So much to learn..

We learn all the time, and yet there comes a point when we aren't doing the right kind of learning. Some would argue that there never is a wrong learning.. what does that even mean? Anyhow, that is not my point. I mean, you should learn more about stuff that interests you apart from the stuff you learn at work and relationships. There's simply so much more else!

I would love to learn how to play the guitar, play tennis, live as one with the mountains, scuba dive, speak French and write well - amongst many other things. It's one life, and I want to do it all. As for the after-life, well that's another life, right? So we'll make plans then.

In the meanwhile, who broke the strings on my guitar? and where's my tennis court? There's a scarcity of court-time in not-so-dear-but-plenty-old Pune. Scores of guitarists willing to teach though. As for French, well there's lots of more time coming up. But, I have to continue learning new things throughout my life. That is the one way you continue to challenge yourself, get your mind working in new ways and make new roads for ideas. That is one of the best ways to grow, as a thinking person. New people, new activities, and constant change. Is equilibrium necessary? Only at intervals. The intensity of experience carries far more lessons than the leisure of reading or watching.

I drove today. After a while. After years actually. It was learning, alright. I never did enjoy it when I used to drive then. I was too much of a biker. And I always sat in the driver's seat with a reluctance that came from having enjoyed the wind on my face far too much. But today, I sat with a purpose. That of learning how to enjoy my driving. Because, my biking days are over - except when on vacation somewhere. Ah, how I yearn for those days! But today, I did rather end my drive on a happy note. And it caused my mind to not think in usual, rather programmed ways. I did something anew, and I came out with a refreshed mind. A few synapses clicked after long. No clutter, no noise - simply focusing on the task at hand and figuring out ways to master it. And enjoying it, as it all unfolds.

I wanna do more of this - the learning new things bit. Sounds like fun! Clay, and strings - here I come..

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness ..." wrote Charles Dickens, whose life was a rich mixture of all of the above. Here are 8 odd facts about the novelist:

WHAT THE DICKENS?

Charles Dickens was the first literary superstar - his popular works reached a wider audience than any writer before him. With classics like Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and David Copperfield, Dickens dominated the literary life of 19th-century England and the United States. But like many remarkable people, Dickens was a complex, multi-layered individual, full of peculiar quirks and odd habits.

• OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE: Dickens was preoccupied with looking in the mirror and combing his hair - he did it hundreds of times a day. He rearranged furniture in his home - if it wasn't in the exact "correct" position, he couldn't concentrate. Obsessed with magnetic fields, Dickens made sure that every bed he slept in was aligned north-south. He had to touch certain objects three times for luck. He was obsessed with the need for tidiness, often cleaning other homes as well as his own.

• NICKNAME-IAC Just as some of his most endearing characters had odd nicknames (like Pip in Great Expectations), Dickens gave every one of his ten children nicknames like "Skittles" and "Plorn."

• EPILEPTIC: Dickens suffered from epilepsy and made some of his characters - like Oliver Twist's brother - epileptics. Modern doctors are amazed at the medical accuracy of his descriptions of this malady.

• PRACTICAL JOKER: Dicken's study had a secret door designed to look like a bookcase. The shelves were full of fake books with witty titles, such as Noah's Arkitecture and a nine-volume set titled Cat's Lives. One of his favorites was a multi-volume series called The Wisdom of Our Ancestors, dealing with subjects like ignorance, superstition, disease, and instruments of torture, and a companion book titled The Virtues of Our Ancestors, which was so narrow that the title had to be printed vertically.

• EGOMANIAC: Dickens often referred to himself as "the Sparkler of Albion," favorably comparing himself to Shakespeare's nickname, "the Bard of Avon." (Albion is an archaic name for England.)

• FAIR-WEATHER FRIEND: Hans Christian Andersen was Dicken's close friend and mutual influence. Andersen even dedicated his book Poet's Day Dream to Dickens in 1853. But this didn't stop Dickens from letting Andersen know when he'd overstayed his welcome at Dickens's home. He printed a sign and left it on Andersen's mirror in the guest room. It read: "Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks, which seemed to the family like AGES."

• MESMERIST: Dickens was a devotee of mesmerism, a system of healing through hypnotism. He practiced it on his hypochondriac wife and his children, and claimed to have healed several friends and associates.

• CLIFF-HANGER: When The Old Curiosity Shop was published in serial form in 1841, readers all over Britain and the United States followed the progress of the heroine, Little Nell, with the same fervor that audiences today follow Harry Potter. When the ship carrying the last installment approached the dock in New York, 6,000 impatient fans onshore called out to the sailors, "Does Little Nell die?" (They yelled back that ... uh-oh, we're out of room.)

Times a'changin'