In memory of Life...
Vikrant was one year junior to me in college. A brilliant student, he showed promise of becoming a good - probably great - scientist someday. He was the most sincere and hard-working student of his class. He was also a terrific son – the kind who wakes up early in the morning to prepare his own breakfast. Hailing from a middle-class Maharashtrian family, he knew the deal. He had to work extra hard for that extra mile up the ladder of success. He was climbing steady. He would get there sooner rather than later.
Vikrant was 19 when he died - Complications after spending almost a month on the respirator. His respiratory system destroyed by the 11th July Bombay blasts.
Vikrant was 19 when he died - Complications after spending almost a month on the respirator. His respiratory system destroyed by the 11th July Bombay blasts.
What a waste.
So many of us go through our daily routine of hard-work and stunted success and end-up lamenting our existence, only to wake up next morning and join the grind once again. And then one delectably self-indulgent day we decide to end it all. We justify – why to live at all if our life is not really going anywhere; it’s just an invisible existence. And we go ahead and overdose or hit the gallows. Never really bothering once to look at the bigger picture.
The bigger picture in which we are the centre of attention. We tend to ignore those who are nearest to us - the ever haranguing mother; the over protective brother; the constantly teasing friends. We get too tired of them and look away. And yearn for the attentions of that one person on the planet for whom we will never really mean anything at all. Strange is human nature.
And then Bingo! – We become invisible to ourselves. We gaze into the mirror to find a complete stranger staring back at us. Most of the time we end up thinking we are a joke. As a matter of fact we are a coincidence – each one of us. If at a certain fraction of a second a few decades ago two half chromosomes crossing over at the right genes without mutations hadn’t come together to produce a stable zygote, which suddenly by a freak of nature started dividing and all these billions of cells hadn’t arranged themselves in the right orientations – well least to say I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this. Even the infinite dimensions of space-time bend to make space for us and our chaotic activities – we may be just an almost non-existent blimp in the vast unfathomable expanses of the universe around us, but we are at least a blimp, not ionized atoms floating on the surface of a really, really, really hot star.
Coz otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write all those nauseous poems with which I irritate my friends. I wouldn’t be able to taste melted chocolate on hot fudge cake. I wouldn’t be able to admire the right dimensions of the opposite sex and excite the hormones that make me a twenty year old. I wouldn’t feel the blood rush to my brain when I deliberately hang upside down from my bed. I wouldn’t miss a beat and become suddenly aware of that heart inside my chest when I see a particularly fine smile. And it’s not just me and my atoms. All humans are guilty of wasting their limited time on this planet performing many such ridiculously futile activities. Even though we walk around with the most evolved brain on the rock – result of 12 billion years of evolution.
As far as I can figure – our only “job” as blimps in the universe may be just to appreciate it. Instead of trying to waste long hours trying to figure who we truly are we should just go ahead and BE – fall in love, have heartbreaks, be demoralized, feel vindicated, watch our heroes fall from glory and lose our idols, lose our religion, lose hard-earned cash. Let’s not regret. Not because the milk is spilled, coz you were probably not gonna drink it anyway. You’d rather drink vodka with whisky and confess your undying love. These wouldn’t really help you in any fashion to prolong your existence or your wealth. At the most you will finally get what the Beatles were trying to say when they sang “Yesterday”.
But because there are enough self-created devices out there hell-bent on mutilating youth and innocence, love and laughter – pseudo oil wars, flesh trade, child trafficking, mine slavery, drug and AIDS, religions created centuries before we were born … we really don’t need to work overtime or give excuses to kill the love that runs through our veins like a rabid dog. For those who escape the above, adulthood is a potent weapon. Very few escape that. If u do – you can proudly say, “I was born free.”
The trick lies in remembering that life is a joke. And you only get one appearance and one stage to play it out. So you better learn to laugh through it – i.e. if you don’t wanna die of boredom.
So many of us go through our daily routine of hard-work and stunted success and end-up lamenting our existence, only to wake up next morning and join the grind once again. And then one delectably self-indulgent day we decide to end it all. We justify – why to live at all if our life is not really going anywhere; it’s just an invisible existence. And we go ahead and overdose or hit the gallows. Never really bothering once to look at the bigger picture.
The bigger picture in which we are the centre of attention. We tend to ignore those who are nearest to us - the ever haranguing mother; the over protective brother; the constantly teasing friends. We get too tired of them and look away. And yearn for the attentions of that one person on the planet for whom we will never really mean anything at all. Strange is human nature.
And then Bingo! – We become invisible to ourselves. We gaze into the mirror to find a complete stranger staring back at us. Most of the time we end up thinking we are a joke. As a matter of fact we are a coincidence – each one of us. If at a certain fraction of a second a few decades ago two half chromosomes crossing over at the right genes without mutations hadn’t come together to produce a stable zygote, which suddenly by a freak of nature started dividing and all these billions of cells hadn’t arranged themselves in the right orientations – well least to say I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this. Even the infinite dimensions of space-time bend to make space for us and our chaotic activities – we may be just an almost non-existent blimp in the vast unfathomable expanses of the universe around us, but we are at least a blimp, not ionized atoms floating on the surface of a really, really, really hot star.
Coz otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write all those nauseous poems with which I irritate my friends. I wouldn’t be able to taste melted chocolate on hot fudge cake. I wouldn’t be able to admire the right dimensions of the opposite sex and excite the hormones that make me a twenty year old. I wouldn’t feel the blood rush to my brain when I deliberately hang upside down from my bed. I wouldn’t miss a beat and become suddenly aware of that heart inside my chest when I see a particularly fine smile. And it’s not just me and my atoms. All humans are guilty of wasting their limited time on this planet performing many such ridiculously futile activities. Even though we walk around with the most evolved brain on the rock – result of 12 billion years of evolution.
As far as I can figure – our only “job” as blimps in the universe may be just to appreciate it. Instead of trying to waste long hours trying to figure who we truly are we should just go ahead and BE – fall in love, have heartbreaks, be demoralized, feel vindicated, watch our heroes fall from glory and lose our idols, lose our religion, lose hard-earned cash. Let’s not regret. Not because the milk is spilled, coz you were probably not gonna drink it anyway. You’d rather drink vodka with whisky and confess your undying love. These wouldn’t really help you in any fashion to prolong your existence or your wealth. At the most you will finally get what the Beatles were trying to say when they sang “Yesterday”.
But because there are enough self-created devices out there hell-bent on mutilating youth and innocence, love and laughter – pseudo oil wars, flesh trade, child trafficking, mine slavery, drug and AIDS, religions created centuries before we were born … we really don’t need to work overtime or give excuses to kill the love that runs through our veins like a rabid dog. For those who escape the above, adulthood is a potent weapon. Very few escape that. If u do – you can proudly say, “I was born free.”
The trick lies in remembering that life is a joke. And you only get one appearance and one stage to play it out. So you better learn to laugh through it – i.e. if you don’t wanna die of boredom.
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