Building blocks of Excellence

Building blocks, looked at in isolation, these small little pieces can look insignificant, but they finally add up to the magnificent whole that is a beautiful skyscraper, a car that with twin silencers, a garden and many many more. Many a kid has longingly looked at a group of blocks and a glossy sheet of paper that shows what the blocks should become into, and wondered if there was a way to quickly put it all together.

The other day I was with my drums instructor asking him to teach me how to do comping (check out the first 22 secs of this video) and he gave me a series of exercises to work upon, all of them nowhere near sounding like what this guy does here, but would eventually add up. Let me tell you, these exercises are real boring, require a lot of patience because they are tough, and take a long time to master. But the idea is that comping can be done ONLY if I master these exercises. So it is a small, boring building block, but one that ensures the larger beautiful picture is painted.

Discipline in such small things is what makes people achieve greatness eventually. There is a constant urge, a push towards the big thing too early, that you see all around in general. What this does is, it leaves the person demotivated as the goal cant be reached without its foundations being proper. You could try day after day, hour after hour, to swim the perfect lap, but unless you spend that considerable amount of time practicing your breathing, it won't happen the way you want it to. You can't write a best-seller straight up, unless you brush up on your writing basics, spend that time tossing sheet after written sheet in the dustbin because you thought you could do lot better.

After years of lifting weights in the gym (some entirely not in the right poses, I think now, in retrospect), my back finally gave way last year. I suffered tremendous discomfort due to the herniated disc for about a fortnight, and then slowly was at least on my feet able to walk. The recovery was agonizingly painful for someone like me who likes to be out of my home playing, cycling, hitting the gym and all of that. I was advised to do one thing at a time, and not to stretch it a lot. Finally now, I am back at the gym and putting in a lot of focus on doing things the right way and not as much on how much weight I lift. But more importantly, I have started doing the one thing I always kept away from - Yoga!

I know that unless I strengthen my back all the effort I put in the gym is going to come to a naught pretty soon as I am sure to get injured. So I take the pains of getting up at 430 am at least once a week  (I should be doing more ideally) and hit the 5 am yoga class. It is tough, my body isn't very flexible, getting up so early is not my cuppa, but I tell myself that unless I do it, I won't achieve my related goals in life.

So figure out those foundation blocks that are unique to the things you want to excel in in your life, and work on them. It is painful, it can be irritating at times, and ironically, might even seem like they are standing in your way of achieving your goal faster as you are spending so much time on these foundation blocks, but every minute spent is only going to take you closer to excellence. 

Of ketchups and sports stores...

One evening, my five-year old son (Siddarth) pointed out to a Ketchup bottle and told me proudly that he and paati (grandmother) bought it at a store that day. In a burst of fatherly inspiration (the kinds that helps us folk get away fairly unscathed despite having kids), I asked...

'Do you know that Israel has banned tomato ketchups?'

He gave me a puzzled look that said 'why the hell would anyone do THAT?' but lack of vocabulary made him shorten it to a simple 'Why??'

'Cos it does not have tomatoes'.

'But it has tomatoes dad. It is TOMATO ketchup.'

'I know, son. But they feel it has more chemicals than tomatoes.'

'Oh!'

A pause. I went on setting the dinner table.

'But India has not banned it. Why?'

'Because, the Indian government feels that many kids here want tomato ketchup and so they would not be able to ban it here.'

'Really?'

'Yes, so if kids keep asking their parents for tomato ketchup everytime they go to a store, then it would never be banned and all kids in India would grow up eating chemicals.'

'Dad, we should also stop?'

'That is up to you Sid. I wont interfere. If you want to stop, you should tell mom.'

'I am going to tell Mom to stop buying it.'

'That is going to help a lot, Sid. Then slowly other kids will also want to stop, so if the government sees that tomato ketchups don't go away from the shelves at all then they are going to want to stop the wastage, and hence stop production.'

Then he realized what he had signed up for. So he quickly asked 'What about that other ketchup that doesn't come in a bottle but is in a pack instead?'

I knew he didn't want to give up on ketchup.

'You could get ketchup from Nisarga (a local organic store) instead.'

'Nisarga? Why?'

'Cos chemicals would not be much in those ketchups and it might just be real tomatoes.'

'Oh yes! I am going to tell mom to buy only from Nisarga'

Cut to an hour later, when Niel (his mom) walks in from work.

'Mom, come here, come here.' He drags her to the ketchup bottle and says, 'Don't buy this from now on. It has chemicals.'

Niel gives him and me a puzzled look and says 'ok....?'

'Let us buy it from...' he pauses. 'Decathlon!' he says emphatically. Decathlon is a popular sports store.

Niel goes 'Are you sure? Decathlon doesn't sell ketchups.'

'It does mom, dad told me just now.'

Niel looked at me and all I could do was roll my eyes.

Yet another interesting chapter in the book of parenthood!