One can enjoy life in various innocuous ways. 367

This thought reverberated in Imaginch’s mind. Now his mission was to find out various innocuous ways and publish them so that the populous at large can pick one and enjoy life. Thinking part was done in no time but the searching and publishing part loomed larger than the Rock of Gibraltar. 

Why the Rock of Gibraltar? Because he had heard about it but not seen it. Maybe, the memory from the film, Guns of Navarone triggered it. He thought that the imaginary gun placed in an imaginary Greek island would give him the license to use the Rock of Gibraltar to exemplify his daunting task. He set out to find innocuous ways in which anyone can find enjoyment in life. 

Pathway No:1 Take a piece of paper and fold it in as many imaginative ways as possible. You can choose a valley fold or mountain fold. Then unfold it and carefully count the number creases you have given to the paper. 

One need not be confused with fold and crease as they refer to the same indentation mark. Stick with 'crease' to avoid confusion as our objective is to find innocuous ways to enjoy life and not to complicate it. Who knows you may end up with 'worrigami' rivalling Origami or Kirigami! 

Try this pathway No:2 Find a last year's unruled or notebook that come with grids (which will be mostly as good as a new one) and a pencil, which you can readily beg borrow or steal from your grandchild’s hoarded stock. You might have scared your drawing master and classmates alike, with your extraordinary talent. But that water had flown under the bridge long ago. 

Now is the time to dazzle yourself by doing caricatures. Why caricatures? Caricature is a drawing, where your exaggerated or distorted specific features of a person or thing (not by design but due to lack of talent) to create a humorous effect will turn out to be ridiculous. Now, you have found an innocuous way to enjoy your life, but better keep the artistic work to yourself to double the enjoyment! They are fun and anything you draw will be helping the genuine caricatures to find a place in the Louvre or any such art gallery! 

Pathway No:3 Worrying over an unfulfilled dream of being a gardener raising flowering plants?  Stop living in that negative space and start living ikebana style by emphasizing minimalism, line and form.  No worry if you don’t have even potted plants. Do this. Walk down the road, collect wildflowers (gated communities have guard dogs). Enlarge your foray into different localities, who knows you may end up with an exotic collection of flowers. And if required give them a wash at home. 

Let your creativity flow out of the box and arrange the collected flowers to your satisfaction. Your satisfaction is paramount as you have found an innocuous way to enjoy life, better keep your artistic work to yourself to double the enjoyment! 

Pathway No:4 By becoming a bird watcher is another innocuous way to enjoy life. This requires only a few trees in your locality. You can turn it into an easy way to enjoy your life. Before leaving home, do not forget to wear your helmet and a rain coat. Then, just sit or stand under the trees. Why the helmet & raincoat? Bear with me, you will appreciate the suggestion, a little later. 

With crows, eagles, parakeets, starlings, mynas, and cranes perching on the branches or flying in search of food and water will make you feel that you have stepped into the world of Avians. If you are lucky, you may find some monkeys and squirrels on the trees.  Since you cannot order both out of the trees,  it is easy  to accept them as they are. 

Count each species, look at their feather, colour and wing shapes, critically assess the functions and efficiency of their beaks. Watch how their behaviour changes when a monkey or squirrel barge into their gathering. 

Immersed in your observations, you would not have noticed the beauty marks on your helmet and raincoat. While you were engrossed with your task, the birds were also busy sending to you their 'complimentary drops' of appreciation. Hope you have found an innocuous way to enjoy your life! 

Pathway No:5 If you are up to it, read further. But this one might involve sound attention and even biting chases. How about a little thrill to enliven it as you go along?  The get up required is simple.  A bedspread draped over your shoulder like a shawl and a stick in one of your hands and a walk down the lane in the morning. Now you have the attention of the 24X7 inhabitants – the street dogs. Forced to live their whole life the hard way. If you are activist, you may call them abandoned dogs. 

The pity is that they do not know whether you are a stranger or an activist and in right earnest they might start doing the two things they always do. Bark at you from a distance to judge your flight or fright response. Sometimes the ‘flight response’ gets you a few weak barks and if they are confused or annoyed may toy with the idea of a leisurely chase to frighten you further. In case of ‘fright response’, they would bare their teeth, growl and bark and are sure to give a wholehearted chase. If are nimble enough, you escape dog bites but with lungs in pain (if you are not having a weak heart). If slow on your legs, you get pain+. Hope you will not bark or bite me if I come around to ask how are you doing? 

Pathway No:6 This innocuous way to enjoy life will take you a little off the beaten track. It is waiting for you in dark places. Don't let your imagination paint a phosphorescent-picture of evil deeds. I simply meant to say that dark places and stargazing go "twinkle, twinkle." All you need to know is that stars twinkle and planets do not bat an eyelid! 

The international astronomical body does not know the secret that you do not know the names of stars, or constellations or to use Messier’s catalogue or the other NGC designations to spot deep space objects. They are all there as reference documents to prevent the serious astronomers from getting lost in cosmic hypermarket or call it a cosmic wood, if you want. But you are only gazing without any malicious intent. Blue and red coloured stars bridge the generation gap from toddler to grandfather or grandmother states. 

This much is enough for you to select a dark place and let your eyes roam all over the sky. Hope you have found an innocuous way to enjoy life. Who knows, you may even pick up some star talk in the bargain! 

One can enjoy life in various innocuous ways. I have found mine in finding them for you! Did you select one for you?

 Imaginch never imagined that he would get a review cum reply from a reader who must have come upon his article purely by accident! But he took great pleasure in appending this review cum report to the original article: "I definitely won’t be picking worrigami 😇. Thanks - I found all the innocuous approaches you listed really interesting and practical for all age groups, except for pathway 5. A different narrative from your usual style, yet you managed to turn a simple suggestion into such a warm and lovable read."