There is a strange magnetism to the lights at night. especially in this city (Mumbai). The lights glimmer away at a distance and from heights that you wouldn't see in any other city in India.
The lights compel you to sit, and take a look at the life that is whizzing by so quickly. Every day something changes in our life, yet we never are quite able to figure out exactly when, that change took place. When is it that I started looking older? when did I gain so much weight? or the more profound ones... When was it that I lost my innocence? When and where was it that I lost faith?
There is this Sunday , and then there was another Sunday far far away, once upon a time.
They were lazy Sunday afternoons when I lay glued to my mothers bosom, pretending to be asleep (to be awake meant to be ordered to study, so an obvious choice) . I used to press my eye lids together, hard; and then listen to the sounds and smells of the world encompassing me. I remember how with each sound
or smell a new story in my utopian imagination started taking shape. The funny ones made me laugh. But this wasn't the best part... The best part was when I laughed too hard I got a slap on my back from my mum, and it used to dawn upon me that she was aware that I wasn't asleep. The fear of the possibility of facing algebra would grip me and I would shut my lids tighter, resolving not to be seduced by deceitful dreams, only to be caught "not napping" again in a short while.
Where are those slaps now ? What wouldn't I do to feel that again.The lights help me relive those moments for sometime.They transport me to a life which is closest to me. A life where everything was beautiful.
It is often that I hear people talking of how they have become smarter. How they have figured out not to trust, love, forgive or be selfless. How they have computed their lives in linear equations. How gross margins, ROIs and productivity maps decide what should be the road ahead.
There is one question that I wish to ask them, when is it that they were happier? living a life where cognizance has "illuminated" their lives or a life where a helium balloon could bring exuberance that would beat the feeling of one upping the market by 20%?
2 comments:
When was the last time 2 software engineers meeting after long time talked about their childhood days instead of the materialistic possesions???...dont they know there are things in life that money cant buy like those innocent days...we know for everythin else there is credit cards!!! and add NYC to the lights of mumbai which takes you to dizzying heights with its neon lights ....
We are all so awed by the light outside us that we never see the light within. We forget that what we are running after is not what we really want.
Recently read an article in RD about an austrian millionaire Giving up all his fortunes to charity, to earn a life that he would really like. He calls his policy "lose a Fortune Gain a life"
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