l “In my humble opinion, renewal isn’t a single act but discipline. A burst of inspiration is easy; metabolising it into a different way of living, day after day, when no one’s watching and the old grooves are still right there -- that’s the hard part.” THIS statement sums up the best the process of renewal -- of a sportsperson, or a music maestro, of a scientist ... of anybody. In other words, renewal is a silent and personal journey towards continued excellence. And the problem is that there is no destination for this journey. For, excellence cannot be defined as a single point. Likewise, renewal also cannot be defined as a single act. In still other words, renewal is a string of works in progress in the most silent, most personal manner. That is what Virat Kohli or Lionel Messi or Kaushiki Chakraborty do-- work on themselves with a focus beyond norm, and beyond public glare. The quotation above is from the loud-thinker’s old friend (Professor) Dr. Supantha Bhattacharyya (who is also an author, a poet, a multilingual thespian). Very perceptively, he points to the real hard part of the process of renewal -- continuing the effort when the old grooves are very much there, and there is no one to watch -- in the sense, to promote or protect (or encourage).

 

It is a lonely journey. It is a single-handed, single-minded pursuit. And therefore, many people do not wish to launch themselves on that path (even if they realise its importance). For, renewal requires the mindset of a sage and the physical worth of a champion. It may not be proper to except young people to realise the importance of renewal when they are yet to face the actual challenges of real life. But look for what Amitabh Bacchan has to say about the effort needed to ensure continued excellence, and you may come across some very deep and meditative thought-process. Haven’t we known of authors (who produce masterpieces almost habitually) getting engrossed into reading hundreds of pages every day ? Invariably, they would say, they do so because they want to keep renewing their expressive ability, their imagination, their perception of humanness. Many authors spent endless periods of time meeting different people -- only to understand finer and deeper nuances of human mind and conduct. That is also an act of self-renewal. When he was an NCC cadet, the loud-thinker learned rifle-shooting under one Non-Commissioned Officer of the Indian Army.

 

That middle-aged soldier -- a Dogra -- would stun all cadets with his accuracy in shooting. “Sir, how do you achieve this?”, the loud-thinker asked him in amazement. The man smiled, and said, in effect, ‘Look, I keep my senses razor sharp through practice for hours every day’. Malcom Gladwell, the celebrated author of iconic book ‘Outliers”, talks of 10,000 hours of practice for a person to become a real master in anything. And the legendary Tennis superstar Leander Paes talks of three million shots of every stroke in one’s repertoire so that not just the mind but also the muscle develops the memory of the action. This is the hard part -- where most cringe. And those who do not tear into an altogether different league -- the Virat Kohlis of the world (for example).