The Journey of Life

They call life a journey. An endless journey till the moment you are given back to nature. How you traverse this world is nobody’s concern, but everybody’s consideration. You are at the end judged for how you have traversed this journey. Any form of judgment is ‘judgmental’, which tends to be very subjective. You get judged for what you were in life- what position where you when you retired from professional life, how well off are your kids and so forth-but never on how well you enjoyed your life, your career and your family life.

Embarking on this journey of life, we all fall into a mundane and routine life. Work, take home salary, feed your family, satisfy your kid’s requirement and save enough money for the kids and wife when you are not there anymore. It’s about one generation living for the next- day in day out, generation after generation. And if you decide to live otherwise, you are called selfish and as someone who never cared for the family. So where are you heading?

A colleague of mine quit his plum post a few days back. Asked on what he planned to do next, he made a very interesting comment. “I have been thinking for sometime on what I have been doing and what I want to do. What is my goal in life? Am I enjoying what I am doing? Innocent questions that lit a few sparks in me.

What is our goal in life? A very difficult question to answer. Not that I have no goals I can think of, but these goals seem to keep shifting. Everyday provides me with a short term goal and a long term goal. The moment I achieve an immediate goal, my end goal changes. Human behaviour, I suppose. So how do I know what is my ultimate goal? Is it to be known as a man who did his job well (as defined by society) or is it to die happy knowing that I have achieved what I wanted to do in life? A straight question will yield one answer- To die happy knowing I have achieved what I set to do. Poke deeper and the answers keep changing- just like the goals!

Delve deeper into yourself and you start thinking- “How do I become happy? How do I define ‘my successes’ on D-day? Would I still feel successful even if society thinks otherwise? A very fine line dividing the “real you” and the “social you”.

Hopefully there might be a part two to this post..

Comments

Anuja said…
hey jeevez,
good question? where are we all heading towards? and yes it is viscious circle of life and death and fathers & mothers and babies!!!!!! So yeah we need to break out...free ourselves, travel and continue the quest...but no babies man!
Monday, August 07, 2006
Anand Rao said…
Amen! to that dude! I am waiting for part 2! Also, hows this for a third option for the ultimate goal... Not "To die happy knowing I have achieved what I set to do" but "to LIVE, knowing I have achieved what I set out to do"!
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AK / BB / RN :)

Q. Whats common between Aamir Khan / Big B / Rajiv Narayan? A. All three are bloggers We are all starry eyed. We all look up at Hollywood stars more than we look upto to the heavens above. We want to know what he/she has done today. We all want to read what Aamir Khan and Big B has to say in their blogs.. We all do not want to read what Rajiv Narayan thinks/does! Well, suffice to say that i wouldnt mind the bouquets and the brickbats.. So come read me and leave ur impressions in the comments box... Well, who am I talking to???? :) PS: I dont have a dog named after someone which keeps licking my toes!
Read more

Sorry State of Affairs

I chanced upon a CBSE Social Studies textbook for Class VIII yesterday while my wife was preparing teaching notes for the kids at school. Observations from that exercise: If the syllabus in a text book is a reflection of our academic system, CBSE has been successful in shocking me. I am dismayed at the extremely superficial nature of what is being taught in schools. While there are arguments that the all studies up to Class 10 need only be superficial, I fail to understand the logic behind it.. Most of the time, the school years are spent studying, not learning. In retrospect, I feel that even if kids are just studying (and not learning!), it remains with you the rest of your life. Proof of the pudding was that, I was able to explain to my wife the background of the Mughal empire, the key distinguishing features of most of the rulers and their contributions in detail. All this, from my memory. A little bit of googling around confirmed that I was bang on! Textbooks are supposed to provi...
Read more

Poladiasis

“An affliction which makes you say the wrong thing at the right time” Very few people are endowed with the ability of saying the wrong thing at the right time. Here are a sample few from real life: “I have in the last 2 months found out how much politics is prevalent in our office” (rightly said, but in a common platform and with the boss also around!) “Wow! U had a fracture!” “Oh s***, you don’t need to use the crutches again?” This is classic Poladic stuff- most of the time you cannot make such statements and get away with it. But there are some remarkable people who can make such statements and carry on as if nothing has happened. You need to be absolutely innocent to continually be afflicted with Poladiasis. Or at the bare minimum, you need to project the image to the world that you are completely innocent! I have, thanks to the lady, enriched the English language with a new word. Lets all together have more definitions added for the word to keep it alive!!! PS: I’ve found another ...
Read more