Bapu Bandwidth

Recently I had been to Mani (Jewel) Bhavan (House). Located in Gamdevi, an upper middle class neighbourhood in Mumbai, this nondescript 2 storied structure housed one of the most extraordinary minds in human history. Mahatma Gandhi aka 'Bapu' to billions, stayed and worked from this house whenever he was in Mumbai. This was the place from where he launched 2 decisive movements that culminated in India's independence from British rule in 1947. These movements were Satyagraha (Truth Force) movement in 1919 and the Civil disobedience movement in 1932.

Mani Bhavan is part library and part Gandhi museum, but easily its most interesting feature for me is the room on the second floor where Bapu lived and worked. This room with its contents is kept intact from Bapu's times. I am very interested in hacking productivity. For example, I am curious to find out how other productive programmers have set up their machines. What tools they use and why etc. Everyone knows Bapu was a simple man but seeing his room I was struck by the magnitude of this simplicity. The room was bright and naturally lit. It had a charpoy (bed) which also served as a chair, a pillow and a balcony behind. The room also contained Bapu's sandals, 2 charkhas (spinning wheel), a writing desk, a book holder, a hand fan, few other minimal furniture, a walking cane and a telephone. Thats it!

Suddenly my thoughts drifted to the contents of my bag and what I was carrying inside it as a stark contrast. A laptop, Kindle, mobile, ear phones, fitbit charger, mobile charger, laptop charger, chequebook, wallet with debit card, credit cad, Aadhaar card, pan card, business cards, Powerbank, bunch of keys and other debris I didn't even recognise. I could almost imagine, a bare chested frail man spinning the charkha and jotting down in his journal with a chuckle "Hey God, what has this world come to!"

How could Bapu achieve so much with so little? How come with easy access to all modern amenities, we struggle even to make a tiny fraction of Bapu's impact? Bapu could achieve so much partly because a. his nature and lifestyle afforded him to free up insane amounts of locked bandwidth - or Bapu Bandwidth. b. he used this unlocked Bapu Bandwidth and channelled it efficiently with minimum loss towards the simple things that resonated universally.

Bapu was extremely minimal in his possessions. We know how frugal Steve Jobs was or how smart Zuckerberg is because he always wears the same outfit. This is essentially to eliminate the "what do i wear today?" question from life for good. Bapu was an order of magnitude even more extreme. He chose to wear nothing. Can you imagine the bandwidth that becomes available because of this? No shopping, no prices to compare, no Diwali bargains, nothing to pack, no socks to pull, no laces to tie, no clothes to wash, dry or iron, fastest to get ready and easily out the door. This is mind-blowing agility already!

Bapu was not handsome. He didn't have a great body. He was bald and missed a few teeth. I suspect he barely looked at himself. Ive seen a picture of him shaving without a mirror. Reality is, these things don't matter. 100s of millions of people loved him anyway, while he continued to unlock more Bapu bandwidth.

A ton of bandwidth gets freed when I stop worrying about what others think of me, don't care for selfies or how attractive I look, what designation I have or when will I get promoted. Incessant marketing, advertising and herd mentality have made us victims of consumerism. Most of the stuff in my bag don't add any value to my mission. It does not matter what model of phone or laptop I carry, what credit card I have or what gym membership I have. Imagine the bandwidth freed if I stop worrying about these things? With some lifestyle Engineering and brutal needs analysis, I too can achieve 5-20% of Bapu Bandwidth.

So what do I do with all this new bandwidth? I can look at Bapu's room for clues here as well.

Bapu experimented and meditated deeply about the nature of truth, the nature of non violence and ultimately connected the two. I suspect, apart from the symbolism of self reliance, the repetitive bio mechanics involved in charkha spinning enabled him to get his mind into meditative states needed to make such connections. Having a ton of free bandwidth he could meditate about these things all the time. Like a scientist, he could conduct social and personal experiments to validate various hypothesis.

I can use his examples and meditate on a few simple things ranging from the trivial to the existential. Like do I really need the iPhone X? or what makes me really happy? or what is the most important use of my skills? or how can I prioritise features that really matter to my users? and so on.

Also, it was striking to observe Bapu's walking stick. It reinforced my long held belief - "the secret to a healthy mind is in tired legs". While in Mani Bhavan, Bapu used to take long walks (I wish he had better footwear though for the staggering mileage on his odometer) along the Chowpatti beach and during those walks interacted with other leaders like Nehru and Jinnah. Now this is smart productivity. Combining meeting time and an aerobic workout. Walking/running is simple. I could do this everyday too. Even on vacations and public holidays.

And last and perhaps the most important, writing was one of Bapu's fortes. Few people have exploited the written word more effectively than Bapu. Like Bapu, I too can keep a journal handy to record thoughts and write essays and develop the ability to think for myself and listen to my inner voice with clarity. Now that would be a "killer app" on my new Bapu bandwidth!