Super Chor!

Johnny Walker walkin walkin,

Old Monk is talkin talkin,

Get your blackboard chalkin chalkin

You're talkin, you're walkin.

I just love that part in this song called "Superchor" from Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye... The "rap" bits in that song are just so funny... "Ghar vich click click khel'da compootar"

Which basically means "staying home playing computer games" -- but see how dull it sounds in English!! The guy makes it sound so much cooler (and funnier) in Punjabi.

I spent a few months being a regular at my gym... I have this playlist on my MP3 player titled "Bhaag Sushi, Bhaag" - which is an Indian take on "Run Forest, Run". Superchor is one of the tracks on that list, and one of my favourites actually. 

It was all good, I was quite dedicated for a few months, and then I quit...

Technically, none of us are "gym-regulars". We all quit at some point in time, right? And then we get back to it. Then quit again. A gym-regular would be someone who stuck to it from the first day s/he started, right? I mean, that is a routine, you stick to it. Like the Australian Postal service -- no matter rain or storm, we will deliver. 

Or we could turn this around. We never 'quit' since we always come back to it?

But I can't keep up with it I think. I am putting on a bit of weight I guess -- see, now that idea itself makes me want to just go and run at the gym right now. That's the problem... 'targets'...

I have been playing indoor football/soccer (Americans and English can both be happy) on Fridays in this 'social sports league'. And I prefer that - I prefer the team sports workout I think. Why? Targets! You have an objective, a sense of purpose. You want to score a goal, make an assist, win - win - win! 

Like the Dean of my college used to say when playing doubles badminton, asking his partner to 'smash' it - "Kill! Kill!!" 

If I am running on a treadmill or even out in nature, I don't seem to have a big target I guess... I mean, sure, 'lose 2 kilos' or something if you want... but, it's not like a visible immediate target. I think that's the problem. No sense of purpose in it...

But all the Buddhas would laugh at me. They'd laugh at the fact that I am so stuck up in my mind of targets and goals and purpose that I apply to a simple a thing as running...

That's why I have always seen running and swimming as very spiritual workouts. It has great potential -- I guess, only if one knew how to tap into it. See, sometimes I just run because I can't help it. I will be walking to the bus-stop -- and I have lots of time left... but suddenly I'll start running. Might be listening to some song and walking just doesn't do it for me anymore. So run. And I am very conscious about how weird it looks that a young man, dressed in smart casuals, going to give a lecture, is running...? 

So I have to make it look like I am running to catch my bus...? I have to make it look like there is some purpose behind my running...

How stupid is that? 

And I see the stupidity of it. But my mind is so caught up in an 'external view' of my being. We have all been raised based on external views -- not internal insights. Every concept of 'self-esteem' and Maslow's hierarchy and Deepak Chopra's self-empowerment and all that jazz, it derives from the opinions and perceptions of others. Self-esteem has nothing to do with how you feel about yourself. It's about how you see other people see you, and accordingly feel about yourself... Or, it's about how other people say you should feel about yourself...

"Look at all that you have achieved man -- you should feel great about yourself!"

"Yeah, you are right, I have achieved a lot. Thanks!"

But what's the point, yeah? If you buy what I am saying here, you are basically believing in someone else's definition of how you should feel about yourself... See the trap?

Oh the tragedy of this life... The loop of stupidity...

That's why, we never really 'quit' see -- it always loops back in...