42 inch 4K TV and life choices

Couple of months back one of my colleagues, lets call him Vijay, purchased a 42 inch Ultra HD 4K television set. It cost him around INR 70 k. When I inquired him on the reason for this indulgence, he sported a wide smile and replied, "I want to live life king-size. What is life if you don't enjoy it".

Vijay is not alone. He is part of a growing section of the society who are unapologetic about their spending patterns. They purchase the latest electronic gadgets, shop every other weekend in branded stores and fly wherever they want. Of course, why shouldn't they? After all its their hard earned money; they have every right to spend it as they seem fit.

I pressed Vijay further on what programs he intend to watch on his new favorite gadget. His face contorted a bit, clearly annoyed at such an irrelevant question. If there was a machine which could translate facial expressions to words, it would have certainly read out - does it even matter what I watch; everything will look good on this. But he controlled his thoughts, paused to think for a while, and casually uttered, "I guess cricket will look cool on this. I will watch a few IPL games. Also, the animal channels. It would be such a thrill to watch a Leopard chasing a Deer in 4K"

I ran into Vijay a month later. I asked him how his TV watching experience was coming along. He replied that the TV is great and the images are so clear that he can count wrinkles on an old person's face. In fact, after he bought the TV he recorded a show featuring an old lady and replayed the show regularly to see the old lady's wrinkled face! But off late he wasn't getting any time to watch the TV; office work and other important tasks - like sleeping - occupied most of his time.

This incident lead me to think - is there a better way to lead life than what Vijay so eloquently put 'king-size' ? Agreed, that watching a lousy program on a 42 inch 4K  TV is way better than watching the same program on a 32 inch TV, but why are our choices restricted to just upgrading the TV? If Vijay wanted to enhance his TV watching experience, a more logical choice would have been to watch a better program, isn't it?
Given that he had 70K to spend, could he have bought DVDs of some classic movies or TV shows? Could he have subscribed to some online streaming movie sites? Could he have opted for some paid channel where he could watch the programs he liked? And if he was never the TV-watching type, could he have just spent the 70K on something else; something which would have bought him genuine joy and happiness? Did he even think on these lines?

I think that is one of our main problems. We only think of upgrading to 42 inch 4k TV, never think about changing the programs we watch. We commute to our mundane jobs on a Maruti Alto and aspire to commute to the same mundane job in a Honda city, but don't think about the option of going to our dream job in a metro. We live in a 2 BHK apartment and aspire to own a two storied independent house, but don't give any thought on how to live in these concrete structures.

As I walked out of my house with these thoughts in mind, I was startled by the guffawing coming from my neighbor's apartment.From the ajar door I could see that my neighbors - two bachelors in their late 20's - were watching the superhit hindi comedy movie "Hera Pheri". One of them - Narayana - was laughing so heartily that he almost fell off his chair.
They were watching the movie on a 15 inch non HD laptop. I wonder if they would have laughed any louder had they watched the movie in a 4K HD TV set !

Life = Differentiation of Y ?

Isn't life same as differentiation ? No, not the  English 'differentiation', the Maths one; of the type dy/dx.

Whatever parameters you use to evaluate your success in life - money, fame or  happiness - if differentiation of these parameters is zero, 'success' is zero as well. That is, if dy is zero, irrespective of the value of y, you are not considered successful.

You might be a millionaire, but if there is no net addition to your worth compared to last year, a lot of people, including you, will consider that as a failure.

You may have everything in life which makes you happy; a wonderful and a loving partner, beautiful kids, great job, great friends. But if the 'happiness index' doesn't increase, you will still feel something is missing.

Take the example of Roger Federer.  The man has 16 Grand Slam titles, and last year he reached the semi-final of 3 of the 4 Grand Slams, though he was not able to win any of them. Even though reaching the Grand Slam semi-final is a big achievement, Federer still would not have been happy. For him, dy is a negative value, as last year was the only year since 2002 when he failed to win a grand slam, which makes last year a failure for him. Imagine, reaching the semi-final of 3 of the 4 grand slams and still considered a failure !!!

So, is the key to success focussing on dy and dx, as opposed to only y, which most of us focus most of the times ?When self-help books and motivation experts ask you to 'live the moment', are they referring to the dx in the above equation ? As dx tends to 0...


However, no one can afford to have a positive value of dy throughout their lifetime. If that is the case y will tend to infinity, which is impossible.

Is that why dy has to be a negative value sometimes?

Take the case of Roger Federer again. If Federer wins a Grand Slam next year, lets assume only one, it will still be a special moment for him and he will be more happy than he has been in a long time, even though he has done this ( winning at least one Grand Slam a year) 8 times before. The reason for his happiness, or success in this case, is a positive dy, even though his y is considerably less than the past values.

So next time you are going through a negative dy, don't be disheartened. Even mathematically its a certainty and no one can avoid it. But on the bright side it also means that you will require less effort than past to achieve the same value of dy/dx :)

The Journey

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 19; the nineteenth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

I went for a jog in a park nearby
everyone seemed happy and I let out a cry

I started jogging,looking at things left and right
the set-up was eyecatching, resplendent and bright

Someone then told me, run as fast as you can
you will win a medal, so strategise and plan

I started running, putting down my head
knocked down a few on the way,my hands turned red

Some people wanted to join me, I took them along
but promptly warned them, its a journey very very long

I got tired, but I wasn't going to stop
there was a medal to win, a clock to watch

Finally I made it, had the medal in my hand
I looked for someone to hug, but couldn't find a man

I looked back for my companions, but they were left far behind
They could see me no more, or perhaps they just did not mind

I sat on the bench, unable to stand anymore
had a relook at the park,boy,did I see something more?

There was a fountain, with a stream of water so pure
I could have taken a bath, enjoying its magnificence

There was a field, full of exotic fruits
I could have tasted them all, relishing their sweetness


There were toddlers, playing in mud without care
I could have become a kid again, shedding my inhibitions

There were a thousand other things, that I could have done
but I left them all, for the most important one

Yes, I went for the medal and I successfully collected
looked at it one more time, but the feeling wasn't the one that I expected

As I walked out of the park, exasperated and drained
I tried to convince myself, the medal is the one that I cared

But then a thought striked me, it was never meant to be a race
All I wanted was,a pleasurable jog with a smiling face

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

Sadharan insaan

paed, paudhe, mitti, pathar
kya inse alag meri pehchaan
mein to ek sadharan insaan

kal tha nahi, par aaj sahi,
aaj sahi, kal phir nahi,
kya badalega isse koi parinaam
mein to ek sadharan insaan

arabon ki manav sena mein,
chala ja raha ek tinke samaan
mein to ek sadharan insaan

 ************************************************************************************

पेड, पौधे, मिटटी, पत्थर
क्या इनसे अलग मेरी पहचान,
मैं तो एक साधारण इंसान

कल था नहीं, पर आज सही,
आज सही, कल फिर नहीं,
क्या बदलेगा इससे कोई परिणाम
मैं तो एक साधारण इंसान

अरबों की मानव सेना में,

चला जा रहा एक तिनके समान ,

 मैं तो एक साधारण इंसान