Author: Anand Swamy

“Are you sure you want to eat my food?” He suggested we go to some of the other more established and palatable touristy places, before finally agreeing. 

He was our tuk-tuk driver. It’s how tourists get around in South East Asia. We knew Sammy wasn’t his real name. I’m sure constantly explaining his true Khmer name to foreigners could get annoying.  

I can’t tell you how many times I wished my name was Zeus or Heracles. You know, something modest and unassuming. 

In any case, he was hesitant to let us into his world. I get it. With thousands of places to eat, frolic, and culturally appropriate in Cambodia, we were insistent to savor his taste of home.

Before leaving, I told her again to park away from the front of the school.

“Mom, please park away. I don’t want people to see it again,” I said with stern sincerity.

With a smile, “Okay, Beta (term of endearment in Hindi), don’t worry, I’ll remember.”

We had an old beat-up Nissan Sentra that my parents had purchased before I was born. The four-banger, manual transmission, was pushing a buck fifty and wouldn’t relent. From the outside, the car looked like it had its days numbered, but the Japanese are known for building bulletproof engines, and this one was no exception.

It had stains galore, ripped seats, and a smell of Nescafé and burnt toast that seeped its way into every fiber of the cloth upholstery. What was once a radiant red car, now had an off-color pinkish burgundy hue.

Are we the voice of thoughts?

A 2020 study, published in the journal Nature Communications was carried out by psychologists at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.

They uncovered that humans think an average of 6,200 thoughts a day.

All thoughts are outward and come from an experience. This is the “cause” of the thought, and the “effect” is our reaction to it.

Through my own learnings, I am coming to an interesting idea. 

I’m not a Trekie by any stretch of the imagination.

I’ve only watched, Star Trek: The Next Generation.

It’s up for debate, but the Inner Light is arguably one of the best episodes ever created.

Imagine if you will.

Having to drink your own urine to fight dehydration.

So little food that you can count the number of grains of rice for dinner.

Imagine taking part in a daily dance, called the Death March, where you are tasked with holding a heavy object over your head and the moment you drop the object, your life ends.

“If you step outside and you have a pain in your foot, you have two options. The first is you can try to wrap the entire world in burlap, or you can put on a pair of shoes.” – Ramana Maharshi

It’s easy to blame others for our problems. 

It’s easy to push off responsibility to someone else. 

However, what we perceive as easy, is nothing more than denying the inevitable.