Q and A for 371 to 379 — Quotidian — 380

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(Transcript of video originally posted 18 Mar 2022)

Namaste!

Three hundred and eighty! Once again, an opportunity to look back, questions, opinions, complaints, … accusations! Let us see!

I was unwell.. I have missed the videos you had sent me.. I will ensure I watch them regularly from now on.. said a friend. This is just a sample of some of the unexpected love that our viewers are showing me. Almost like a family member, almost like a big brother, or a friend, it is truly heartening, when I read the messages they send me.

Another person hit me with this! This gap.. seems to have become a bit too long. It would be much better if you did this a bit more frequently… And, guess who this was? The same person, who, not too long ago, said, “You are sending it daily! And, I am not able to handle the load!” Same person! I don’t know what to do! Seriously!

Another friend wrote to me and said, “This is more manageable. Your original schedule was a bit unfair on those who joined in a bit late. But now, thanks to you, I am able to catch up.” So, yes, it is a push and pull between consistency, regularity and accommodating the distracted world we live in. “There is too much stuff out there, I can’t handle you daily!” says a group, on one side. And, another group, on the other side, demanding that I give them more! There is a good dynamic tension, if you know what I mean.

One person complained about the Mother Teresa pose that I had used in one of my thumbnails. “I personally feel it’s wrong, do you really know who she was?” — and he went on to bring a political / religious touch to the conversation. Please get this. There is no connection or correlation whatsoever between this Quotidian series and those concepts. At all. So, you need not be concerned or worried that I will talk politics or religion. I don’t know much about it. I am not interested in that. If that’s what you are here for, you are in the wrong place.

Here is another comment. “In Quotidian 370, you had talked about a productivity trick, and I have been waiting since then, but you haven’t announced it, why…!” they wanted to know. I think it was Mahatma Gandhi, they used to tell this story about him. There was this little boy who ate a lot of sweets. His Mom brings the kid over to the Mahatma and asks him to give the boy some good advice. But, Gandhiji asks the Mom to bring the kid over after fifteen days. And, promptly, after fifteen days, when the child is brought again, he advises the boy with a simple and short “Dear Child, Do not binge on sweets!” The mother asks him respectfully, “Why couldn’t you tell this on that day? Why did you make me wait fifteen days?” To which, the Mahatma is supposed to have responded: “The advice is easy to give. But, the implementation… To follow that advice is hard. Am I able to follow my own advice? I am struggling with it myself… I wanted to test it out myself first.” Exactly the same sentiment here. I am testing it out. I hit upon something very interesting. But before I share it with you, I am testing it out. Closed beta phase, you could call it.

Davos wrote to me and commented about my dress. “What’s up with your dress, something fell on it? Is there a story behind it? It looks a bit sweaty..!” Yes, I am shooting it in a place where there is no good air-conditioning. And summer is approaching, you see… You may be in Davos, .. lucky you!

Rohith Kumar asked me — “How can I become like you… book reading? Or meditation? Or what should I do sir?” First of all, I am not some bigshot who deserves being asked questions like “How should I become like you”… Secondly, if you would allow me to use your own words and play around a bit… it is not “book reading” OR “meditation”.. Look at it as “meditating about the books you read”. I will repeat. Rather than read ten different books on a specific subject, read one book on that subject TEN TIMES. Recently, I read a book where I chanced upon this beautiful, interesting, advice. Because, every time you read that book, something more will sink in, and, a new dimension, a new perspective, you may hit upon. Rather than browse around in a desultory, superficial fashion, probably it is better to dwell deep and analyse well.

Rajavelu told me about this thumbnail, and said he couldn’t understand this thumbnail. Looks like there is a knife through your heart, there is a lot of bleeding… I understood the video, once I watched it, but the thumbnail, I couldn’t grasp it… he said. Oh, one little bit about these thumbnails, my dear Rajavelu. I just try to pick something in the video, something that I have spoken, something that I have shown, and picturise it in an interesting manner. That’s all. A little creative liberty there. So, if you look at this video, for example, there is this story of a guy who has a chip embedded near his heart, and that chip contains a code… And that was the reason for this thumbnail.

Shine and Glow — the poet or poetess that that person is, shared with me something really interesting about beauty. She referred to the natural fact of the watermelon not hanging down from up in a tree as something truly beautiful! Very interesting!

Blender Forever helped us all by saying, “Oh, here are the upcoming numbers and the corresponding dates.” Q375–8th February, Q376, Q377, and so on. That’s when I realised that probably some of you missed what the whole game was about. Why is it seemingly random? When will the next Quotidian be released? Is it not happening everyday like in 2021? Answers to such questions can be had if you watch Quotidian — 369. I had explained it quite extensively there. I have explained there about when we are meeting next. And you will understand that it is revolving around the concept of Pi. That 22/7… Or the irrational 3.1415… The dates come based on that special sequence in the value of Pi. So, you will learn that the next meeting would be on the 21st of March, and the one after that on the 23rd of March.

Sumitra asked me — I am still searching for a leader.. I have seen many BOSSes. But, I am still looking for that leader. I want to turn that question back at her. I want to ask her — Have you been a good follower? You keep asking for a leader.. But, have you been a good follower first? I think it was Vivekananda, Swami Vivekananda… who said: “He who wants to lead or command, must know how to obey”. I am thinking of publishing a Quotidian about this very topic. What are the qualities that represent that ideal second-in-command, that ideal person who serves a leader, that ideal follower, let’s see..

