Recently my wife wrote two beautiful articles on "Mangalorean.com" which, were well received and appreciated by the readers ( and ). Written straight from the heart, which is also the way she usually interacts socially. After a lot of thought, I too decided to try my hand at this ancient art just for the heck of it (and basically having nothing better to do… since my family is right now in India on vacation and there is a huge void to be filled in terms of time on hand!!).
Now the question was what do I write about? How to pick a topic and go about it? With absolutely no matter in hand or even a remote idea I started putting pen to paper (actually hand to keyboard.) Do I write about an article read recently with social relevance or do I just scribble notes about our day-to-day activity? Then, I borrowed an idea from the TV comic sitcom Seinfeld. How about writing on "nothing"?
There is a small story probably heard or read by most of the readers. When God was making the world he had assembled all the creatures together including man and was allocating an average period of life to each. Since man was first in queue (hmmm "I" always want to be first?), he was allocated an average span of 30 yrs. Given the predictable nature of humans, man was not happy with it. But God told him wait for a few minutes and we will see what we can do. Then it was the turn of the donkey, and the donkey was given 30 yrs too. For once the donkey did the smart thing and replied back immediately that 30 yrs was too long and he could do with 10 yrs. As a natural reaction, God turned to man and asked him if he wanted those additional 20 yrs and man very gratefully accepted it. (Typically, not knowing what he was getting into). Then it was the turn of the dog and it was allocated 20 yrs. Dogs have a natural intelligence seen to this day, and it replied to God that it only needed an average span of 7-10 yrs. By now God knew where to allocate the balance left over and the balance of 10-12 yrs was also given to man, who was beaming with joy by now. Next was the turn of the worm, and it was given 10 yrs but it said 1 year was more that it could live through its life and by now you all can guess whom the balance went to.
Now lets try and apply how that relates to our day-to-day existence. We go through our normal ups and downs and have a good time till we are thirty. The next 15-20 years goes toiling through life fulfilling our responsibilities and worldly obligations of family life. After our kids are grown up and they are on their own, we live our life sitting at the door quietly waiting. Since not all of us are lucky enough to get a quick death, some of us also have to go through the final writhing, pain etc.
Human nature is so predictable. Throughout our journey in life we keep looking for something to point the finger at for everything that is wrong around or with us. We don?t need to go really far. A walk to the mirror should be enough for this purpose! As a matter of purely personal opinion, I do believe that if we do good we get good, and the same holds for when we do something bad!! As we grow older and some of us lucky enough to actually get wiser too, we even start realizing that life is about simplicity. We read about it, even talk about it and unfortunately do nothing about it. The hectic pace of life we lead, is such that we never get enough time left to rectify our mistakes and end up with little or no time at the end of the race do take any remedial measures.
If we all just sit back for a moment and say to ourself..why don?t I start now? It?s never too late. It really never is. But I also have realized that as we grow older, our pride and egos grow with us and sometimes, unfortunately our arrogance too. We just lose track of the simple things and reach a point where these very simple things seem so impossible to do.
We are always racing ahead of our neighbours, friends and relatives (the list seems endless?) to make more money, get a bigger house, a better car, more amenities etc etc etc?How much is enough? That?s the million-dollar question and we seem to have all the answers in theory.. it’s only the practice part that makes it all so impossible.
Why did God create humans? On a lighter note, the only real answer, which I can think of, is to blame Him for all of our problems and our miseries. That was definitely not His intention and He will second my opinion on that!!! The only reason man was created was to worship, praise and thank God.
A friend once gave me a few words of advice that I still hold dearly. (though putting it into practice sometimes is difficult even for me? now you all must be thinking to yourself.. who does this guy think he is if he cant follow what he preaches!!! )
Coming back to my point, the advice was if you want to grow up as humans, as individuals, it is very important to compete with our own self. How can we best our self? Our problems begin (usually from day one) when we start looking over our shoulder and start competing with everyone around us. Again the predictability of human nature, its easier said than done hey!!!
A sudden realization has struck me that I have written over a page and half on nothing!!! But I can strike this one off my "To-Do" list now, knowing that this is something I wanted to do and have done it. I don?t know if what I have written above is going to impact anyone, but that?s beside the point Lastly, this is not serious stuff even if it seems so, so a word of caution to all readers not to spend sleepless nights after reading this article (that would be asking for too much wouldn?t it??)
Author: Vivek Miranda- Kuwait