Skip to main content

Practice means Freedom!

Photo by Flickr user lrargerich 
I am sure all of us are taught the virtues of practice in Childhood - most often "Practice Makes a man perfect" or familiar Kabir's doha:

करत करत अभ्यास के, जड़मति होत सुजान  
रसरी आवत जात ते, सिल पर पड़त निसान

We are taught to rote the mathematical multiplication tables or to mug up nursery rhymes ... the list is endless. And we all HATE IT! Even as we grow up we start disdaining and condemning the method of rote which is perpetuated across the educational system.

However, secretly we all know that we benefit somewhere from some of the rote we did. When you secretly calculate the percentage of your increment or the approximate EMI required to fund the next investment we remember our math tables.

Yesterday, as I was watching Mtv Unplugged, I realized one more advantage of practicing any activity or art. As I watched the guitarist or the tabla player play their instrument so effortlessly and then experiment with it during the event - I realized that had they not been so adept at playing the instrument, they would never have been in a position to experiment.

To detail it out, when we start learning any activity or art. the conscious mind is occupied with 'learning' the nuances of the regular stuff that goes into it. But with practice, most nuances simply seep into the subconscious leaving the conscious mind free for noticing the matters which separate excellence from the average.

For example, for a kid learning cricket he needs to pay attention to the way he holds his bat, placement of the bat and the foot etc. However, as we start practicing, these nuances seep into his subconscious - a professional cricket player need not bother to think if his bat is placed at the correct angle, at the correct distance from his foot and the wicket etc. All this, as we say, comes naturally to him in his "style". So now s/he can concentrate on where the fielders are, where to play the next shot to score a boundary etc.

Similarly, as a student of computer programming, you often start with experimenting how a for-loop or if-then-else ladder works; you play with it, experiment its nuances. Once you've learnt the ropes, you can concentrate on problem solving - analyzing the business logic which comes to you and think what are the most effective programming tools available to you to address the logic.

This is true of all fields - as we practice the mind becomes oblivious to the granular details of the art/activity giving us the freedom to use this "practiced" mind for higher goals. In essence, practice makes you perfect - but more importantly grants you the freedom to achieve the higher things in life than the mundane stuff that you were made to practice. This I think, it the biggest virtue of practicing - freedom!
.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How will travel industry transform post-Covid

Unlike philosophers, journalists and teenagers, the world of entrepreneurship does not permit the luxury of gazing into a crystal ball to predict the future. An entrepreneur’s world is instead made of MVPs (Minimum Viable Product), A/B Tests, launching products, features or services and gauging / measuring their reception in the market to arrive at verifiable truths which can drive the business forward. Which is why I have never written about my musings or hypothesis about travel industry – we usually either seek customer feedback or launch an MVPised version and gather market feedback. However, with Covid-19 travel bans across the globe, the industry is currently stuck – while a lot of industry reports and journalistic conjectures are out, there’s no definitive answer to the way forward. Besides there is no way to test your hypothesis since even the traveller does not know what they will do when skies open. So, I decided to don my blogger hat and take the luxury of crystal gazing

A Guide to Privacy on Social Media [apps]

The recent announcement by WhatsApp to update its privacy terms - and 'accept or leave the app' stance - led to an exodus of users from Whastapp to competing, privacy-conscious apps such as Telegram or Signal. A week after the exodus began, Whatsapp clarified its stance - and WhatsApp's CEO went about providing a long Twitter clarification . And then, many returned, many who considered moving stayed put on Whatsapp. This post is meant for those who are still sitting on the fence - it clarifies questions like: What is this all about? What do I do? Is Whatsapp safe? I've heard Telegram is Russian - so how is it safer than Whatsapp? I can't move because my business contacts are on Whastapp - how do I secure myself? PS: I've modeled this post based on several conversations I've had with friends and family on this subject, dealing with the chain of questions they ask, then objections they raise, then clarifications they seek - and finally the change resistance

Ekla Chalo re

Watched "Bose- The forgotten Hero" on Saturday. Gem of a movie and probably the best of Shyam Benegal. Subhash Chandra Bose has always been an inspiring character in the history for the youth. This post however is not about the movie, its about the lead song 'Tanha Rahee' which is based on the poem 'Ekla Chalo Re' by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. I had pasted the English translation of this poem on my blog earlier. http://the-complete-man.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-times_30.html However, yesterday I found the original bengali text of the poem and found that the meaning in the above translation was not exact. So I have endeavourer (with the help of Shubham ) to re-translate it into English and Hindi by myself. Here is the output of my work: Bengali Jodi Tor Dak Soone Keu Na Asse Tobe Ekla Chalo re Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalo Ekla Chalore Jodi Keu Katha Na Kai Ore Ore O Abhaga Jodi Sabai Thake Mukh Firae Sabai Kare Bhay Tabe Paran Khule O Tui Mukh Fute Tor Maner Kath