Is Descent Inevitable after Ascent – Strategy to Stay on Top for Long

Newport in Rhode Island is a beautiful place. Situated by the Atlantic Ocean it offers visitors with frames for perfect pictures. It also houses some stunning mansions.  I had never heard of Newport before, but was the recipient of the large heartedness of Issac Simon, my brother-in-law who not only suggested the trip but even offered to take us on the eighty-five  mile drive to the mansion town. The drive, one of the many such, he graciously hosted so far, was beautiful from the word go with the fall painting the entire route with colours, I had seen never before.

With tickets in hand, we actually walked into a piece of American history. Ahead of its times, each room stood out well appointed carefully planned and exquisitely executed. In fact, everything about the mansion was bathed in audacious opulence and grandeur, all funded by slices from the immense riches the individual had amassed over his lifetime. We spent almost three hours within, what was once, someone’s summer house, admiring each inch of space and every piece on display. To top it all, the Atlantic Ocean right outside the mansion premises gave it a touch of magic. I walked out of the mansion in awe of the owners and headed for the blue expanse of Atlantic ocean.

The wind was picking up and I started feeling cold even through the bright sun. As I gathered my jacket closer, and turned around to look at the grand mansion, a sudden thought occurred to me;  how are their descendants living now? Are they still rich and living like their ancestors ?

One of the first things I did, on my return, was to search for details. I was surprised to find that the wealth they had once amassed, barring few patches of comfort, had all but been either diluted or  squandered away. What a tragedy! What about other rich families of the yore?

I searched for other known rich families across the world. The story wasn’t much different. Almost all of them had their wealth either completely wiped out or they were just pale shadows of their glorious past. It  then occurred to me that it was not just rich families! Great empires, kingdoms and  organisations were no different!

Is descent then the inevitable next, after the ascent?

I recall my elders talking of the four-stage cycle of ‘rags, riches and back'. Depending on the diligence exercised by individuals in the family or those in control, the cycle may gather or lose momentum. However, the cycle, according to the elders, is inevitable. 

Starting from abject poverty, the poor (‘Daridran', in my native language Malayalam) spends his life in misery. His children having seen, experienced and driven by poverty dream of better life.  They, with fire in their bellies, strive with all their might to change their state of existence. They essentially live out their life in hard-work accumulating wealth slowly. They are mostly misers (‘Lubdhan’) and seldom spend anything on themselves.

Having seen what the parents have gone through and inheriting the seed capital and better footing, a lubdhan's  children continue to work hard and soon become rich (Dhanikan). Born into affluence and plenty, children of the dhanikan have no clue of the hard ways the family had come through and therefore have no qualms about splurging and squandering their inheritance. This is the generation of the prodigals (Dhoorthan). 

With floodgates open, wealth flows out of family vaults and soon they fall on hard times completing the cycle. Children of the Dhoorthan inherit empty vaults and debts and soon are divested of anything that is left over. They soon become Daridrans! The cycle is completed.

Despite this universal truth being known by everyone, the cycle continues to play out, day in  and day out across the world. Each stage, however,  could accommodate more than one generation depending on diligence applied.

The same principle applies to emperors, kings and family run institutions. We have learnt of ancient civilizations and their magnificent existence. What happened to them? Why did they vanish? Did this cycle-rule apply to them too?

A close look at our self, our family or even the organization that we work for could reveal the stage we are at in the cycle. It would then be natural to ask; can we  prevent the downward arm of the cycle from befalling upon us and our family?

To my mind, it all depends on how much of our hunger for growth we can pass on to our next generation and how much we have insulated them from realities of life. In the garb of making things easy for our progenies, we tend to insulate them from the rough and tough of life and end up making them unfit and inadequate to face challenges of life. We end up extinguishing the fire within their bellies rather than fuelling  it. Our misplaced love end up depriving them of opportunities to attempt, fail, learn and then relaunch themselves. In other words the current generation has a strong influence in what the next is up to.

Most of us, irrespective of where we are in the cycle, believe that we have come up the hard way. We tend to exaggerate our sufferings and discount what we got. Many believe that it is their divine duty to provide their progenies with whatever they were denied or couldn’t afford.  In the process they create the next generation that, might or might not, have an idea of the cost or price of their possessions but they certainly have no clue about its value. Even those in the splurge mode do find ways to lament their lack of avenues and resources.

It is for us to decide weather to accelerate the growth phase or let a freefall occur. But first let us check where we are? That calls for real introspection.

 

Cherry Picking in an Apple Orchard

English is a very interesting language. There are words with letters in it that don’t make themselves heard. They just add length and complexities but without them the word itself is misspelt. Then there are words, that individually meaning something, but collectively with other words say a lot different. They call it idioms.

To a large extent even life is like that; interesting from many perspectives. There are many people around us, easily visible but insignificant to our existence. Their presence adds to complexities to our lives yet they remain unavoidable. Without them around, we would not have become the individuals that we have become and in the journey ahead what we will be. Similarly there are people who  individually may behave in one manner and in groups they could surprisingly be different, good bad or ugly, just like idioms.

