Nothing Lacking, The World Is Yours

I bumped into Micky Fernandez on Indiblogger, and since most of his writings revolved around Kolkata and movies, I got hooked. He wrote because he needed to write, and he didn't care about what the trends were, or what the done thing was. His O&E of an Expat in India is like a breath of fresh air, and I immediately assumed he was a relic, a statistical anomaly. But his photography, his opinions and his experiences seemed to suggest otherwise. Here was someone who was not iffy about what he believed in, and was doing all he could to get others to see his point. His expat perspective made it all the more interesting. Somewhere down the line we got talking and then we met, and it was a true meeting of minds, since we were both thinking and doing the same things, trying to get at the same mother lode from different points of the cultural spectrum. As is always the case, this post has been sitting with me for a while, waiting for me to edit out those bits that I find mushy, the bits that I fear might not go well with the "broader reading public." But then that would take away the essence of this piece. So here it is, as it was written, as it was meant to be read.

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Shortly after I became aware of Subhorup Dasgupta's blog, I began to admire him because not only is he a good writer but also he and I seem to share the same "less is more" philosophy. More recently, we started corresponding by emails. In a recent one, he surprised me by asking me to consider writing a guest post for him. I had heard of this concept, but I had always thought of it as being a waste of valuable time. After all, I am concerned about maintaining my own blog. Moreover, I did not know the mechanics of it; I did not know in what manner or format I could send a post to him. Nevertheless, because I felt honored by the request, I considered it.

I thought that I had two options: 1) I could ask him to replicate either My Life in Boxes post or My Life in a Suitcase post which describe my minimalist philosophy, or 2) I could write an original post elaborating on these concepts and showing how they can be applied and of benefit. After reading his Guest Posts page, I decided that the latter was more appropriate and better.

Grace is a state of mind, of being able to see that receiving is really the other side of giving, that without one, the other cannot exist.

I realized, though, that I did not know how they can be applied and of benefit in other situations and for other people but I knew that I would arrive at a solution. I believe that I have done so now. I believe that because I believe that. I believe that it is best not to harm other individuals. If I believed otherwise then it would be incumbent upon me to change my belief. After all, why believe in something that is objectively not good, or not as good or better than something else? Moreover, I have come across some statements that verify the veracity of my approach.

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