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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
In The Season Of Excess, A Tale Of No Shopping
Perhaps it is pretty spoilsportish, if that is the word, of me to recommend an article on self-imposed minimalism bang in the middle of the ‘season of cheer, sorry consumerism’. I still will, though; and I have two reasons for it. First, because Ann Patchett writes with such a light touch about minimalism – that super-holy hashtag activity Instagrammers have embraced thickly. (As an aside, Minimalism is in a riveting fight with Veganism in the ‘holier-than-thou’ contest. The jury is still out.)
Secondly, with her personal narrative, the author has managed to subtly bring out the warts and flaws of self-control, mind-control or impulse-control, call it what you will.
So the author, impressed by her friend who did not do any shopping for a year, decided to follow suit. Initially, she experimented in a small way — giving up shopping during Lent etc. — and the fact that it made her feel good convinced her to go the whole hog. She describes how at the end of 2016, she was so consumed by shopping websites that it caused her a kind of anxiety many of us bombarded by the culture of excess have experienced. It made her browse shopping websites feverishly with the question ‘what do I need’ utmost on her mind. As she says, what she needed was less.
I wouldn’t want to lessen the joy of taking the no-shopping journey with the author, and hence, will not summarize. But I will end with a quote that makes great sense — especially if self-discovery is one of your New Year resolutions.
“The things we buy and buy and buy are like a thick coat of Vaseline smeared on glass: We can see some shapes out there, light and dark, but in our constant craving for what we may still want, we miss life’s details. It’s not as if I kept a ledger and took the money I didn’t spend on perfume and gave that money to the poor, but I came to a better understanding of money as something we earn and spend and save for the things we want and need."
