Fruit Basket No.1

As we all know by now that the French team famously won the 2018 world cup tournament that was held in Russia.

A lot of people did not waste time in pointing out how the playmakers of the French team were comprised of Muslims and African descent. So everyone put their righteous hat on and started politicising the victory in the blink of an eye.

Should we politicize everything nowadays? Isn't constantly highlighting the fact that they were Muslims and Africans is racist in an of itself?

I can also imagine how uncomfortable Mbappe and Pogba is when the people around them keep bringing up that fact.

The reason I can imagine that is because I am myself a minority in Indonesia. I am an Indonesian citizen of an Indian descent. There are so few of us that people here give me a second look when I am walking in the streets.

So imagine if people kept bringing my heritage all the time when I, say, won some major sports competition for Indonesian. I will not feel very comfortable.

I would like to celebrate with my teammates and be considered one of them and bringing up my Indian-ness does not help.

Not that I am not proud of my culture but to highlight my culture just as much as the victory my teammates and I got is, quite frankly, annoying and unsettling and speaks volumes of how damaging a PC-fever culture can be.

It's like having an acquaintance I know who keeps bringing up the topic of India and Indian culture everytime we meet just for the sake of creating conversation. Its like "dude, enough already."

So..FRANCE WON THE WORLD CUP. And that's that.

How to be rich? How to be successful? How to be happy? How this how that?

How did we end up like this? Be the kind of person that does nothing but keep on asking 'how?' Thank god we are not naturally born this way otherwise we would never learn how to walk. Instead, there would be youtube instruction videos and professional walking coaches.

Do you remember the first time you used a smartphone? You knew nothing about it. You just kept pressing this and that and see what this button does and what that button does and you figured it out as you go along. And now you are an expert in using smartphones. You did not read manual upon manual on using smartphones. You did not attend $1000 seminars to successfully use a smartphone. You just figured out as you went along.

That is how you can be successful and rich in all walks of life. Thay is what life is all about. Life is all about figuring things out as you go along.

But why do we not find it so hard to be successful? Fear of pain.

Unlike learning to use a smartphone, you will face a lot of rejections and hurt you will also have to reject and hurt the people around you.

A parent who is sick of his 30-year-old son sticking around and not be independent might ask "but howwww do I tell him to move out?" The solution is actually pretty simple: you just tell him that you are done supporting him and tell him to get a job and a place for himself. Done. Why is it so hard? Because you don't want to offend him. He might storm out and never want to meet you again.

This is equal to getting an error in your smartphone. But unlike a smartphone, you have a deep emotional attachment to your son. So it becomes harder.

The secret is, therefore, to go along irrespective of the pain or hurt or rejection you get or give. You will make mistakes but that is ok. You have no other choice but to figure it out as you go along. Feel the pain feel the fear observe it, acknowledge it and then move on. And just keep moving.

The word death tends to bring some grim, dark pictures to mind. In fact, a very popular symbol for death happens to be the Grim Reaper. Bottom line: death has got a very bad reputation. And that is a very sad thing.

We are all so scared of death. Have you ever taken the time to ask why? Eventually, it will happen to us all. There is no escaping it. Death is the one certain thing in this uncertain world. We do not like uncertainty we do not like changes well...death is certain! And you will definitely die! This is a fact that will never change! So shouldn't you rejoice at the one certain thing in your life?

I like to think of death. Think of the fact that one day, and it could be any day, I will leave this all forever. Is leave even the right word? I am not sure. But I will be rid of this all. Everything. The good, the bad, the big, the small, the loved one, the hated one. And I always end up with a question: If I am eventually going to leave this all behind, does any of this matter?

It really helps when you want to make an important decision to ask yourself or where you are in a situation that overwhelms you: One day I will not be there anymore. I will leave this all behind. So what should I leave behind?

It helps you see things clearly because knowing that you will leave everything, you start to have this detachment to all things you hold dear and to all things you so despise and you will be able to see the big picture and you will be able to remove yourself from it and see what needs to be done irrespective of your love or hate and ego.

Death is a helpful tool. Unfortunately, it has a bad reputation. People are so afraid of it.

If you are afraid of it, I strongly recommend that you take some time out at least once in a day and meditate on it. Eventually, I will die. That is for sure. I will leave all of this. There is no other way. There is no escape. When death smiles, we cannot help but smile back at it. So why fret?