The Journey from Ambala to the World
[Music]
[Applause]
hi guys i’m ragini tandon and i’m here
to perform my
most love song for you
oh no just kidding i’m here to talk
about how focus
and unfocus are important in my life and
i’m here to share
my experiences with you for the last
four crazy years of my life
i have been time and again thinking
about the word
focus the usual understanding is that
focus
helps one make a better life you know
focusing in different capacities
on work family friends and all of that
for example when i was younger and i’m
sure it was the same for all you guys
i wanted to finish all my homework just
so that i could go out and play with my
friends
a little later my focus drifted a little
except i still want to finish all the
work and attend all the extracurricular
activities
right on time so that i can reach home
and watch this favorite cereal of mine
called dill milder i was so obsessed
with romance i cannot even tell you
so anyway i used to schedule my classes
exactly
at the time so that i could finish those
all that work and reach home
and watch that serial priorities were
very clear
then came the time when we had to choose
our streams and figure out that
one stream that is going to help us with
what we really want to do
i remember i used to wonder how can i
decide so early in life
like what if i feel differently in a
year or two
how do you find that one thing that you
really want to do for the rest of your
life
i mean we’re like what 16 17 years old
when we have to make these big decisions
so then the real question that arises
is how do we find that one thing that we
should
and want to be focusing on it was 2008 i
remember
when our school principal asked us to
write down on a chit
our one ultimate dream even then i
remember
mine was to be a playback singer i
remember writing on that paper
literally that i want to be in bombay
and i want to be recording in
yash raj studios so music classes were
my favorite favorite part of the day
believe it or not i missed dill milk i
multiple times
just so that i could attend an extra
music class in the 10th grade i even
convinced my principal to let me miss
two exams just so that i could attend a
music competition in delhi
it was fun except for the part where i
was sitting and giving exams and my
friends were
actually celebrating the end of them so
anyway
at that age i didn’t know if this dream
was even possible
and then life hit like it does to all of
us
du cutoffs interviews board results
and so much more and all the stressful
things that happen to come with it
i have always been a fairly average
student i used to score about
70 to 80 percent and i was happy with it
to be honest
as long as i could attend those music
classes like
like you know we all know board exams
are important so
i made sure i studied and like i studied
like never before
and i was quite confident about the
range of percentage that i would get
this was when i realized there is
something else in this world that i
really
enjoyed learning about and that was the
subject psychology
my focus was now divided between these
two things that i
absolutely loved singing and psychology
and at this time even though my music
kept going
making a career out of it was not on the
cards
du cutoffs at that time were peaking at
120 percent
they were expecting you to answer all
the questions
maybe write two questions extra from
your own side
answer those two just to get admission
in a college
and here i was really wanting to do
psychology honors
but with a result of 89
way lower than the du cutoff
we tried the eca route as well but i
still didn’t get it
anywhere i was simply devastated and i
just didn’t know what to do
there were these two things i really
wanted to make a part of my life
but i just couldn’t figure out how
i enrolled in a liberal arts college in
pune i would call that year
a year of complete unfocused i was
studying all types of things
from ethics to biology to
calligraphy to the cultural study of
gods
i had no idea what was in store for me
and i just kept telling myself
to keep going relax and enjoy in
other words now that i realize unfocus
now if you google the synonyms of the
word unfocused
this is what you’ll see vague distracted
unstructured aimless beaver couf
i mean when someone calls you unfocused
it’s not meant as a compliment you know
it’s supposed to be an insult it hurts
and
brings all types of sadness and
negativity telling you from personal
experience
now here’s what the fun part is which of
course i realized
much much later in life unfocusing from
something you’re pursuing
doesn’t necessarily mean you’re
unfocused in life
research has shown that unfocusing
allows you to develop resilience
enhance your creativity and also help
you make better decisions
when we unfocus from some problem or
challenge
we relax enough to see new possibilities
and solutions
that year for me was random
lots of unstructured time lots of
aimless
purposeless strolling around campus deep
thinking
and so much more and i would say that
all this
made my mind so much clearer than it was
the year before
the stress of 12 standard college
applications
choosing streams it was all quite a
mental storm
this year in pune was almost like
a healing experience the fact that i got
to learn
so many new things was just an added
bonus
i didn’t know at that time how much this
so-called
unfocus was helping me grow towards
being a stronger
calmer and a more determined person
i was quietly strengthening my resolve
to build the life i wanted to find
solutions to most
if not all my problems unfocusing
gave me new opportunities exposure
and chances to experience much more
than i had ever ever imagined when i say
i became more determined
here’s how i reapplied to du in the next
year
through eca and this time voila
i got through happiest day of my life
believe me i mean you all know how it
feels to be admitted here
right i was the same person that i was a
year ago
