Challenging the challenges

Life is fraught with challenges. Wherever you look, where ever you may turn there’s a challenge waiting for you. No, no, I am not talking about challenges in a philosophical way, nor am I talking about the Game of Throne kind. I am referring to the challenge that people keep throwing at each other, you perform a challenge that has been thrown at you, make a video of you performing it, upload it on social media, tag others to do the same.

Well challenges are good, they keep you on your toes, they keep you active, give life meaning, and all that crap. But when every Tom-Dick-and-Harry keeps throwing some sort of challenge or the other, at you, then it may not be a good thing, after all too much of a good thing is not always a good thing. With so many challenges when do you rest, when do you recover? Moreover these challenges are more like fads, trending one moment, forgotten the next. What happens to the challenge once the challenge is completed? Does anyone remember the ice bucket challenge?

The Current set of challenges, not matter how well intentioned they may be, always seems destined for just the hash tag, socially mobile generation, in other words for the social butterflies, the social elites, the celebrities, just for the pomp and show. Most of them don’t seemed to be quite well thought out, hence their shelf life is limited and are quickly forgotten once the hype settles.

If you need a country to be fit, it’s not just performing some five minutes exercise that going to make it fit. Fitness has many connotations and it’s not just physical fitness, you need to have mental fitness too, and for that you need to improve the current lifestyle eliminating the stress that one faces. The notion of rat races and career orientation and constant moving have made life quite stressful. Not to forget the butt kissing and haanji culture, and the boss/customer is always right, all adds to the stress. Where do you materialise the time to do these challenges when you are always running from one point or another, from one deadline to another, and then challenging the next person. What happens after you perform the exercise, do you go back to living a sedentary lifestyle? Being fit is not just exercising, what about mental fitness, most importantly access to well-balanced and wholesome meal. We live in time where adulteration is rampantly practised and often goes unchecked. Everyone seems to be living on a razor edge and are set off even at the slightest of provocation. How can a nation be fit by just performing series of exercises and posting on social media?

Then you have the various running challenges. Well, if you are constantly running when do you let your body rest and recover. If you want to stay fit and running injury-free you also need to perform strengthening exercise. Constantly running, without proper rest and recovery could lead to injuries. 

In a way, if I dare to say, many of our religious practices themselves can be seen as a challenge. The month of Ramadan can be seen as the fasting challenge, the season of Lent can be seen as the abstaining challenge, you abstain from gossiping and talking bad behind others back, a.k.a. Bitching (most gossipy aunties seem to be bursting with gossip, come Easter), abstaining from liquor (with the full kasar taken once again  on Easter).

And if you are talking about challenges, maybe we should come up with a challenge to our politicians to fulfil all their pre-poll promises, or even trying to take the Virar local, for the government the challenge to buy something with paises they have reduced in petrol, for the BMC ensure that there are not a single pothole, for celebrities and socialites to do something without making a big thing or posting on social media. Now these challenges would definitely make thing interesting and would be beneficial to all.

In the end whatever the challenges that one tries to throw your way, tries to nominate you for, you don’t have to get caught up in all the euphoria of performing it. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to perform it or not and what’s in it for you, what’s best for you. Sometimes it’s better to challenge the challenge than blindly do them.