2nd March, 2024
I feel deepest insights about life sometimes transpire from unintentional encounters in our daily lives. It is almost like walking by the shore of a calm sea, when suddenly a humongous wave hits you, throwing you far away from where you were initially. It happened to me lately. Here are a few anecdotal retrospection.
One
I was talking to a friend after a long time. In general conversation about work and life, her experience during COVID-19 pandemic came up. She was a part of COVID-19 testing team right from the beginning when the horror about this new virus was at the peak.
“I used to be so stressed while working every day. There was a constant fear in my head that I could be the medium for this virus to reach my mom. I used to hear news about people dying around me”.
“It was indeed a very terrible time” I replied.
“You know, after going through that period, I no longer hold grudges against anyone or feel bad if things don’t go my way. Life is too unpredictable to do that”.
It took me a few seconds to process that.
Two
I was watching an interview on YouTube of four engineers-turned-comedians. All of them in their teens underwent a rigorous preparation for a national level competitive entrance exam.
In a conversation regarding the education system, stressful times that students go through to get into IITs (Indian Institute of Technology), and their personal journey from engineering to comedy, one of them was asked if he was passionate about giving the exam or if he was forced to do it.
To which he replies,
“There was a sadness inside me, and I felt like the end of that sadness was getting an IIT rank. I thought the moment I will get a good rank, my sadness will disappear. It was kind of a brainwashing that made me believe achieving this was the last thing I had to do to be happy for the rest of my life”.
We all have experienced this in some context.
Three
One day I was travelling by cab to my workplace. There was a bike rider behind the cab who was continuously honking. Since the road was narrow and there were vehicles coming from the other side, the cab driver couldn’t give way for the bike to go ahead.
As soon as the bike rider got a chance, he overtook the cab. But while overtaking, he turned towards the cab driver, abused him, and sped away.
“People have lost all their patience. A few seconds of delay stresses them so much. They are constantly fighting and are unhappy about something” He wasn’t complaining, nor was he angry with the incident, which was clear from his tone. In fact, he said that in a calm and composed manner; more like he felt sad for that bike rider.
“People don’t realize how this impatience is taking them towards stress and anxiety. Respecting your parents and having faith in God is enough to be peaceful and happy. Unfortunately, people have gone very far from these two things”.
This person probably goes to sleep with more peace of mind than apparently successful people in the world.
Four
I was listening to a podcast where an author was talking about his new book based on a comedy sci-fi, where he has put his philosophical opinions out through a funny fiction story.
An excerpt from the podcast.
“Life is very difficult in ways that it really doesn’t have to be. Even thousands of years ago, people were asking questions like ‘why is life experience dissatisfying?’. The fact that people have been working on existential problems since thousands of years means that solutions are available”.
After giving a funny analogy, he continues,
“I can’t believe that Enlightenment has fallen off the map of human ambition. Why man! It used to be all we aimed for……”
“Because the rent is so high, dude!”.
Please read that again.
-Sanketa Raut
Back to Segments
Samay and Solace 