My Yoga Rhymes

The doodle that connects a tab, yoga, and a life that rolls!

Night is gone but dreams are on
And sleep for me goes on and on
Until my wife says: ‘Get up, you bum
Brush your teeth to be my chum!’ 

‘There’s a better way,’ says my tab.
And it is my trusty smiling lab! 

‘Set an alarm of a song you like
And you’ll wake up without a spike
Let the tab take all the stress
Your wife must focus on her dress!’

I looked at my tab in surprise and was actually wondering on its ability to converse with me in fluent rhymes. Yes, the words you’ve just read are those that my tab spoke to me and I’ve just copied them like a trusted secretary. My tab gave me a look that benefactors generally reserve for their protégés, and said, ‘I love talking to those who love me.’

‘So what else can you do for me?’

‘Everything,’ said the tab in a matter-of-fact tone, ‘I can help you read, stay informed, write, note your ideas, draw your doodles, find your way out of nowhere to somewhere, guide you to be a better lover…’

‘Interesting,’ I interjected.

‘…and even help you discover your best side while posing for a photograph!’ said the tab. Then, after a short pause, went on…

‘Your exercise and your food
To help you be a real cool dude
Is what I search and suggest.
Do you want to take my test?’

‘No,’ I said, ‘not yet. Let me first jot down the lovely ideas that have been flying all around me throughout the night. These are the ideas that will help me write my posts today.’ Saying this, I got up and started searching for my notebook… and not finding it anywhere, asked Specky, my wife, to hand me a plain sheet of paper.

‘Some paper, some paper for me to write,’
I shouted with some rancour and bite,
‘Hurry and get me my page and pen
Or ideas will go back in their den!’ 

‘There’s a better way,’ says my tab.
And it is my trusty smiling lab! 

‘A click, swish, and a tap
On me, your tablet, on your lap
Just open your favourite app
And see your ideas dance and rap!’

I looked at my tab with a stunned look. ‘This one is really smart,’ I thought, ‘it really does go beyond what I had ever expected a mere gizmo to go.’ But before I grabbed it to jot down my early morning ideation, I asked, ‘I like the way you are putting everything in sing-song rhymes. What do you want me to call these stanzas of yours?’

‘Call them my yoga rhymes,’ said the tab immediately.

‘Yoga rhymes?’

‘Yes,’ the tab answered, ‘yoga is what keeps you all healthy and full of energy. Yoga, for me, is the knowledge and information that keeps me in shape and quite current, you see.’

‘I see,’ I said and began unfolding an old and tattered map of Delhi.

A map, I opened, to chalk out my way
And muttered, ‘It’ll be a busy day!
How will I know what happens where
Who must I care and who to dare?’ 

‘There’s a better way,’ says my tab.
And it is my trusty smiling lab!

‘Navigate with me, my friend
And find each twist and every bend
I’ll even tell you where you are
Or how near or how far!’

And then the tab taught me how to open and use the maps that lay within its innards and its circuitry. I knew then that this tab was destined to remain with me in my hands for the rest of the day.

‘But hey, what will I do with you the entire day?’ I asked.

The tab did not take long to form the right sort of rhyme to praise itself… 

‘Browse the net to simply know
Send messages to show you know
Then as you smile and chew your gum
Listen to songs and just hum!’

I smiled and said, ‘You’re unbeatable, my tab!’ The tab… yes, the tab actually gave me a smile and said, ‘We tabs help you humans to communicate with both your inner and outer worlds. You can email, message, WeChat, Skype, Whatsapp, and you can also be at peace with your inner self when you write your diary or simply write to purge the restlessness within!’

‘Spoken like a real philosopher,’ I said.

‘Well, I am just a guide,’ replied the tab, ‘and the truth is that I am just as good as I am asked to be.’

‘I didn’t get you,’ I said, a bit confused… and tab launched into another of its yoga rhymes…

‘When you’re hungry I can tell
The places near where they sell
Lovely things that you can eat
But you decide how much to cheat
Your will and your way to health.
I can’t deal with your stealth!’

‘But you can,’ I protested, ‘I know you can send me messages to be careful about my calorie intake. You can remind me by little jingles and tingles and bells that you have an abundance of, can’t you?’

‘Yes, I can,’ said the tab, ‘but this is one thing that I really never like doing. I wish my owners were as particular about their plans as I am about giving the right suggestions. I can tell you what not to eat if you only care to ask me.’

The point was taken and understood and I waited for the tab to tell me how else it would help me go on through the day.

‘That’s easy,’ said the tab, ‘you can keep a log of the distance and the places you’ve travelled to each day. You can even keep a petrol log to help you determine the health of your car.’

