Not for a result, but for the fun of it. Let the laughter find you.

Kids do it all the time. Why shouldn’t we?

(at Alibaug Beach)

Dreams Beyond the Border

September 24, 2017ByteSizeArt, blogger, Blogging, border, culture, divide, future, Ideas, instapassport, instatravel, Korea, latergram, lessons, Life, Love, Metaphor, northkorea, ordinary, paju, People, Reflection, season, seoul, southkorea, story, traveladdict, travelblogger, traveller, traveltheworld, wanderlust

At the border, ribbons flutter in the breeze. Messages of every kind, written in hues of hope.

One catches my eye: “One Korea. One dream.”

Despite the rockets launched or speeches rattled from global podiums, these ribbons remain steadfast, carrying fervent hopes and fragile dreams.

Dreams of a different future. A longing for peace. For harmony.

Thankfully, human hope endures where politics falters.

At Imjingak, the ribbons whisper what the world sometimes forgets.

Pipes

September 19, 2017ByteSizealternatefacts, blogger, Blogging, culture, digital, dress, infoage, instapassport, instatravel, internet, lessons, Life, Love, Metaphor, ordinary, People, Reflection, season, story, tradition, traveladdict, travelblogger, traveller, traveltheworld, wanderlust, waysoftheworld, whatsapp, women

There are pipes that surround other pipes. All carried by wheels. Which have more wheels within wheels than there are wheels!

Big pipes. Silent, sturdy, and taken for granted. They don’t ask for attention, but without them, everything stops. Water, gas, data, ideas—flow matters. And flow needs structure.

Much like leadership. The best ones don’t make noise. They don’t demand applause. They just keep things moving—efficiently, reliably, and often unnoticed.

These pipes feed us with information and ideas about the world. For our own good we better think of which pipes we drink from and what wheels power them!

(at Mumbai, India)

A Pink Bicycle, a Green Canopy, and a Sunday Well Spent

September 17, 2017ByteSizeblogger, Blogging, culture, dad, daughter, dress, family, fashion, girls, instapassport, instatravel, lessons, Life, Love, Metaphor, missus, ordinary, parent, People, Reflection, season, story, Sunday, tradition, traveladdict, travelblogger, traveller, traveltheworld, wanderlust, women

Sunday mornings have a different rhythm. A little slower, a little softer, and undeniably indulgent. The world pauses just long enough to breathe. And today, indulgence takes the form of a pink bicycle, resting under a canopy of green. A simple, striking contrast—bold yet comforting, playful yet serene.

There’s something about pink. It carries the spirit of childhood, the joy of carefree pedaling, the wind rushing past, and the giggles that follow. It reminds us that life doesn’t always have to be about speed. Sometimes, it’s about presence.

Green completes the picture. The colour of renewal, of balance, of quiet strength. It frames the moment, offering a reminder that the world is constantly growing, shifting, and flowing—whether we rush through it or simply sit and take it all in.

And so, this Sunday morning is just that. A blend of pink nostalgia and green calm, a visual pause before the week begins again. A moment to breathe, to absorb, and to be.

How has your Sunday been? Did you find a moment of indulgence before Monday’s gears start turning?

(at Mumbai, India)