知道这一位艺术家（是的，我认为他是艺术家），只不过是2024年1月初的事。闲聊时Sasi谈起了他在Netflix上的stand up，我某周末夜里有点儿空闲时间，到Netflix搜寻了一下，一口气依时间秩序把他在Netflix上的四个special都看了一遍：Abroad Understanding (2017)，Losing It (2018)，For India (2020)，Landing (2022)，（当时没看Outside In (2020)，因为当时还没搞懂，看见zoom call就skip了）
For India是真正的艺术表演。没有舞台，只有简单的一扇蓝色门，而Vir Das就坐在门口台阶上娓娓道来，从印度四件小事切入到正题。观众席是半片pizza（Vir Das在访谈中这么说的），观众座位下面设有灯泡，灯亮起时，观众就是单口喜剧演出的一部分。非印度籍观众坐在设有红色灯光的位置上，说到一些非常到底印度的梗时，红灯亮起，Vir Das会给他们（我们）慢慢解说。整个表演的结构和完整度真诚又充满诗意。
然后，就必须看Landing了。看了I Come From Two Indias，你会更appreciate Landing 里头的真诚。我看了I Come From Two Indias再重看Landing，就更能理解当中的喜与悲，就明白了它为什么得奖了。（For India也获Emmy提名，但Landing则最终让Vir Das抱回了 International Emmy Award)。
可是，仅仅那几个Netflix Special，当然不足以明白我为什么疯狂地着迷。接下来，请你到Youtube看一下他在Covid期间做的Ten On Ten。（第一集：Religion vs comedy; 第二集：Who has Freedom of Speech?；第三集：Is the West More Privileged?；第四集：Jokes for the Dead；第五集：Tribalism and Cancel Culture vs comedy；第六集：Brother vs Others。）每一集都选了个沉重的题材，有点儿像好笑的Ted Talks，有点儿像朋友在“吹水”分享自己的哲学思想……
印象中，Sir Michael Caine 是父辈们非常喜爱的演员，在那个年代，我比较有印象的应该是The Italian Job和Alfie。后来，自Batman Begins开始，他在Christopher Nolan的每一套电影出现，也成了年轻一辈相当熟悉的演员了。我向来喜欢他，一是因为他是个好演员，二则是因为他那特别好听的口音。
今年，在我们部门的年度计划会议上，我还特地找了他朗诵的《 If 》作为我们会议结束时的一个总结与鼓励。
If— BY RUDYARD KIPLING
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
从2021年2月20日，直至昨天为止，正好做了7天的full body workout，和6天的Abs Workout (from 30 Day Fitness Challenge app)。
Seven的full body workout其实并不太难，由于workout之间是有短暂休息时间，所以总还算是可以撑得住。当然，对我而言，最难的就是push-ups（还有push ups with rotation），那一直以来是我的死穴。奇怪的是以前做得要生要死的triceps dips，现在反而不如push-ups那么艰难。
话说回来，今年农历新年请了个长假，呆坐在家里发呆休息思考人生。突然间想起自己很久没给自己定下一些“不可能的任务”了，而因疫情之顾又好像还得继续宅在家里。左思右想，不如练马甲线吧。我从小到大，绝对是符合唐朝审美的，微胖是日常。而最瘦的时候（少于40公斤）是因为final year project遇上virus，存档清空，得把一个sem的功课在几个星期里做完，结果消瘦得非常不健康。“健美”这词，从来就与我无关。不如，就这个吧。这应该是最不可能的任务了。
首31天的strategy就这么简单：7分钟full body workout + abs workout。（第一天我只根据Seven的program做了1套7分钟full body workout，2021年2月21日开始才真正开始了30 Day Fitness Challenge。所以正确计算应该是首31天）
