Rudimentary Ramblings

The other day I was watching a documentary, Inside North Korea, about life inside that country. It was truly fascinating and disturbing. One aspect that truly shocked me was the cult of personality created around the founder of the country and the father of Kim Jong-Il, Kim Il-Sung. Here was a country that is a virtual prison for everyone of its citizens and where basic liberties ,which we in the free world take for granted, are virtually unheard of. But instead of lambasting the man responsible for their miseries and those of some 24 million of their compatriots, the citizens of North Korea revere and worship him. I was disturbed to see hundreds of clearly impoverished and malnourshed people praying and worshipping the man they "fondly" call the "Great Leader". So, a man who leads millions into famines and condemns millions of others to prison camps leaves behind a legacy of the "Great Leader"!!! Made me wonder what would my legacy be?

Of all the things that I am good at and that I have accomplished in my life, I think I could leave behind a legacy of the "Great Procrastinator". Now, I know it does not have the same ring as the "Great Leader" but I have not led anyone to a prison camp. Neither have I ever even dreamt of attacking my neighbour let alone a neighbouring country. What I will leave behind, is a things-to-do list longer than than Rajpath, and a bed which will have my ass print left on it forever from all that lying around I'm so expertly good at. The "Great Procrastinor". Yes, that sounds about right.

So, why is it that I procrastinate? What compels me to let things be? What makes me resist getting off my arse and actually doing something? Is it in in my genes. Well my mom just walked past rushing to get to the kitchen to do get some cooking done before she gives the dog a bath on her day off!! My dad is out getting the carpenter to fix the door before he leaves for a lunch meeting on a Sunday, while I lie here on my bed, in roughly the same position as I was in when I was sleeping a couple of hours ago. So no, its not in my genes. Is that I can't mulitask? Is that I find just breathing in and out tasking enough so as to not have the will do anything else. That can't be it. I flip channels on the remote while eating a bag of chips just fine. So what is it then? To be frank, I couldn't be bothered to delve anymore.

But is it just me? Am I really all that great at the procrastinating I'm bragging about. Sure I pay last month's phone bill by next month's bill's due date. And sure I have taken my dog for a morning walk after my rather stale lunch at 9pm. But am I truly great? The babu in the government office processes my file only after I've forgotten that I had given such a file in the first place. Some of my colleagues have been working on assignments meant to be finished yesterday only since today. And my admit card for CAT 2007 only came along with my results for CAT 2008 for which I had started studying in 2009. So I thinks its fair to conclude, that I am merely average.

I feel that this "quality" which is inherent in some and imbibed by others is the reason that the human race is so "backward". Don't get me wrong, we have progressed a lot but just imagine what could be if instead of a few, everyone got off their lazy arses and did what could be done later today. The news of Christ being born would have been Twittered. The iPod woul have been invented in 1001 and not 2001. WWI and WWII could have been Star Wars I and Star Wars II and George Lucas would be out of ideas for a movie. I would have to merely think to get this blog published instead of having to physically move my lazy fingers. Just think about what could be if everyone could be very unlike me. I could ramble on but I realised something, I have something to do... nothing.