Rambling Along on the road of existence.

Looking at the “WhatsApp” pictures of a cow and calf, the green fields, the dusty roads, the sheep in the pen and the normally very busy man sitting on a bench and reading a book made me envious. He was in a faraway land and here I am in the midst of all the action and feeling down, tired and depressed!

The grass is always greener on the other side! At that moment in time I chose to ignore the fact that the busy man is away from home, lonesome and had been able to get away from what he called his “prison”! I chose to ignore that he has no one to share his day to day problems as soon as he faced with them, I also chose to ignore that he is a slave to time and that too in a foreign land!

I have so much to be thankful for; I am still able to see my baby growing up in front of me before she flies away and he is missing out on that; I am able to pick up the phone and talk to anyone I choose to without being worried about meetings and meeting deadlines and labour unrest; I have the time and the luxury of talking with my older “baby” about her daily challenges and (hopefully lessen her stress levels)!

Being a true blue confused person, I hate changes in my lifestyle but I need to move, after a maximum time of four years in one place! I move to a new place, appreciate its beauty and crib about all the adjustments I have to make, I also miss all the things in my last place of stay for the first year of my new place; then it’s time to enjoy the new place fully and cut my apron strings with the old. Alas! Two years go off very soon and it’s time for me to yearn for a new place and I blind myself to the good all-around and just want to move! Sometimes I think I need psychoanalysis!

The other day I was talking with a vegetable vendor near my house. After the police went on an active rampage and removed all the hawkers (Illegal) close by, the roads do not have the vegetable vendors but are filled with cars ( I wonder when they will be removed!). To get back to my conversation with the poor vendor- he had migrated from his native Bihar some twenty five years back and had set up this shop; just about managing to make ends meet as he had to pay the regular “hafta” (weekly payoffs!) to the police and the local “dada” (mafia?); now he had no shop; no regular income; but he still managed by selling during the dark and continues to pay hafta!

I asked him why he wouldn't move to a new place. His answer was simple “it’s better to live with the devil you know rather than face an unknown one”. The maxim is so alien to my mental makeup that I walked off giving him a sympathetic look rather than empathizing with him!

When I look around, I see millions who would rather be unhappy than move from their status-quo lives, they would prefer to live within their comfort zone rather than venture out to improve their lives!

Someone told me that every time you move, you waste money, energy and resources. Well! I agree that money, energy and resources are utilized when you move but the money is used to enrich ourselves not wasted, energy is spent to carve out a sphere of experience and talking about resources – the point of the debate is we throw away or give away a lot of things when we move- I term it as Spring cleaning! Normally things that have not been used for years are labeled as “junk” and thrown away. These are actually worthless in terms of utility and only add to the clutter of a house. As feng- shui advises if you remove the physical clutter you remove the mental clutter and cleanse your environment.

After lots of retrospection, hurt (because I expect from other people) and conversation with the service people (read that as shopkeepers, sweepers and vendors!) and the cream of society (read that as the rich and famous) I realize that all of us are like the frog in the well. The size of the well differs but we think that the world that surrounds us is the real world, there is nothing beyond it. We have no right to berate anyone because his vision does not go beyond the gates of his living world just because we have seen the “world”; neither do we have the right to label someone as a show- off because he gives examples from all over the world!

“Live and let live” is the line for me today. Don’t know what tomorrow shall bring but criticizing people is a harmless pastime which actually is a lovely psychological medicine to keep our spirits up. Like KD in “Adalat” says “Am I right or am I right?”