Smell of a place (Part 2)

Thank you for the wonderful response to the previous part .... for an instance, reading that article must have made you to associate yourself with the kind of routine that you face in your day to day life. The human mind, perhaps, is the most complicated network system. Its a network of ideas, a network of thoughts. Its is also an excellent simulator. Why do you think "Deja-Vu" happens ? 

If you observe carefully, you will find that it is your mind that simulates various scenarios and moods and when you encounter a situation you have encountered before. Your mind searches through the "mood database" to find a similar simulation. You immediately tend to associate the current situation to that simulation and you get the "I've been through this before" feeling, which we term as "Deja-vu".

What is "Smell of a place"

Its fairly simple concept. I would like to present before you, two distinct scenarios.

Scenario 1 : 

An evening walk through a beautiful forest.

My trip to Auli in 2009 was an enchanting one. I had got off an early morning train in Haridwar, after spending a sleepless night in Delhi. Then was a tiring bus ride from Haridwar to Joshimath ending with a cable car from Joshimath to Auli. By the time I reached Auli, I was exhausted, but the view was spectacular. Right in front of me, was the heart of Uttaranchal. It was like standing in a football field, guarded by majestic snow capped mountains all around you. Amidst the majestic Himalayas is Sanjeevini Forest (one of the prettiest forests you would see in India) overlooking Nanda Devi mountain. I was standing 20 kms away from the Tibet border and could feel the fresh fragrance of pine trees in the air and there was a purity about the place. Unlike most of the other hill stations in India, I chose Auli, for the mere fact that it was not commercialized and is a stone's throw away from the Nanda Devi Biosphere, also known as the "Lungs of India". Standing there, I wondered, why people spend a bomb to visit places in Europe, when the roof of the world resides here.

The crystal blue waters of the stream, the unadulterated air , the smell of the woods was so enchanting, that it made me forget the 20 hours of sleepless travel from Delhi to Auli. Suddenly , just by the feel of the place, my spirits were lifted from being a tired traveler to a rejuvenated soul. Every minute spent on reaching Auli was worth it. Time seemed to stand still and everything seemed perfect. Planet Earth was looking so beautiful and charming, that it left you bedazzled. Awestruck, I decided to take a walk from the cable car station to my hotel (Clifftop club, is the only place to stay in Auli. The entire area is a non residential zone, covered by rich forests all around).

Try taking a leisurely walk in the woods of Auli, and I bet you can't. You would either pick up a stone, or jump to catch a leaf, you will definately do more than taking a leisurely walk. And no matter how many km's you walk through the forest, you will feel this sudden  rush of energy and enthusiasm sweeping across you. It is almost the perfect way to spend a day and you wish you were living in this part of the world rather than a bustling metro like Mumbai.

Scenario 2 : 

A sultry hot summer afternoon in Mumbai.

Taking you through a completely different scenario, imagine spending a sultry hot summer afternoon in Mumbai. Its humid, its hot and every moment you spend outdoors saps away your energy. If you can help it, most of the time you would sit in the comfort of your home / office and avoid going out during the day time, and would prefer an afternoon nap. Evenings are equally hot, as the humid sea traps the heat from escaping. This makes you feel lazy and even the simplest of tasks seems a herculean effort. Tired and exhausted (even if didn't move a bone all day) you desperately wait for the monsoon to begin and the summer torture to end.

The Smell of the Place
Deep down inside our mindset, we create the sultry hot mumbai summer atmosphere within ourselves and associate that to the weekdays. We tend to take our job as an atlas stone. A load which you would like to avoid but you need to bear it, as you need the money at the end of the month to survive. When you start off your day with the mindset of summer, you immediately associate every step that you take, as a pain and be exasperated.

Your work and the people become a liability. Everything seems boring. You tend to neglect opportunities and look at your job from a different prospective. This makes you feel lethargic and makes you wonder why this is happening to you. The reality is , that, you yourself are responsible for treating your day as a routine and viewing things in a negative manner.

The Challenge
The Challenge is to re-create the "Walk in the woods" atmosphere within yourself. Take a completely neutral view of things and then try to imply what you can do to change your environment. Pick up the stone, jump to catch a leaf. Avoid prejudice. The moment you adapt yourself to that mindset, you will see that it is after all, not as bad as it seemed. You will start observing the surroundings in a different way, see opportunities you thought didn't exist. 

A positive mindset is a job half done. You don't need to change the people around you for the environment to change. No matter, how hard you try, you cant change the mindset of others. What you can change however, is your approach towards them and how you manage to extract the best out of them which will work towards your advantage. The moment you recreate the enthusiasm that you associate with your morning walk in the forest, you will reap the benefits of positive thinking.

So, how does your day smell today ?