No News is Indeed Good News

I actioned this policy (see photo) almost 3 years ago in Feb 2017. I am happy to report that the policy worked brilliantly. I did not get depressed from the news any more even though I have a faint inkling that there might be things happening in the world.

The funny thing is that I didn't get depressed even during the last months of 2019 when I completely uprooted my life and moved across the country, and was stone-cold broke for a few months (still stoney broke but not cold).

That brings me to the conclusion that we (editorial 'we') get more depressed by the general news even more so than by the things that happen directly to us.

For those who may be interested I use a Chrome add-on called F.B. Purity to suppress the news, ads and other junk that Facebook itself pushes to the page alongside your news feed. For the actual posts shared by people in my friends list I simply unfollow the person if their posts contain news of the world.

Filtered News

Most of my readers know that I don't follow news. I don't read newspapers and I don't watch newscasts. Most definitely it's not the right thing to day. But then when did I claim to be a doer of right things? I do things as they suit me. As do most people, they just delude themselves. If you didn't like reading newspaper, you wouldn't.

My contention is still the same - reading newspapers doesn't make you feel good. If there's bad news, being a good person you feel bad about it. If there's good news, it happened to someone else, and you would feel jealous or at the very least, envious.

But still, I miss some things by not following the news. Each news item aside from being good or bad also gives us new things to think about and sometimes opportunities to learn something new.

There have been times in my life when I did make a conscious effort to follow news. For example, the time when I was trying to learn the stock market. The share market is impacted by all things so it's useful to stay on top of the world news if you really want to be good at it. I never got anywhere with it. It was too boring to follow news even with that extra incentive.

There was that time when all my classmates were reading newspapers in order to improve their English. I stuck with stories and storybooks. Worked great for me. Much better than the newspaper readers.

There have been periods in my life when I did read newspaper regularly. But I only read two sections - the comics and Bollywood. The latter for the photos, the articles and gossip bore me even in that.

However, even though I don't follow news, I do get my news, indirectly. I read blogs almost regularly. And I look at the Facebook newsfeed from time to time. And I do talk to a lot of people on the internet. Through these and other such channels I get my news, filtered as it were.

The Earthquake in Japan

I don't know what to say, guys. This is one of the reasons I don't follow news. I don't like bad news. But when something is this huge, I still get to know about it. I am terribly saddened by the huge disaster the Japanese people have suffered and would be looking for ways to see if I can help in anyway. 

Let's draw swords!

Alright, I'll just come out and say it, "My name is Sunil Goswami and I am a gymphobic.".

Well, it's not like I see a gym sign and run screaming, but I didn't coin the term. I do find gyms quite boring though. I have tried to join a gym and work out regularly quite a few times but never could keep it up. But just like everyone else I also need to keep in shape, (now don't tell me round is a shape, that joke's old now). I recently came across a newspaper article (I must explain before my regular readers accuse me of reading a newspaper, that I was using that as a tablecloth to eat on), "Fun ways for gym-phobics to keep fit", I decided to make that my lunch-time reading. The article was true to its title and there were indeed some half-dozen ways listed to stay fit without going to the gym. The first one that caught my eye (I tend to read an article from the middle) was "Fencing".



The first image that came to my mind was from one of those mythological/medieval Indian movies where the hero is like an Indian Robin Hood fighting the authority, and finale is somewhere like the top of a palace gate, the evil king and the hero fighting the last fight, swords gleaming in the sun, the sound of metal upon metal adding excitment to the action...

The images that followed were not less glamourous at all - James Bond in "Die Another Day", "Mask of Zorro" and a few others.

So, me being a child of the information age and a firm believer in the power of the Internet, I started to research the thing before making a decision.

My research started from YouTube, where I checked out not only the James Bond scene but also some footage of real life fencing. In movies everything is glamorous. But even the RL fencing looked quite interesting. So, next stop was Google Maps where I stuck my post code in and searched for fencing clubs. Luckily, there were a few fencing clubs around my area and I picked one which was the nearest.

Well, long story short (too late!), I have started to fence. So far, I have attended only 3 classes but it's such a fantastic sport. Maybe it's just me but it feels so glamourous. My club provides the whole kit (to use), until you are committed enough to buy your own. There's no time limit or pressure on you to invest a lot of money in it.

