pleasure-pain versus pain-pleasure

I was thinking the other day (yeah, yeah) and realized that most decisions in life boil down to a simple choice - pleasure now, pain later versus pain now pleasure later.

So, while the generally accepted view is that Life is short and we should live in the Now, we must also remember that thanks to better healthcare and stronger bungee ropes, Life can actually stretch for a very long time.

So question is, which is the logical choice to make?
Slog now to enjoy the spoils at leisure later, or have a blast now because the future might not even happen?

There is a third option which is to take pleasure in the pain in anticpation of future pleasure.
But the only two types of people who do that are Ayn Rand's heroes and mental patients.

Then of course, it was time to watch T.V. and I stopped thinking.

less talk, more driving

Ok, yet another post on driving.
Why??
Because I want to write travelogues but the only traveling i do is in my dinky-wud-be-vintage-if-it-wasnt-biscuit-brown maruti 800 on the dusty streets of delhi.
actually, if you happen to be a tourist from east europe (the kind who camp at paharganj and have a giant knapsack on their back) you may actually find reading it marginally cool.

but then again, it's just about a drive to a petrol pump, or several actually.

Yesterday was the last day when petrol would ever be four bucks cheaper. Imagine that.
It so happened that we were going out for icecream and realized that it would be a historic day to 'tank up'.
Apparently everyone was going out for icecream and thought it would be a good idea to 'tank up'.
It was the strangest sight. Nearly every petrol pump had scores of cars waiting in line, blocking traffic, people were honking and demanding petrol as if we were all going to be nuked and we had to cross the border by night.
It was surreal- i wish there was an aerial view of the whole thing - you know those doomsday movies where they show desperate scenes of people lined up for food/water/oil?

it took us twenty minutes to get our tank full (the needle was at E - i swear, we were not being cheap) and we(I) spent that time wondering what would happen if suddenly all our cellphones started ringing, or if somebody suddenly decided to light up.
We went to my granparents place after that but everywhere that mary went, that noxious smell of petrol followed.
We drove back at 11 45 pm and there were still some brave cars around.

easy like ...

o joy! o blessed weather!
I had the most incredible early morning drive.
Nobody alive at seven on a saturday morning, traffic lights just blinkin n winkin, a cool, dewy wind blowing through my hair, skies a bright shade of grey, a light drizzle on my windscreen.
A drive is better than a long walk in the rain - atleast your boots don't get squishy.

Driving back at two is usually a nightmare but the weather continued to be benign. I was driving back, mighty pleased because of the wind and the weekend. I stopped at the red light opposite Humayun's tomb, switched off the engine and generally grinned at no one.

Thats when I saw a tall, young man in saffron robes, his head shaven with a bunch of books in his hand walking towards me. He bent down and spoke in a mellow British accent, very Zen. He was from ISCKON and was wondering if I would be interested in some books on Krishna.
I mumbled some apology about not having any money on me (i didn't, really) and then immediately regretted it because maybe he was just offering these books and not actually selling them.
He just gave a very sanguine nod, a gentle smile and walked away.
I wondered about this man who belonged in a Sabyasachi fashion show, and who'd instead apparently forsaken the world to spread the message of God to us materialists.

I felt a wild stab of something, which for lack of better understanding I'll call envy. I wished for a moment I could give it all up too, the fears and the worries, the pains and the pleasures. I wished I could travel barefeet, no purse-strings attached, living on the opiate of spirituality.
I tried to picture myself in saffron robes but Uma Bharti kept coming into mind.
And then the light turned green and I remembered the big party at 8 and I left the leaving behind behind.