Monday, April 20, 2009

Battle of your will and weather!

Don’t know why or how, but i am sure its true for most, well at least its true for me...how you feel on any given day, what you do or where you go.. to some extent is governed by the weather. There are other factors of course, but i would say 30-40% of one's mood is weather related.

Have you ever had the feeling, when the sun is bright and high, slight breeze in the air, middle of the day, you would want to kick back and relax at home with a book! Probably no, however if the weather was a bit cooler, with rainy clouds and cold breeze, that’s exactly what you want to do, may be with a hot coffee!

Have you thought of making hot samosas or pakoras when its 80 F outside.. Mostly no... unless of course you are in India...then you really dont care what the weather is.. all you want to do in the 25 day vacation is eat food.. roadside, home made, fancy restaurant...its vacation you don’t really care!
However you are in US.. and its that warm, i think a cool lemonade or a chilled beer would be more of your preference with some yummy fruits and cold salad..

I am trying to keep this general, it doesn’t matter what your palate is.. you may be a teetotaler or a martini lover.. you may be food health nut or a "food = grease" person… What you eat, what you like and what your mood is somewhat controlled by the weather!

It was Saturday and we were window shopping on magnificent mile on a perfect sunny Chicago afternoon, when SD said- "Life is good, but i don’t want weather to control when i can or cannot go out, or do something or eat something." It got me thinking, does it really control that much?
And yes i am biased, we are now coming out of a 6 month hiatus of being stuck indoors due to winter.... and any temperature over 50F, we scrounge to make sure we are outside and work towards getting enough sun soaked in our skins.. and V to feel the fresh breeze on her face! But to think, even back in DC or CA, weather did to some extent tell me what i "felt".

There is a warm sunny ray seeping through my office window, i peek outside.. and yes i have carried my "dubba"...but then just the concept of eating out at a bistro under the sun, will make me pick up the phone to call one of my sun deprived colleagues and say... "What’s POA for lunch.. Lets go outside.. “And the home packed food.. well it can wait!
On the other end, no home packed food, its cold and dreary outside.. and the options are cafeteria salad or one of the zillion places in the city for a decent lunch, I will, with a heavy foot, go grab the boring stale salad from the cafeteria.. I justify, It's not worth getting the jacket, the umbrella out for 'just a lunch'.

The weather just controlled what i eat, where i went.. and in effect is controlling my mood!

I am one of those.. who when feeling the blues..... will make sure is dressed up even for a casual coffee.. the process of spending the time to get ready.. and the final product in the mirror chases my blues away. But the weather influence.. well i never did spend time thinking about it! And now i am, hard and long.

How much will i let outside influence's govern my decision... in this case.. A Lot! And one of my favorite quotes from Matrix "~ Everything begins with choice.~ Morpheus" is to some extent thrown out the window...since i cannot battle the weather, i have to succumb and plan/do/eat/feel what some extent what the weather tells me.. I have no Choice!

2 comments:

Priyanka Rajkhowa said...

Kinda agree with you on this...
the weather definitely does have a profound influence on one's mood and the choice of activities on a given day :-)

Garima said...

Well, it seems very amtter of fact now, but when i got thinking of it, i didnt realise how much impact it had! Oh well, one of those: Nothing can be done about it!