my percentage had not magically
increased to 120 percent
my singing had improved a little sure
but i think i got in this time
because i was calmer clearer and more
determined
i had spent a lot of time being
unfocused
this time i went in with a happy energy
and trust me that vibe is everything
i believe that made all the difference
srini pillai a neuroscientist and an
acclaimed author
makes the case for why we need to
unfocus sometimes
in a story for the harvard business
review he writes
the problem is that excessive focus
exhausts
the focus circuits in your brain it can
drain your energy
and make you lose self-control this
energy drain
can also make you more impulsive and
less helpful
as a result decisions are poorly thought
out
and you become less collaborative being
an artist
i happen to experience creative blocks
many times
making it extremely difficult for me to
come up with something
fresh something i would love to call my
work
at this time i usually try to move on
with other
things around me like you know sometimes
i would start cleaning up my room
i would clean my cupboard maybe put up a
movie along with it
so while writing about this i realized
that this was
my way of unfocusing letting my mind
wander and in simple terms just
chill and most of the time after
unfocusing after this whole procedure
i would just get new ideas or tunes
which i love and in time have also
worked upon to turn them into
songs which of course you’ll hear in the
near future
so let me give you an example of
unfocusing that i’m sure
has happened with each one of you like
it’s a part of our daily life so one day
you keep something valuable
in a place that is extremely safe and
you will never forget and literally the
next day
you just can’t seem to find it when it
happens with me
i become so frustrated and i feel like
the whole
universe is conspiring against me but
then
the amazing thing is that as soon as you
finally give up and stop
thinking about where that valuable thing
might have gone
it suddenly comes back to you something
in your mind
clicks and there it is solutions come
when we are just not engaged in
particular tasks
and have the mental freedom to entertain
new ideas
and find connections that have
previously evaded us
unfocusing gives your mind the space
that it requires
to find those solutions find that
clarity
in simple words if you’re struggling
with some problem
deliberately set aside some time to
daydream about it
don’t think about it at all and the
benefits of doing so
will be that your unconscious mind will
get on the job
and produce creative solutions without
you having to do very much at all
in 2020 we all went through some major
changes in life
and in the world because of the pandemic
as a part of an
ever evolving industry as an artist
being just extremely focused about work
my music
compositions and all of that just didn’t
seem enough
even when the work was being done the
music was being made
it just didn’t feel sufficient i was
figuring out ways to reach
my audience in many different ways as i
could
and slowly the scary thoughts surfaced
the cycle of feeling stressed
and feeling worked up began seriously
the
struggle of not knowing whether you’re
doing the right thing
is real i took some time to just
brainstorm and channel my focus
on something more this helped me
understand that
it wasn’t good enough to just have focus
i needed to have
diversification that was when i decided
to start working with my brother
on castico where i got to meet new
people online who were also interested
in music
it helped me channel my focus towards
other possibilities
and solutions instead of just sitting
around stressing about life
and about how the world was in shutdown
mode there’s also another way to look at
the whole focus and focus scenario
which seems like a very very different
approach to me
focus to unfocus there are certain
situations in
every person’s life that they just don’t
want to think about
but sometimes they just can’t help it
breakups career
money problems work stress family issues
the future the list has no end
this is where focus to unfocus can be
most
powerful yes it is possible for a person
to dive
deep into a particular thing so much so
that everything else around them
is in complete unfocus this can be a
great way to move aggressively towards
your goals
but i can tell you from personal
experience this kind of approach
only leads to exhaustion fatigue
and sometimes loneliness as well
you tend to forget to chill socialize
and have some fun
from time to time why because you’re too
focused on that just one thing yes it is
good to be focused
but why not just relax and let your mind
wander
while it also is working unconsciously
and
in a way finding new possibilities and
solutions for us
anyway i know you’re all having a great
time in college already
so i thought i’d give you a nice
argument to give your parents
when they don’t want you to party they
don’t want you to take
naps or go on long trips or just even
just sit around
and do nothing before i go i’d like to
just say one more thing
i’ve been making this argument for how
unfocusing is great because it increases
productivity
and makes you focus better on your goals
and so on
but all that aside unfocusing is just
too much fun and like kobit 19 has
taught us
sometimes in life having fun is enough
too
on that note i’ll leave you with a few
lines from an essay by a border
a french poet for the perfect idler for
the passionate observer
it becomes an immense source of
enjoyment
to establish his dwelling in the throng
in the ebb and flow
the bustle the fleeting and the infinite
to be away from home and yet to feel at
home
everywhere to see the world to be
at the very center of the world and yet
to be unseen to the world such are the
minor pleasures
of those independent and impartial
spirits
who do not lend themselves to
definitions
thank you for listening guys hope this
talk helps you
unfocus have a great day
[Applause]
[Music]
you