Here’s why all of life comes down to Rajma Chawal

Wanderlust folks, tread at your own peril.

Gavin D'souza
Aug 28, 2017 · 4 min read

Often harassed by the simplest of questions, millennials venture out on soul hunting and self-discovery expeditions to “find oneself.”
You really think you’d find the “meaning of your existence” in a bar in Budapest, drunk all the way down to your bones and oh shit, where’s the passport?

If you are a vagabonding, carelessly reckless, nomad hiding behind #Wanderlust, then you may find this a tad salty. Because, honestly, at the end of your adventures (or so you’d like to call them), all that you really find out is that you are a hecking lot broke than what you once were and that you haven’t really discovered anything.

Have you been looking for meaning in life? Has the existential question of “what is life?” left you sleepless at night too?

Well, I have what you look for minus all the harpy-background scores and halos. Delivering facts to you without the otherwise abundant horse shit, I tell you that all of life is actually Rajma Chawal.

My kinda zen

Okay, I may be hungry right now, probably why this specific transitioning of thoughts happened, but I am gonna sit my ass down and write this while the rice cooked with kidney beans hits its edible adolescence for my devouring.

We often complain of the shitpile that’s life. And in defence, I’d say why not? We have been told since childhood that all of life’s adversities pass and eventually we all get to stay happy and contented. But there you are, having existed for whatever many years; impatient because what was promised to you hasn’t been delivered yet. It is at moments like these when I would tell you to look at the beautiful mess that is Rajma Chawal.

I am pretty sure the kidney beans in it, the rice grains, specific pinches of spices and all of that had a different life plan. They may have had ambitions and career goals and plans of settling down in a condiment backyard someday. But it did not work that well for them, did it? Do you hear rajma chawal complaining? It just goes ahead and makes do of what it gets. It just exudes simplicity without strongly overpowering one another and what remains is a transition of flavours in every morsel you munch on. It remains to be edible awesomeness.

Life is pretty much like that. You’ve got problems. You’ve got situations. And conditions. Deadlines and aging. Life goals and unfinished bucket lists. Financial drawbacks and emotional skirmishes. Put it all in one place, apply the pressure to focus on one task and one day at a time. A couple of whistles in your stride (mandatory). And voila!

Your life story is now a palatable delicacy, making minds drool at your impeccable problem solving abilities. In reality, you haven’t really done anything. Nothing externally, at least. You embraced all of your problems instead of running away from them. You took them all in. You decide to coexist with what vexes you because no matter what you do or where you go, life’s gonna suck ass. You cannot outrun it the even if you surrender to a lifetime of expeditions.

As per a Forbes report on International travels, youth worldwide have managed to spend a whooping $215 billion out of the total $1.088 trillion spend overall. I agree, and would not rule out the possibility that quite a big chunk of this $215 billion dollar babies may have spent the moolah for an overseas job or a degree in that reputed college they have always wanted. But looking at all the #TravelIsLife posts around me makes me wonder, “How much of this is actually productive? How much of this is gonna help you in the long run?”

Vacations, yes true. They are essential. Travelling by itself is not a bad thing. What is, is that one would not think twice before abandoning a week’s worth task for that Goa trip or that Leh Ladakh road venture. No two flying fucks given about that.

How fruitful is running from your problems, searching for life’s meaning? How effective of a solution is a solution if you keep doing it way too often?

There remains to be a lot at stake than for you to abandon what rests on you, chasing the evasive bunnies of existentialist life queries, which by the way, you never will lay hands on because there is no bunny to chase. The bunny is you.

There is you and there are your problems. You are your own enigma.

Instead of running around, try facing them.

I could tell you more about this but now that I’ve heard the third whistle go by, I salivate like a canine creature so I am gonna leave you with this:

Be the beautiful mess that is Rajma chawal.

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Gavin D'souza

Written by

The causalities of life from yet another banal, ass-scratching, mindless, potty-mouthed wannabe, who might just blow your mind sometimes. Sometimes.

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