Lost in time and lost in translation

Blame it on the restlessness of today's youth, but delays in any and every form are so excruciating. The more you want things to move faster, the slower they crawl. The line you're not in is always moving faster. Even getting used to it takes time! Maybe it's just our obsession with the don't-wants that brings us more of them. The unattainable is always the most desirable. Of course the unattainable status is what we accord to things and it might not always be the other way round.

There is always too much time for those who don't want a lot of spare moments. Life has a habit of acting in opposition of our wants. It's left to us to tame the tempest and bring about a turn around.A lot of times you've no choice but to put up and shut up. Unless of course if you are determined enough to stop at nothing but the best for yourself. Often it is a delicate balance between the two. People say that nothing happens before its time and before it's meant to. But for how long are you supposed to hang from that rope of hope?Uncertainty isn't always the most exciting thing that can happen to you if you ask me honestly. How long can you grope in the darkness? Yes you reach new places, but there has to be some sign that you are headed in the right direction. How much can you draw from your well of strength? How long do you stand the test of time? Guess we'd never know until we go on, because, the only way out is through.There is always an end to every tunnel and there are always cues if you have the vision enough to look.And to get through you have to move. It is scary moving through darkness and venturing into the unknown. But what's comforting is that we came with nothing that we can loose. This is another of those things worth trying. It's like if you don't like the picture, change the glasses but don't call it quits yet because there is a lot more to it than meets the eye and there is a light at the end of the tunnel and a silver lining to the clouds :-)

Great Expectations

Nobody works for charity, it’s said. We do things because we want something in return. Or to put it differently we expect something in return. Of course not many would admit it. Expecting things of people, events and circumstances is ingrained in us. And this is where we sow the seeds of letting ourselves down. Time and again. Primarily because those are OUR expectations from things outside of us. The people we deal with might not even be aware of the same. But we keep building upon it and are exhilarated when things fall into our scheme of things and are hurt big time when they don’t. This becomes our benchmark for judging people. Those who always live up to our expectations of them are hailed as the best things that happened to us and for those who missed the bus, a lot of ridicule awaits. It can be argued that when we do your best, people should take notice of us and reward us. When we go out of the way to help people, they should be nice to us when we need them. But the world doesn’t always work that way. Sadly so! You win some, you loose some.

An unexpected call from a friend we had long been waiting to talk to, an unexpected act of kindness by a total stranger, an unexpected turn of events for the better is truly exalting. What increases the joy manifold is that if it happened great, and if it didn’t, well, we’d still be ok. At times, like it’s famously said, the joy is in the giving without expecting anything in return. And that’s a selfish act too! Heck! There’s just this one life. Live it up, drink it down :-)

The ever elusive Happiness....

The pursuit of happiness is indeed a chase of a lifetime. We humans are a dissatisfied lot. We are motivated by goals which we think will lead us to things, both material and non-material, that will pave the way to our happiness. We work deliriously towards it, leaving no stone unturned. We don’t want that feeling that we narrowly missed getting that because we didn’t try a wee bit harder. Hard work coupled with an unfailing approach eventually gets us what we always wanted and prayed for. Now this is where we come to the surprise element. We still aren’t happy! What we got is STILL not enough. The salary is still low, the house still small, the work still not challenging enough. After the initial euphoria, the enthusiasm of enjoying the fruits of our labor wears off. Was all that sweat and pain just for that one moment of ecstasy? What is it that we are looking for and what it is that we really want? To the world we might appear as go-getters. We know what we want and we know how to get it. Nothing succeeds like success. Touché. But the one person we cannot con is ourselves.

Eventually we come to the conclusion that this wasn’t what we were looking for and start working towards another such goal. And life goes on. Till the end of our days we keep at it. What we are chasing is then obviously an illusion. While we can see what lies at the end of the road, that, which is worth pursuing, what we are overlooking is what is with us right through.

It’s said that money can’t buy happiness. Of course it’s obnoxious to say that we don’t need money for survival. Sure we do. There is no such thing as a free lunch these days. True. Point taken. But what is also true is that the best things in life are free. Certain things are just priceless. No amount of money can buy the protective assurance from a loved one which says that even if all goes wrong with the world, they are always there for us and are just a backward glance away. Nothing in the world can diffuse a tense moment like a joke from a friend at hand who can view the lighter side of life and make you feel as ease. Nothing can match the innocence on a child’s face when the world begins to seem like a complex place. The essence is to strike a perfect balance between materialism and all that and who truly matter. What’s the point in a victory when you’ve no one to celebrate it with? Time we make a reality check. “ Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts”.