Friday, May 25, 2007

Watching My Life : Further musings on the "Purpose" of Life

Once upon a time , I was 7 years old. Then one day , I turned 8 years old . My folks hung balloons and ribbons all around the house. Uncles with their hanging bellies and aunties with their hanging jewelleries came down in large numbers.They looked at me , ruffled my hair which irritatated me a lot and said the same old "rishtedaari" special pleasantries.( kitna bada ho gaya hai munnu ! chota sa tha jab last dekha tha ..godi mein susu karta tha).As if they did their respective "susu" at the White House when they were kids.

Anyways , these guys kept giggling , ate a lot of food and forced me to perform a modern day "mujra" wherein I was made to sing n dance to "papa kehte hai bada naam karega..." along with my pesky cousins . Though with my front two teeth missing at that time , I may have looked a shade less charming than Aamir Khan .Anyways , it was a very soul disturbing experience for me and I almost sued the guests for child exploitation.

But when these guys left , they left behind some good stuff too along with the dirty utensils : the birthday gifts. And one of the gifts was this boardgame called LIFE.For those of you who are not aware about it , you got a better option than bathing in the sea of ignorance , go to this link - http://boardgamecentral.com/games/life.html.

So what happened in this game was that you were allotted a coloured piece which travelled along a curvy path on the board .The number of slots he moved ahead depended on the roll of a wheel ,like the ones they have in those kathmandu casinos. You moved along the board doing all the life stuff , becoming a doctor , engineer ,gangster etc etc ; marrying , divorcing , raising kids ,taking bank loans , buying houses , you even got this salary via a toy version of the American currency. I recall trying to sneak a few extra notes from the box while my cousin was rolling the wheel.

Lately I have started viewing my actual life as just a bigger version of this game.I am just a piece like that in the game , who's just rolling along the boardgame of life. The difference being that on which slot I land ain’t exactly decided by a rolling wheel, but largely by my choice and effort. And just like the game , one day god will decide he’s had enough fun with this guy , and would pick me off the board n toss in the box .And all the currency notes , bank loans , the houses I won during the game , would remain back on the board , to be played with by the other guys.

And this makes me view my life in a rather dis-engaged way.I don't exactly go gaga with my so called achievements, which anyways can be counted on the fingers of a man with a missing hand. And neither do I plunge to the depths of despair with my failures and problems , which can be counted on more than the fingers of your hands , toes and the rest of your body. Its like nothing in this world seems to affect me too much.Its like I don’t know what I want to achieve , what I want to possess.

I feel like a toddler who has been left to play on the floor of Bombay Stock Exchange of yore.I see people yelling , excited , angry , racing to get somewhere and wonder whats it all about . Sometimes I feel I want to earn a lot of money and spend my life with Angelina Jolie on my left arm and Salma Hayek on the right , and swap their places after every 30 minutes.Then I feel i want to spend my life in my room with the AC on , munching on tomato flavored wafers and watching HBO, AXN and Star Movies,and that too on a 42 inch LCD TV. A little later , I see my life's purpose in setting up some NGO and serving the needy. What do i want out of life ? Is there any purpose at all of this entire life thing or are we just trying to have a good time ? Have all you guys figured out what you want in life ?

Tell me..

Some guy said, "you can't be lost if you don't know where you are going". Now it makes sense.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You are not lost but you are in process of selecting your way in life. Keep on thinking and note down your likes and dislikes in your mind. Once the opportunity or situation comes your subconscious mind will tell you, "yes! This is what you were looking for".
Do all things in life and enjoy it at it's fullest. You have ample of time because god has lots of people to select and take off the board. We may be lucky to be missed by him many times. Till then....Enjoy!

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