Il Dolce far Niente!

....contd…..

Don’t postpone living ‘joyful moments’ to future vacation trips. Instead bring your vacation into your job. ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ applies to you too! So, from now work as if you are playing. If you make your play work, then you never work. Its one long holiday. It means you have retired from boredom, drudgery, compulsion and duties and will no longer suffer from ‘hard work’. Live the moment!” so saying she looked at all of us.

We didn’t respond with nod or any sound. We were hit too hard with this possibility. If only we could put it into practice then our life would be one long holiday. Was it possible? She never ever said what was a lie or not a possibility. So, I better believe it for now. We were still with these thoughts when Guruji said “It’s already 5.30pm so let’s get started in 10 mts. It’s a good 2hrs ride back home” and we were sort of sad. We had forgotten that we need to go home. We gathered our belongings – of what little we had and left for good!

  At a certain point on highway, we found the sun set and the view was mind-blowing. Instantly unanimously, it was decided that we stop our car and watch the sun set. Those 10mts seemed like ages as we lost count of minutes being lost in watching sunset. It was the best ‘sunset moment for me’ and from the look on their faces, I could say of others too!

When Rahul said “please get into the vehicle, we need to get back in time”, everyone shouted at once “Il dolce far niente!” and started laughing. He joined us too in our laughter. We stayed with that feeling for a good 1/2an hour and then left.

  Yes, she said we would just relax but she taught us to live every moment, savour every moment. She showed us ‘the moments’ of life that we needed to live for ourselves every day of our life. We needed to inculcate these ‘nothing moments’ into our mundane routine. This was one lesson that we all knew we would imbibe in our lives. Yes, the degree may vary but we all would and could do it.

Even in ‘relaxing’ she taught us ‘how to live life so effortlessly! Or was she teaching us to ‘relax!’ Or may be both! That was ‘she’ – one who could teach from and about nothing and thereby taught us to live ‘completely and fully’.

“Il dolce far niente!” – the joy of doing nothing looked simple and yet was pregnant with lots of possibilities and revelations that we needed to unravel in its belly! Love you Italy! And yes, we all decided to meet at her place after a fortnight of practicing Il Dolce far Niente!

(To be continued later!)


(You can listen to this song from Chitchor one of Amol Palekar's hit movies and music par excellence by Ravindra Jain and singing by the best Shri.Yesudas)