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Global Village Idiot: Life lessons from making toast at the buffet breakfast
I love vacations, just love them
I love vacations, just love them. Especially the way vacations are nowadays. The first day sets the tone. You check into the hotel or resort and they put you on the clock immediately. “Sir buffet breakfast will be served every day from 6.30 to 10 am.”
I don’t quite remember the last time we took a family vacation out of Pune. It was three maybe four years ago. It’s become habit now to blame everything on Covid but that’s not true and especially because I know quite a few people who travelled in spite of the pandemic. And I kind of feel stupid that I didn’t, especially given that authorities across the world have eventually thrown up their hands and are saying take care of yourselves and don’t even wear of mask if you don’t want to.
We made up a rule this time around: not to do anything we do usually. So, the first thing I did was log out of all - all - social media, emails and apps. Not even taking calls. It takes one work call or message to set you back a few hours, maybe the whole day. Work and worry are always going to be waiting for me. And unless I switch off, I don’t get to recharge nor am I able to give undivided attention to myself and to the family. So, no Instagram. No LinkedIn. No Twitter. No smartphone basically since all of that paraphernalia is a big part of the digital disorder syndrome. To the point that I am carrying the phone with me only for clicking photos and videos.
Another decision my better half took was to do a road trip. She loves to drive, we all get to see a lot more country that way, it’s safer since you’re in your own environment and it costs the price of fuel.
It takes a good two days to abandon regular habits and worries and learn to relax and unwind. Thankfully we have a good taskmaster: the buffet breakfast. The buffet breakfast is the scheduler of schedulers, the motivator of motivators, the holiest of holy grails of vacations.
Getting up early on a vacation is a counter-intuitive concept. Also, self-defeating the purpose. Unless of course there is an intrinsic motivation to get up early. Which is to have an emptyish dining space or your favourite 6-seater table and great service. We are failing miserably at it so far since we amble into the dining hall fashionably late. To be honest, the buffet is fascinating for all of us. Every morning we are curious to find out what will be on the buffet today, accompanying the usual expectations which include waffles, pancakes, assorted muffins and eggs made-to-order. For us adults, the excitement is that we don’t have to cook or do the dishes nor do we have to clean up after.
And that’s what a vacation is really all about for the first couple of days - soaking in the non-work, guilt-free enjoyment of a simple cup of coffee. For the children, they get to (within reason and with consideration for what everyone wants to do), enjoy a study-free, schedule-free, restrictions-free two weeks of childhood. At the moment (as I write this), I am in the game room of the resort watching Marsha and the Bear while the younger kids are on the playstation. I love Marsha and the Bear, as also Heidi and Peppa Pig and Big Hero 6 and K-drama and … a whole lot of stuff. Stuff that I normally wouldn’t take the time to watch. Just as I wouldn’t take the time to sketch or go on long walks or swim or read for long hours or listen or build things with my own hands.
It’s been a while since we just drove around a town, finding our way by asking local residents the directions and then stopping to eat at a local restaurant simply because it looked like a quaint place where food might be enjoyable. And to be surprised pleasantly by the outcome of such a simple adventure.
Digital age life is extremely taxing on the mind and body on account of the digital dependency and the lack of the habit of doing our own thinking and deciding and taking small risks and learning from them. There are apps and digital aids for everything, so much so that they make us feel inadequate and fearful to go without them. That the world would fall apart and we would fail at simple tasks unless we had the assurance of an anonymous big (or small) tech company’s knowledge and database to guide us for our own good.
We have spoken to (face to face) more than a hundred people in the last four days, from petrol pump staff to eateries to hotel staff to passers-by to local residents and other tourists from across the country. I am relearning to socialise and relax and breath in the fresh air without overthinking matters. And learning a lot of local history, debating with and listening to perspectives from the family, seeing and experiencing things I had forgotten to see and experience and hopefully some of these new lessons will stay with me when I get back to the city.
For me the goal of the vacation has been to get one piece of perfectly made toast. A perfectly made piece of toast (for me) is one that is golden brown all over, crunchy on the outside and crumbling soft after the bite, and with the aroma of wheat and butter wafting through my senses. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a cup of black coffee.
The trick is to turn the toast every time you put it in the machine. Then you get an evenly toasted toast. If you just keep toasting the toast in the same position, then you get soft toast or burnt toast. Which means, you need to relax, be patient and take the time to make the toast.
And that’s what I am learning to do. To take my time to make the toast since it takes time to learn something and get it right.
Sanjay Mukherjee, author, learning-tech designer and management consultant, is founder of Mountain Walker and chief strategy advisor, Peak Pacific. He can be reached at thebengali@icloud.com
