I am a speedaholic, walk fast, eat fast, write fast, sleep fast and even talk fast, and definitely is in love with fast foods.

Experts out there observe that the world is moving faster chasing hypertension, depression and various diseases that originate from the rapid pace. Life in the fast lane means stress, worries about social status, money and most importantly the feeling that you are somehow missing out.

I decided to get free from this constant itch of going faster. It was not as easy as you would think. When I did a small research on how to go slow, I came across a society for promoting slowing down. The ‘Society for the Deceleration of Time’ campaigns for slowness. It organises workshops apart from an annual symposium. It also conducts stunts to gain publicity for the idea of deceleration. To promote slowing down they even give out gold medals for the slowest competitor in the Olympic events!

I am convinced after engaging in an intense research that slowing down would make you live long, the greatest example being none other than the tortoise! If you want to win the race you need to go slow and steady. So the idea is to be a tortoise than a hare.

According to this Society, Swapping a high– octane, high-earning, stressed-out career for a more relaxed existence is the simplest way to downshift. One source estimates that 16 million people in Europe have already downshifted.

Scheduling half day’s work, cutting the number of credit cards and eliminating at least three nonessential purchases every week are the suggested activities for downshifting. If you want to successfully fall into this group, you need to identify a person and follow his lifestyle, whom you think has become successful by adopting the ‘slow motion’.

After intense search, I couldn’t get a better role model other than Indian Prime Minister and worldrenowned economist Dr. Manmohan Singh. He walks slow, eats slow, talks slow, just opposite to that of mine, and still managed to become the Prime Minister of world’s biggest democracy.

And, the Society for Deceleration, has never mentioned that slowing down will inversely affect overall performance and decision-making skills. Then, I am amazed, how come Dr. Singh missed the golden opportunity to sign a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with Bahrain, which has at least 200 years plus trade relations with India.

What I understand from the latest buzz is because of too much downshifting and slowing down strategy, he is on the lookout for a suitable house on Janapath Road, in light of the upcoming Parliament elections. However, the question still haunts. A hare or tortoise? Which is the best? I need the answer fast.