Life and my entangled poonal

Life is often compared to various things. One such analogue would be the entangled poonal. If you are one of those who happen to sash the sacred thread on your shoulder, you’ll know this.

My case was a peculiar. What happened was:

1. The Poonal was in a complete disheveled state.

2. It was in an imbroglio with the earphone cable

3. The snarled thread was still on my shoulder

So what did I do:

1. Get Frustrated

2. Looked at it as an opportunity to provide a solution

3. Developed some perspective and decided to throw some philosophy on life

Comparing, the three stages -

1. Life’s sometime screws up

Being an aspirant Statistical Thermodynamicist, I’d like to sprinkle some scientific perspective on this. Nature always has a way of maximizing entropy. With respect to any string/chain/polymer, there are more configurations that it can assume in the coiled state rather than in the outstretched, or near outstretched state. The point: chaos is inevitable. What we need to do, is see order in chaos, and tackle chaos without causing further chaos.

2. Our life entangles in other’s issues – We are not alone

Living independent is again an impossible thing to do. The conglomeration of people is like a gossamer. Oftentimes, in sophisticated societies, there is an extent to which independence is existent, but this is at the price of isolation where plebian support is also negligible. The point – We need to leverage other people being around and work together towards detangling. The people, society and others must never be a liability to our progress.

3. Our ego still sticks on to our problems

When I was young and when my poonal used to entangle, Amma used to help detangle it. She always had a systematic approach to problem. And during the annual “avani avittam”, Appa used to detangle it. But in life, you can’t always expect others to look into and solve your problems. You need to work your way through.

We need to dissociate ourselves from our problem and approach it rationally and logically.

The modus operandi:

1. Dissociate yourself with your life, but don’t run away – unsash the poonal, don’t get rid of it.

2. Take a first glance at the problems, the poonal is intertwined like a labyrinth

3. Locate the problems, they are all over the place like the knots in the poonal

What we often do is getting too caught in our own problems that we continue to live in the rut. Else, there’s always somebody calling. Like Steve and Shrevats wanting me to play “Halo” with them a street away. They are waiting. But I didn’t relent. I wanted to prove to myself that I could solve this before I leave. Similarly in life, we ought to get distracted, but we mustn’t. We must endure.

So what comes next?

The brahmamudichu:

1. The brahmamudichu or the brahmagranthi is the master knot that holds the three strings of the poonal together. The three strings are said to represent unity of thought, word and deed. In life, the brahmamudichu is our spirit or the eternal life force, which holds us together.

2. We must use this ‘master knot’ as a pivot and approach the problems carefully, using it as reference ensuring that the master knot itself doesn’t get caught in the imbroglio.

3. Now the rest of the tangled parts of the poonal have different points where the “confusion” is.

The final solution

1. Once the brahmamudichu is pivoted, we must ensure that we locate our other problems carefully and disassociate one from another. This way we’ll have a better idea of how our problems look like and how big they are.

2. Work on the problems, one by one. Ensure that you do not get boggled by the big problems. Once the small ones are on the way, the big one seems easier.

3. Work on the big problem

The big problem:

Often the last step is the toughest. It’s tantalizing, playing a game with you. It forces you to give up at the same time, you know you don’t have much left before you get to the cheese. The most important thing is to NOT GIVE UP NOW.

Once you show enough commitment, dedication and focus, life will pave a way itself. And in the end, the last of knots will be detangled by a simple “legerdemain” of the wrist.

You get the cheese. Your life’s in your hands. Crystal clear. Now don it. And live life. King size.

Yagnopaveetham paramam pavithram
Prajapatheryasahajam purasthad
Aayushyamagryam prathimuncha shubram
Yagnopaveetham balamasthu thejah!!