Arunkumar Jothilal said: “I went around googling for it, and that’s when I learned much. I looked at the etymology for the word and noticed that the original meaning comes from Old English.” Yes! This is an amazing habit that you’ve got going there. It is a great hobby. Very interesting stuff… When you look deeper into inscrutable matters, inner meanings, and original etymology, it will suddenly plop on your lap unexpectedly! Also, one more thing you can try is “The same word, what was in French, what was in Spanish”. That would be very interesting too. Try it!

We saw that Need For Speed. Should we go fast? Or… should we go slow? And that’s when this happened. We were trying to login to Facebook. And, Facebook showed us this beautiful prompt. It talked about how your account could be secured, introduced a few steps, and had a progress bar that slowly went, “Checking your app passwords”. Don’t we know about how powerful the Facebook servers are? Don’t I know that there are not too many App passwords to be checked? But, if it rushes too fast, we wouldn’t know what Facebook is doing..! And, if it does it very fast, we will wonder did it even do it at all?! For THAT reason, consciously, artificially, on purpose, it runs a slow progress bar, “See? I am checking your passwords carefully, do you get that?” it seems to say. That was really really beautiful!

A friend pointed out to me about that guy from Silicon Valley.. The guy who squats in front of his manager, “Hmm, give me the stuff I asked you for!”. He referred to this persistent character in the Raja Harishchandra story, by name Nakshatreyan, and wondered if he was the same kind of guy. Yes. Correct! It is Nakshatreyan!

He also told me that the number of Shlokas that Lord Ganesha struggled to understand the meaning of… Seems there is an exact count of that — 8192! Those were the number of shlokas that were unusually hard so that Vyasa had time to cook up the next one. Smart!

Surya Krishna wrote a long note to me. Please find the time to read it at leisure. But, it was basically about “Many people have said many things about your Quotidians! But, I would like to tell you about your thumbnails. They are really interesting. Thanks a lot.” And he continued, “This video had a thumbnail. A shaved head sprouted a hair style! You had a beautiful girl to pose along with you too!” That was when I realised that probably you are all too young, or probably I am too old, and I am referring to a very old movie.. In fact, the first movie featuring John Travolta. Called Grease. Perhaps it was this movie, Grease, that was one of the first teenage love movies that became such a roaring hit on the big screen. Watch it if you get the time. An interesting movie with a lot of good songs. And, it was from this movie that I picked up the idea for the thumbnail. Why? Well.. Grease. That means Frictionless. I hope you get the connection.

Varadarasan appreciated me for the concept of the Desire Path. And, he brought in a deeply philosophical analogy from family life. He quipped that it was applicable even at home where the wife and the mother-in-law can actually work it out if only there was an accommodation of the Desire Path. I thought about it a bit more. Such an interesting thought. Let us take it further. And that was when it occurred to me — If we were to implement the Desire Path at home soon after the wedding, we should pack off the mother-in-law and the father-in-law, or rather the boy’s parents on a honeymoon. Please leave the house. By the time you are back, the house would have a Desire Path. Of this girl who had just come in. And that is how things should be, if you want marital bliss. Think about it!

Vignesh Shankar told me — Now I get what passion really means. You launched one video every day consistently, now I understand. You have a commitment. You want to pass it on. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. But.. There was one more revelation that I had. This thing they repeat often “Do it with passion”,

“Do it with passion”… many people have given many definitions over the years, to this Passion-word. I got one. One could even say I learned it the hard way. And, this is MY definition for passion. And it goes like this.

It says, “It is the ability to be at it, even when you are not good at it, yet!”
Even if you are not an expert at it, even when you are still learning the ropes, the feeling that you will get it some day, that you will become an expert at it some day, and I have the stamina and willpower to pull through till that day, probably that is passion! Probably that is the pain, suffering, struggle, the Jesus Christ reference that we saw earlier? To be at it even when you are not good at it yet! That perhaps is passion!

One friend commented to me that this word ‘Mentor’ — I didn’t know that it was really about a person… Thanks a lot, that’s so useful, he said! I am gonna burst his bubble a wee bit, I am sorry.

Because, the information I gave you was not “complete”. I had told you the story of Telemachus, the son of Ulysses, and this person called Mentor, this old man was assigned to take care of the boy and the story went well, or so we thought. Sorry, the story DIDN’T go well! That old man was a drunkard, he wasted time, slept all day, Telemachus suffered without a mentor! And, that’s when one of the favorite Gods in Greek Mythology, favorite Gods of Ulysses, the Goddess of Learning, Literature, Arts, Warfare, a direct daughter of Zeus himself, Athena by name, she, one of the skills she had was the ability to shape-shift. She became the old man, Mentor, and mentored Telemachus! So, all the women out there! You can be truly proud and happy that the first ever mentor was a woman! In fact, if you roll back in time, I talked about this on International Women’s Day, Happy International Women’s Day!

Thanks then! We are at the end of 380! In the next episode, 381, we will talk about those good qualities that a subordinate should possess to do great things with an amazing leader! Thank you!

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Rajendran Dandapani
​Quotidians From Rajendran Dandapani​

Business Solutions Evangelist at Zoho Corp. President at The Zoho Schools Of Learning.