Do you know a lot but apply a little?

Yesterday, I met a wise man, who gave me a very intriguing piece of wisdom in less than 3 minutes.

Here's what he said -

What is knowledge? It is to know something. But is knowing enough? No, in fact it is a waste of time and energy to learn something that you are not going to act upon. Let's say there is a person who knows very little, let's say that on the scale of 1 to 100 he only knows 1% and he successfully applies that 1% of knowledge in 100% of his actions and then there is another individual who has gained around 99% knowledge on that scale, but has applied only 1% in practicality.

Who do you think is better?

Of course the former fellow, because his action was 100% in alignment with his knowledge. Even if one is to argue that he knew little as compared to the one who has 99% of knowledge.

But then the question is - What good is knowledge if it is not acted upon? In fact to act upon what one knows leads develops one's understanding, which can be taken to the level of Mastery which is done by being consistent in practices.

The Joy of Reading - A poem by Me

When I read,

I leave the world behind,

When I read,

I enter a place unseen,

Renewing my existence 

with the turn of every page

When I read,

I feel detached with all that surrounds me

When I read,

The sounds of people howling around,

turns into whispers

When I read,

I embark on a journey

Exploring new terrains of wisdom,

Formed on the landscape of crisp white pages

When I read,

I depart from all my worries and anxieties

When I read, 

I become the story 

As well as the storyteller,

I become the memoir as well as the experiencer

I become the guidance as well as the guide

I then close the book and return to the world I call mine

A world that no longer has any hold over me,

Looks like from the burden of ignorance,

I am now forever free

Although reading did not change, 

Even the smallest ant or the tallest tree

But, I write my heart out in the last line of this poetry, 

That reading indeed liberated me 

What happens when you get off from Whatsapp for 30 days

Being a 'passionate' Whatsapper since 2012 It was not less than a challenge for me to even think of getting off this messaging app that has today become like a parallel world we socialize and connect in. A world that allows you to message, talk and share your life's funny or not-so-funny moments with those who really matter to you and at the same time it also pushes you to entertain and reply just for the sake of replying, to those who matter the least and who just want to engage in a random purposeless chat. The 'blue tick' update made matters even more difficult, by empowering the sender to know whether his messages were being read or ignored. It made things much more interesting, because if you are online for quite some time and no blue ticks are seen, it clearly means that you are way too busy to check his messages. If on the other side the 'blue ticks' are seen and you still haven't received your much awaited reply then it is perceived that the 'iron hearted' recipient is not interested in chatting with you or that he may have many things on his to-do-list that seek immediate attention.


It was back then in August last year that I decided to deactivate my Whatsapp account for 30 days just for the sake of satisfying my curiosity about what changes will it bring to my life if any. 

Here is what this experiment revealed -

1. Those who really want to keep in touch with you on a regular basis will still message you those "How are you" and "Wazzup buddy" lines through SMS. This confirmed that I had a few friends among many for whom those regular conversations were more important than my 'online' presence on some messaging app.
2. Then there are those who keep on sending quotes and hilarious videos and they suddenly got disappeared from my life and remained invisible till l was back on Whatsapp.
3. I felt like I was getting more time for doing productive things and for some reason my productivity improved
4. I become more actively engaged in living my social life like the good old days where I use to directly call up my friends and tell them to meet me in that Cafe down tge road within 10 minutes.
5. Yes, I ended up paying slightly higher bills due to an increase in Calls and Text messages. But when you compare time with money, it will get clear to you that money makes a comeback but time melts away forever
6. As a not-so-pleasant surprise I realized that many of my friends existed just because I was active on Whatsapp (I no longer consider that as friendship anyway)
7. Finally It got clear to me as to how many people are worthy of my time, because not everyone is interested in knowing how you are once you are away from the platform that gives them the convenience of reaching you with least efforts, if you know what I mean

In conclusion I think the entire experience did make a positive difference to me so as to make me understand the volume of insignificant talks that I use to enage in with people. Today I am active on my Whatsapp account, but the difference is that I no longer engage in long chats involving an exchange of hundreds of messages along with a couple of pictures and videos or voice notes in between them. I simply call them, talk to them about things that are of importance or meet them over a coffee for a casual exchange of ideas and thoughts.

Note: These are purely my experiences and opinions and I am in no way against using Whastapp. I think it is one of the most useful apps there is. However, one needs to be careful not to over indulge himself/herself with it so that over a longer period of time it begins substituting real life interaction that we use to have so far for years.