'Tis Nothing Good or Bad....

One nice thing about life is that the stuff that gives us joy and happiness is often found for free. The website ted.org is one such example. In here, many eminent scholars and scientists talk to us about their research and simply give away all their important findings for no cost at all. Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, is an expert on happiness and also a great presenter of new ideas. His book Stumbling on Happiness is a bestseller that deserves a space in every bookshelf. This talk (click on the image to see the entire talk) is really good and his findings are both simple and profound:

• Happiness can be synthesized.
• Synthesized happiness is as good as natural happiness.
• We all suffer from Impact Bias, where we incorrectly ascribe exaggerated amounts of happiness to an imagined future state.
• Accept the things that you cannot change (freedom to choose is the enemy of happiness).
• Having a lot of choices is not conducive to finding happiness.

Enjoy this talk. I am sure you will have a new perspective on happiness after listening to this one.

A View From the Front Porch

There are few things in life that give me more pleasure than sitting on the front porch, sipping a cup of coffee, watching the greenery, listening to birds chirping and hearing the soft sound of rainwater flowing through the downspout. It soothes the soul like nothing else. It is also a great way to start the day.

I fell into the habit in my early childhood when we lived in Ashok Nagar, Chennai. We had a very small house in the P&T quarters -- less than a thousand sq.ft. -- and the garden in the backyard was larger in area than the living space inside the house. We had a functional garden with just a few flowers but lots of vegetables and banana trees. Dad liked to sit on the EZ chair outside and read the Hindu while I sat on the steps to the garden and lazily gazed at the plants and the trees. I just loved the feeling. Life in those days was slow and unhurried, where nobody pushed me to keep moving or get things done. Leisure was an integral part of life. (Imagine that!)

Ideally, I would like to start my day like this every day, but the long commute to work (more than 50 mins.) and the harsh winter in Michigan does not lend itself very well to this indulgence. I have to make the most of this pleasure during the weekends on summer months. Hopefully, when I retire I would live in a house where I will be able to enjoy this all year around. Now, wouldn't that be nice?

Incredible India!

I must confess that I am not a big fan of sending or receiving jokes or funny videos through email, especially if it is sent to my work email ID. However, this popped up in my Inbox when I was in a rather important meeting, and I just could not control my laughter.

Beaches in Michigan

Last week we got to spend nearly four days at Traverse City, MI. We rented a 2- bedroom apartment with a full kitchen on Route 31, right on the shore of Lake Michigan. The beach was just a 5-minute drive from the apartment. It is amazing how beautiful and enjoyable Michigan is during the summer months. It felt like Florida in the winter months, but without the palm trees or the salty sea breeze. Every day I got to spend nearly 3-4 hours on the beach, soaking up the sun and when it got quite hot (over 95 deg.F) I plunged into the lake to cool some. In the evenings we cooked some pasta or rice with dal and stir-fried vegetables and had dinner in the apartment. After dinner, we would go for a spin in the car, get ourselves a cone of ice cream each and find a nice place on the beach to enjoy both the sunset (it was well past 9:00 p.m. when the sun dipped into the lake) and the ice cream. I got hooked to a flavor called roasted almond mocha.

But invariably, at the end of the day, I would be tempted to catch up on the news in CNN. The cable channel played endlessly the street protests in Iran and the ruthlessness of the Basij militia. I couldn't explain the urge to watch the depressing scenes on TV, but I did it almost every night. If only the people in Iran could get to watch the sunset over Lake Michigan and enjoy a nice cone of ice cream, perhaps there would be less violence. But then, revolutions are not made from pursuing simple pleasures, are they?