‘Cherry picking'  literally  and literarrily are different; so is ‘apple picking’. Cherry picking literally means picking cherries and literarrily; it means one’s act of choosing from amongst many available options. Apple picking, on the other hand literally means plucking (picking) apples from the tree and as one of the newly coined idioms, refers to theft of ‘Apple’ devices mostly by snatching.

Recently, I went apple picking, literally of course.

Apple picking is an annual ritual that many farms organise in the USA. They allow visitors to pick as many apples as they can and carry it home; naturally on payment. The amount payable is not calculated based on the number or weight of apples picked, but on the number of people in the group plucking apples and the bag they ‘have to' choose. More the number of people in the group, bigger the bag that has to be bought; and more apples that can be carried home.

People, come for apple picking tours, essentially not for getting apples cheaper than the market but to experience the walk through the apple orchard and plucking apples of their choice right from the trees with their very own hands. The bag is more, a means to carry memories home than apples. We too went for the experience.

At the farm, there were counters that sold tickets and bags. We stood in the queue and when our turn came, paid the amount, got our family bag and reached the orchard. There was a person who told us how apples should be picked and also showed us the different varieties of apples that could be plucked that day. I was more keen on practice and less inclined to be preached to! Without wasting any time, I wanted to be there  in the orchard, picking.

Once inside, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Rows after rows and rows after rows of apple trees stood fully laden with apples ready to be picked.  Apples of various shades of red, bright golden yellow and lavish green; apples and apples, I had never seen so many different types of apples together. I stood overwhelmed by the sheer numbers.  

It's then I noticed that there were many apples lying on the floor, many of them with clear signs of having been bitten off. Since visitors are allowed to taste and eat as many as they can, I saw people picking tasting and dropping. Possibly one need not eat the whole apple to taste it! What a colossal waste? I said to myself.

Having paid a tidy sum at the counter, my mind focused on making the best out of my investment. Walking around the orchard and feasting with my eyes was the experience that I had come for, but with the bag in hand, the money having been paid, the aim somehow seemed to have silently meandered off from its original course. I became focused on filling my bag with the best possible apples in the world.

The weather was beautiful, bright and sunny. The cold wasn’t biting any more. I had two choices.  I could walk through the entire orchard once to decide on what I should pick or without wasting time, I  could start plucking from where I stood, proceed gradually picking one or two from each variety eventually filling my bag by the end of the walk. The very conscientious person, I often think I am, I decided to start picking from where I stood. I was determined to pick just about one or two from each variety, cover the entire garden and then if need be, get back to filling the bag. Fair deal or so I thought!

The story actually starts here at this point. It is here that apple picking turned cherry picking!

The first tree was very easy, just two apples picked, one to taste and eat. Every tree looked inviting and each apple tempting. But then with so many trees to choose from and each tree with so many apples to select from, it was cherry picking at its best or worst! With few varieties still unvisited, our bag became full. Unlike many who dumped, what was already picked,  here and there, only to resume plucking more,  we, conscious of wastage, decided to stop. There were a few who had stuffed their bags with apples but soon either apples spilled out rolling all over or their bags gave way. Either way, they couldn’t carry what they intended to.  Since walking around with a heavy bag of apples was the last thing we wanted to do, we left the orchard.

Wanting to know more about the tradition of apple picking, I came back home and looked up for details. As I read through various texts,  words of the person who told us how to go about apple picking became clearer, louder and more meaningful. “Redder the sweeter” and “farther from the trunk riper the fruit”, he had said. “Shake the tree while plucking and spoil the yield next year” he cautioned us. “Don’t hold the apple with the thumb and fingers and press the fruit to see if it’s ripe but cup it in the palm and feel if it’s firm. Give it a slight lift and gentle twist if it’s ripe it will come to you easy”, he told us the secret of picking. “Once in hand, don’t drop it in the bag but place it gently, one over the other so that it doesn’t get damaged” he had advised.

Reflecting on what I had done that day, I realised that it was profound lessons in life that, I had experienced. The experience of walking in an apple orchard was paid for, but the lessons for life came from reflections in solitude.

Life is actually like a walk in the apple orchard. There is enough apples for everyone to pick and the orchard is large enough for a leisurely stroll for all of us. Once the bag is full, we will have to leave the orchard. If we don’t, then what we had picked up as coveted soon becomes a burden. We have just one life and it is we, who decide which all varieties of apples we need to pick and fill our bags with.

