Perplexed, I flipped over the base of the machine to check the roller brush. I rolled it with my fingers and it was moving freely. I looked at the orifice of the tube that was opening into the roller brush chamber; there was a crumpled piece of paper obstructing the opening of the 5 feet tube that ran between the roller brush chamber and the dust collecting bag. Using a wire I pulled the crumpled paper from that tube, but along with the paper came out a stream of coiled fibrous material. I continued digging out the fibrous dust from the tube. I was astonished to see that the tube was completely packed with that material from one end to other making me disjoin all parts of the tube, clean it up and reassemble the same. Apparently the fibrous material got accumulated from the carpet during all these days of cleaning.

Well! It is not entirely feasible to design a cleaner that cleans without getting exposed to the dirt, and when the cleaner itself catches dirt, it is time for maintenance.

What about us? Over the years, day in day out, at home as well as outside, we have been exposed to information in the form of conceptual theories, philosophies and non-conceptual experiences. And at every moment of our life, like a vacuum machine we suck whatever knowledge comes our way, good as well as bad. Our habits, behaviour, attitudes, perceptions, ideologies, likes, dislikes and the way we relate to others are shaped out of these learnings.

We get conditioned to react to the world in a specific way based on this knowledge. This conditioning becomes a barrier in learning new things, a hindrance to look at the world with an open mind, and dealing with the ever changing world. It was easy cleaning up the vacuum machine, by simply removing the unwanted obstructing material. Can we do the same with ourselves? Can we erase our natural conditioning that constantly impedes our progress?

Yes! It is possible and this is done by the process of unlearning and relearning. The process of unlearning is not as easy as removing the clogging material from the vacuum machine because we don’t have a mechanism to erase the things that get accumulated in our mind. It is done by replacing the outdated concepts, beliefs, and practices that we follow with new ones and this is when we start doing things differently, different from the usual way that we are conditioned to take. As the saying goes, successful people don’t do different things, they do things differently. One doesn’t need a big leap to do things differently; just start with routine tasks, chores, and daily activities.

How many times do you snooze the alarm daily in the morning? How about walking across your bedroom to snooze the alarm?

Do you prepare the agenda an hour before that weekly meeting?

When was the last time you smiled at your loved ones, other than the smiley on the chat or the messages that you text?

Did you tell your boss about the idea that struck your mind in a reverie?

Believe it or not, every day, pick up at least one thing in your life and do it in a different way from the usual and you will see its effect cascade in all areas of your life and the benefits are enormous. And you will experience the power of unlearning.

For my upcoming trip to India, I wanted to capture some pictures of my routine life in San Diego so that I could show those to my folks back home. With this in my mind I approached the bus operator and asked her if I could take a picture with her. The bus operator gladly came forward for the picture; I took couple of shots by setting the timer on my digital camera. After we were done with the photo shot she told me “This is the last week and that’s it! I am out of this job.”

I didn’t know how to react! Because for the past few weeks, every Friday I received these “good bye” emails from my office; colleagues who got laid off due to the current economic turmoil which is more of a saddening and helpless situation. However, the bus operator’s words of leaving the job sounded different. The words were filled with more of content and joy.

So I asked her, “Are you leaving this job voluntarily?”

“No! I am 55 and in America, 55 is the age of retirement. I drove this bus for 30 years in this same route, and I have completed my full time of service,” she replied with a jubilant smile.

Some times life is so monotonous: taking the bus everyday; going to work and coming back home and through out the day, thinking and planning about the tasks to be done in the next few hours and actively involving in doing those tasks. Little do we pay attention to the people around with whom we live our lives, on whom we depend for our work to get done. So I thought, it is time to introduce my self to her. “I am Praveen,” I told her extending my hand.

“Oh! Nice to meet you “Raveen. I am Linda,” she replied. We shook our hands. Later I helped her with how to pronounce my name.

“Linda, how do you feel, now that you are retiring from this job, did you like riding this bus for so many years? Are you feeling happy?  Are you going to miss any thing?” I asked her.

“I love this job, Praveen, but I am not sad that I would be leaving this. I am content; I have enjoyed driving this bus. I will certainly miss the ‘passengers’ with whom I rejoiced interacting every day. The interesting part is that I drove this bus every day in this route over the years. It might be a single route but I traversed the paths of so many people, they are from different countries, different backgrounds, attitudes, behaviours and they have boarded my bus to reach their destinations. By profession I have to interact with them. There are no shortcuts, no escape routes to avoid people whom you might perceive not amicable and we can turn them to be amicable by showing kindness and love and that’s how we go a long way in our lives. Be kind to people; love and help others and that’s the way it works in this world; actually that’s the way we should run this world.”

I was so touched by her take on life, and what struck my mind was that man’s greatest invention was the wheel.

We have scaled the length and breadth of the world with his invention. Be it the machinery in an industry, a locomotive, a plane or a bus, without the invention of the wheel we wouldn’t have seen so much progress in our lives in the realm of mobility. However, this wheel as such and its creation doesn’t have any meaning unless it is propelled by some energy to roll, with a destination to roll towards, controlled by navigation and lubricated to be in sync with other wheels in the form of gears for a frictionless long journey. With no navigation, the wheel would roll on its own, directionless, and the destination will turn into a mirage. With no lubrication, the journey would be marred with friction and frequent break downs.

Human life is the creation of the creator (God, for those who believe in God or any other entity for those who are non-believers). The wants, the desires and realizing one’s dreams fuel the urge to progress and lead a better life. The life gets its meaning when it has a direction, a controlled navigation and working in sync with other people, lubricated with the behavior of being kind, loving and helping one another. Else, the journey of life will be rough with frictions and all dreams and desires will become mirages.

Day in day out, we might feel independent in our lives, choosing what we want and achieve. But for every step that we put forward, we depend on other people directly or indirectly and this is where real life lies. How much importance do we give to the person who fills our vehicle’s gas tank, the cop who controls the traffic at the intersection as we approach it, or the person who fixes our broken network, or the telephone line?

Here is a quote from John Lennon:
“Life is just what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans….”