Old readers and friends will know the problems that I have if I stay at one place and do the same thing over and over again – I need to be out somewhere, live a little as defined by so many businesses today (which means spending oodles of money), party a bit and shop (incessantly).
Maybe this is the main reason for the healthy respect I have developed for Gaurav Mishra who has embarked onto a year long experiment to be off-consumption.
While there are a lot of cynics who might think this is really nothing extra-ordinary as most middle-class Indians do it, I have to point out that for a person who has moved on from humble origins to a reasonably well-settled lifestyle and is hence more used to doing what we all do a lot – consuming, this does become a big thing.
I have tried before to shake it off when I was in dire straits (unlike Guarav) and still found myself back to my usual antics within the space of a month, which is why I will be following him with a lot of interest now. Who knows, it just might inspire a lot of us to stop looking at consumption as the only ticket to happiness.
P.S He does have some great ideas on how to have fun without money though. 
2 responses so far ↓
Off-Consumption « Sagaro - Weblog of Ganesh APP // May 24, 2008 at 9:18 am |
[...] on May 24, 2008. I recently read about this concept called off-consumption at CR’s blog, I have been fascinated by the idea. What is it? In simple words, you chose a period of time where [...]
Gaurav Mishra // June 10, 2008 at 12:53 pm |
Hi,
Thanks for the kind words.
Yes, being off consumption isn’t easy for anyone (it hasn’t been easy for me either), but it does have its rewards. The biggest one, perhaps, is the understanding that our happiness is not driven primarily by what we buy.