Should I buy nylon socks or not?

Short answer
Depends on your place and time in the actual scheme of things.

Long answer
In one of P.L. Deshpande’s book called Apoorvai, he speaks about his trip and all the pre-planning he did before leaving for London. PL talks about how his passport, visa and tickets were in place but world was witnessing World War 2. Japan was attacking Russia, Germany was bombarding France, different prime ministers were visiting various countries and the whole economic situation was unstable, the world was undergoing a turmoil. In this highly unstable environment PL was in a fix as to should he buy nylon socks or wait for the world war to get over?

Though this anecdote is funny from a reader’s perspective, it gave me a lot of insights on to what should be your role in the bigger scheme of things. It’s absolutely necessary to be exposed to world at large but those things really shouldn’t dictate your actions. You ought to find what is your “swadharma” and work towards it. A person’s swadharma (swa, own, and dharma, duty) is their own unique role in life or way of being in the world, which it is their duty to realise and fulfil. Swadharma is not destiny, which would deny the reality of human choice, but rather a set of capacities that when fully developed allow us to take our place in the world.