‘That’s interesting,’ I said, ‘and this means I can actually keep a log of almost anything I can think of, which includes even the medicines that have to take at odd times during the day.’

‘Of course you can,’ said the tab, ‘and if you ask me to, I can even set up alarms in different tones and tunes.’

‘I will be going to interview a political bigwig today,’ I said, ‘how will you help me make my task easier?’

And it was here that the tab literally fluffed like a peacock and said:

I am your camera to click your pics
And your videos if you want
My apps will help you brush the nicks
So that your pics you can flaunt! 

I am the recorder to capture sound
And your notes with questions all
I multi-task without running aground
Or crashing into a fatal fall!

‘Seems interesting,’ I said, ‘I think I’m going to use your voice recorder and at the same time use you to refer to my questions. Hope I can do these both at the same time?’

‘Sure, you can. What else is my power for?’

‘And you’re sure your battery will last the entire day?’

‘Mine does,’ said my tab, ‘after all I have the power of yoga within me.’

Well, I had a lovely productive day with my tab… and I’m sure you too can and will, only if you have one that has yoga within it!’

What do I want in my tab?

Obviously, my tab must be light enough not to tire me just carrying it. It also needs to be ready to help me in whichever position I happen to be in. I mean, I should be able to read and write even if I am lying on my bed… I must be able to use it for long hours… I must be able to multi-task and open more than just one app… I must be able to like the way it looks… I must be able to love its screen resolution…

Hey! This list has all the possibility of becoming never-ending… so let me just show you a couple of videos that I made that talk about a few of things that I really wish for in my tab:

A Yogi in the Digital World

Yoga in a Tablet

Better ways to use the new Lenovo Yoga Tablet

Let me try and answer this
With rhyming couplets that will kiss! 

Use YOGA hanging from a crane
Then see who has a sharper brain! 

Do ‘shirsh-asana’ and then read
An e-book on how to breed! 

Click your pasta to eat from the screen
This will help you be trim and lean! 

Click your pasta to eat from the screen /
This will help you be trim and lean!

Charge your brain with your tab
Then say: ‘I’m fab! I’m fab!’ 

Charge your brain with your tab / Then say: ‘I’m fab! I’m fab!’

Write: ‘I weigh 100 Kg’ on the tab
Now no thief will ever grab. 

Click faces, places, and name-tabs
To create your own memory grabs! 

Draw doodles when you’re in your class
And win the heart of every lass! 

Teach your tab some word commands
To let it work without your hands! 

Click a bone and show your dog
Does it lick your tab like a hog? 

Make your tab whistle long and loud
And see the reactions of a crowd!

So these were just a few outrageous ways in which I’d want to use the new Lenovo Yoga Tab… and yes, they may seem outrageous but they’re all full of a creative idiom that would make me fall in love with it.

What must an ideal tab have?

A tab, as we know it today, is simply a docile and helpful gadget. It surely needs a fair degree of aggressiveness… so the ideal things a tab needs to have, must necessarily include:

An ideal tab needs… a retractable hand that sweeps out to smack your bottom when you fail to follow it’s well-meant instructions.

An ideal tab needs… a voice addition inside it that takes over when you are unable to keep in tune with the karaoke music that it is playing for you.

An ideal tab needs… the heart of a prankster that clicks shots in fancy modes when it knows you’re clicking to impress your girl-friend.

An ideal tab needs… an outlet that lets out a swoosh of your favourite fragrance whenever it senses that you’ve farted in public!

An ideal tab really needs… lots of treasure maps to keep the kids and the child in adults busy making friends with healthy imagination.

An ideal tab needs… a punching bag that pops out for you when you’re feeling out of sorts and restless with the world.

An ideal tab needs… the voice of a mother that sings a lullaby whenever you’re not able to sleep.

An ideal tab needs… the ability to become invisible as it whispers the exam answers in your ears.

An ideal tab needs… to open up and produce tasty food when you rub it’s underside and say, ‘Khul ja sim-sim!’

An ideal tab needs… to spread itself into a thin carpet that lets you sit on it and fly away to fantasy lands!

Yes, an ideal tab really needs to be more magical than it is right now… but frankly, I find the tabs today equally capable to transporting me into lands that are full of all the goodies that my mind has ever imagined. I literally ride on my tab to doodle with ideas and play with words… just as I have done here in this post.

Lenovo Yoga Tab… select specs:

Yoga Tab_specs

It was fun writing this post that went deep into imagination, sometimes outrageous…
Thanks to Indiblogger and Lenovo
Lenovo Yoga Tablet – A #BetterWay is here!

Arvind Passey
18 December 2013