Okay, so the story starts with dressing. I had been told on the phone to dress up in loose tracksuit bottoms and trainer shoes. On top of that you wear a shoulder guard, a heavy, thick jacket, a glove in your fencing hand, and don't forget the mask that hides Rosamund Pike's lovely features and you can't tell she's a girl until she takes it off. Then you are ready to pick up the sword, it's called foil, and...oh wait, first you have to ask someone to zip you up. Yes, the jacket zips up in the back, that's why it's necessary to make friends in the club if you are going fencing. Well, so far I have never had to ask, people are so very nice they offer help even before I can bring myself to ask someone.

How cold did you say it is outside? Zero? Minus one? Minus two? well, not inside our club hall. You will see everybody sweating, excuse me, perspiring, even though the heat is turned off. It's not just all those heavy clothes, it's also the physical exercise, the excitement, the rush of adrenalin.

I am a newbie, completely unskilled, clumsy, slow and on top of that I have no stamina to stay in for long. And yet, nobody minds practicing with me. Even people with years of experience agreed to fence with me and some actually asked themselves. As I said, I am new and know nothing but still when I fight, the grip of that metal rod gives me confidence, and I feel all excited. The cling-clang of sword against sword is such a headrush!

Well, that's enough babbling for one post. Rest assured that I'll be writing about it again. I love fencing. (Hmmmm, I wonder if they make bumper stickers for that!). If you can, do try it. It's amazing!

Borrowing Sorrow

The following 3 links are from a blog I read regularly. It is not an attempt on my part to try and convince you that my way of avoiding news is the right way. It's just that I was impressed by the way this author has detailed his journey into depression and the recovery process. It's a nice case in point to see how much grief we borrow from outside, without any need for it. And since it outlines the path to recovery with well-written comments, I think you'll find it worthwhile to read these 3 posts.

http://apaetoday.blogspot.com/2007/11/turn-off-tune-out-be-happy-descent.html

http://apaetoday.blogspot.com/2007/11/turnoff-tune-out-be-happy-recovery.html

http://apaetoday.blogspot.com/2007/11/turn-off-tune-out-be-happy-today.html

What's the news?

Most people look at me like I am a criminal the first time they hear
that I don't watch the news. "YOU ARE KIDDIN' ME!?" is the first
reaction, the second one being, "How can you NOT watch the news?" Well,
I just don't watch it so that accomplishes the not watching part of it!

My logic is very simple, if I watch the news I'll get to read or watch
about one of two types of things generally - good or bad. If it's good
then it happened to someone else (if it had happened to me, I'd know,
right?), then I'd feel a desire, a longing, or even envy that it didn't
happen to me. If it's bad, then being a sensitive guy, I'd feel really
sorry for the unfortunate victims - like the Virginia Tech victims, and
it'll get me down, bringing down my productivity levels. In none of the
cases does it make me feel good. So why should I invest my time and
money in something that is sure to make me feel bad?

Another argument is - to stay abreast of current affairs. I don't need
to watch news for that. If it's big enough I'll hear it soon enough,
from some source. I was in office when 9/11 happened and NOT watching
news, but I heard it before the 2nd plane hit.

If it's relevant, I'll hear it quick enough. I was not watching news
when the US H1B visa quota got overapplied on the first day in India,
but I heard it within a couple of hours of the embassy closing. So
there's no chance that they'll propose my name for the Nobel Peace Prize
and I won't hear of it because I was not watching news.

There was a time when I was meddling in the stock market. During that
phase I used to keep tab of stock prices and related news. But I never
had to pick up a newspaper for that. It all came to me, from various
sources.

Time and again, under the tremendous pressure of the news-reading
community, I have tried to get into the habit of reading a newspaper,
but it has always bored the hell out of me. So I went back to my
original practice of turning to the comic page as soon as I picked up
the paper, then reading the jokes if any, and if I still had nothing
better to do, skimming through the paper to look at ads featuring
beautiful girls.

In this day and age, when information is the most important and most
expensive commodity, the news channels as well as print media exists
only to sensationalize anything they can find in order to promote their
own business. I'd much rather watch the re-runs of the re-runs of the
same episodes of the same comedy TV shows than waste an hour watching a
news-discussion of why Prince William dumped Kate Middleton. If the
former can make me laugh once in the half-hour, it's a good investment.