In our exuberance of having found ourselves in the orchard and the greed to bag all of it or most of it at once, we forget two cardinal truths. First, the bag is just one and it has finite capacity to hold. Second, the orchard is vast and with greater pickings as we walk along.  Yet, what we often do is different. To maximize our pickings, we greedily push our hands deep into the tree and not only hurt ourselves but break branches and even unripe ones. Shaking the tree to get the fruit we want, we damage the tree for times to come and also drop many fruits to the floor rendering it unfit for consumption. To be sure that we are getting the right apple, we press it between our fingers injuring it permanently and then having broken it from the tree we drop it into the bag rather than carefully placing it only to realize later that the apple we gathered have been damaged by us. Rather than gratefully cupping what we get, we are mostly judgemental and having got it carelessly toss it away as yet another trophy bothering little about its utility later.  Wanting more out of everything, we try stuffing our bags, little realising that we could  end up losing.

The apples I picked that day is long gone but the lessons I learned, has gone deep within me. For what is left of my life, I shall just walk in the orchard of life, absorbing all that colour of daily life, the aroma of goodness, savour the taste of love and not greedily stuff myself for a later day.

May be, you too can take a look at your bag, decide to keep it away for a while and just take a stroll in the garden of life.

Falling in Love with a Fall in Boston - Beyond What The Eyes See

I had heard a lot about the Boston fall and the dramatic change in colours from green to hues of yellow and red. I timed my visit to Boston to see the faint footsteps of fall, experience it getting louder and more colourful as it sweeps the entire area awash in colours.

I am enjoying every bit of it.

 'Autumn' and 'Fall’ are used interchangeably to capture the same essence of time bridging summer and winter. Autumn wears an attire of formality whereas fall brings along a poetic and philosophical feel appropriate to the annual event.

In the northern hemisphere fall commences with the autumnal equinox, the day, sun crosses the celestial equator, the imaginary extension of Earth’s equator in space. It normally happens between 21st to 24th September. Fall ends with winter solstice. Also called ‘hibernal solstice’, winter solstice occurs when the poles reach its maximum tilt away from the Sun. Winter solstice, therefore has the shortest day and longest night of the year. Then on, days start creeping upon nights till summer solstice gets revenge with the longest day and shortest night. The cycle, like it ever was, continues. Naturally both hemispheres have separate fall, winter and summer solstice.

The fall is interesting as it signals change in seasons offering us a spectacular feast for the eyes, a foliage that continuously changes colours. All trees do not change colours. Only the deciduous trees take part in this spectacle. For the cursory eyes, it may just be a change in colours, but for nature it is a complex process and for the trees a survival mechanism. In fact, it is the signal that the tree is shutting down its kitchen, the leaves, because it is running short on its fuel, the sunlight. Chlorophyll that gives trees its green and does photosynthesis, the process of converting sunlight into energy, starts breaking down. As chlorophyll breaks down, it exposes the underlying yellow (xanthophylls), orange (carotenes) and red (anthocyanins) pigments within the leaf. The catalyst for the change are primarily temperature and moisture. Since there are countless permutations and combinations of these two variables, no two falls can be alike! As fall progresses, each leaf starts gradually taking new colours, simultaneously weakening at the stem. Then having put on a spectacular show takes a final bow and falls down. The fall is all about swan songs; swan song of each leaf that once started its life journey with the tree as hope and goes on to contribute its might to the tree irrespective of the size of the tree .

The science behind what we see is important to understand why and how it happens. My interests, however in the fall was less for scientific reasons and more for what lessons it can give me.

Accept it or not we are part of nature and are inseparably linked to everything around us. There is so much beyond what eyes can see. Look close; Fall is a great lesson for all of us.

We all have our seasons of springs, summers, autumns and winters. For some of us life could be enviably long springs and summers. Life could be a dream run with neither autumns nor winters. But for many of us life could be very different. 

Barely noticeable springs and inconsequential summers that seem to finish even before it started could be condemned to obscure oblivion by immer challenging falls leading to extremely severe winters that linger till eternity. For reasons known or unknown life could just turn nasty.

 Like it or not; life’s like that.

We all respond to crises differently. Some like the evergreen trees may show no sign of approaching winter. They may easily weather challenging winters in life or even wither without warnings. But most of us show signs like the deciduous. When tough times come calling, signs show up in many ways, however hard we may try.  As life's winter gets closer and harsher, many, who we think will stand by us, fade away into unfriendly shadows or outright give up on us pretending they haven’t seen us in their life time. Worst are those who will confront us with often heard unjustifiable “I told you".

We could lose our greens, turn yellow in loneliness and go red in sorrows and losses. It's then that we should call to play our inner strengths

If we are rooted well in our belief of a better tomorrow, even while we face losses, we can let go of our leaves with dignity and conserve to weather the storm ahead. It’s autumns in life that help us know our true friends and strength.

Every winter however long and severe it may be, will have to end in spring.  Reassuring sunlight will come and with it new opportunities and hope. If the roots are intact, be assured, life will send shoots out, buds will emerge and the tree shall be full of greens once again.

As you enjoy the colours of fall, remember it’s the swan song for leaves but not for the tree. For the tree spring is about to come. Concentrate on sending the roots even further down.