Every morning as I ease out from the warmth of the blanket, that I involuntarily try to resist by wrapping my toes deeper into the fluffy quilt, it holds a wonderful question besides where is my mundu?!
How is my day going to be like?
Sometimes this question catalyse beyond the day, beyond months, beyond years and ultimately resting on the famous philosophers question…What is my life all about? This question must have driven many an Aristotle insane isn't? As I woke up and walked towards the balcony that was already getting filled with premature fall leaves from the nearby maple tree, I began asking myself the same.
After all in our daily rat race of waking up, going to office, chattering about politics and sports, blogging about life in general as am doing now, enjoying good food and wine and hitting the rack there might be some point of time when we question the routine…and when we ask ourselves what life is all about? When I look around people going through their catalogued lives everything seems to run like a synchronized system of living or maybe just existing…. I felt something was missing.
As we all know, men from time immemorial have been motivated by aims and ambitions. As a kid probably the aim would have been as a trivial as overtaking the neighborhood kid in the race to school from home…As a young man it might have been to get a great job, make money and splurge…And as an adult it might be to be a great father or mother. Everyone needs one of those…Aims and ambitions.
But is there something beyond that?...Probably we are in pursuit of something more substantial than what maybe rabbits want in a lifetime. Probably we might leave this world with kilobytes of useless codes written for some obscure bank …And maybe, we might have made an impact on lives of our parents, siblings and our loved ones…But underlying all is the fact that you and I are mere frail mortals.
And that brings the question of how we can make a difference in our brief existence. If you think about, what we regret most in your lives now...It might be that we could have worked harder in school or college and got better grades. Or we would have regretted not having a better relationship with someone. But imagine ourselves 50 years from now and I guess we might be regretting something else in the fag end of our lives.
Because as we get closer to the stairway to heaven (let us be optimistic here) I guess we would look back and ask just one question. Have I made the world a happier place and spread smiles or accomplished tears or anger amidst people around us?
I think there is no greater calling in our life than to make a fellow being smile...So the next time you step out of the bed , walk towards the balcony and stretch your hands just think about how you could do that. Because today as a whiff of cold air blew beneath my ears and send a pleasant shiver down my body...I felt it was nature’s way of saying I am alive and a reminder to spread warmth to people around me.
p.s .listening to numb piano.
15 years ago
27 comments:
besides that question.. :P
I know I have spread a few smiles..
Hell I have made people laugh uncontrollably..
thanks to my stupidity :P :$
the world is a better place for a few smiled..
but seriously.. I think if you can spread a warm smile on someones face, if you can make someone laugh.. help someone..
and maybe if i am alive by 50.. and look back n RIP. Isn that what you call life? :)
That was lovely. All of us have these days but problem is we forget about these little enlightenments in a matter of hours and next day go back to waking up with the same old thoughts or worse, no thoughts at all. It would be good if we could somehow fix it to stay in mind all the time. Would have helped to throw a lot of bad days into non-existence.
mr mathew,
the timing of this post is apt as far as i am concerned...presently began my 'rat race' life..and going by ur stds of 'making someone smile'...i think the question applicable to me is 'did i help our client make money today'!...and with my schedule of the past few days my present 'desire' is to sit down and eat a meal peacefully thinking only abt the food!!
btw y dont u use mundus with velcow straps...it will stay in place :~P
velcrow or watever they are called..correction!
Wow! Great thinking. Isn't this what great saints and philosophers thought and left without an answer? Just do what you are doing now. Spread that infectious smile. You are almost in that list.
Beautiful post!!! When you realize that you could have made a difference in the past but didnt take the chance, you reach a crucial phase in your life...and that is the point from where you decide that from now on you will not do anything to regret in the future. And then you live life or try to live life to its fullest! How many of us do that? The ones who do are the fortunate ones as life is short and its never too late to make a new start!
That sounds like a sermon I know :( But that's what I think on the subject!
"holds a wonderful question besides where is my mundu?!" LOL!!! Someone in my house faces the same dilemma every morning. :p
@Divs
Yes..being able to make others smile doesnt literaily mean by sending feel good forwards or by sending funny jokes..as you mentioned the smile can be spread by helping people in need or comforting people in distress!!
And that makes the world really a better place..
@Ms Cris
Yes..I guess we have the habit of procrastinating anything good we can do about such thoughts..so lets do something about it when we have such thoughts..
@Ann
thats not a smile you are creating..you are creating gleeful greed induced fake smile!!;-D
And hey I dont use such synthetic's and moreover it becomes predictable ..what fun without a bit of mundu searching every morning..;-P
@Sridevi
thank you..:-)
and i guess its a long way for me to be in that list...
@Anju
Bingo..your sermons are always welcome..
I think everyone of us have been there some point in life...and i think the change what am seeking is not any radical change..but a simple change our attitude towards others and i guess that small yet effectual change makes a lot of difference..
hehehe..so I am not alone in the association..I was wondering I was the sole one...!!;-D
Hi Matt:
Very profound post.
I am exactly in that stage of my life where I am exploring such options.
Thanks for reinforcing my views.
Enough said about the mundu in the comments, so will not mention it :-)
Cheers,
Salil
Great post. People are definitely the reason life is worth what it is. And so yeah, making the fellas around you happy should be a good idea :)
I so identify with all you said and in my case the questions came to me early in life as to why I was here, and what I wanted in life. I started with chasing 'immortality' , matured to the ayn rand philosophy of 'being selfish and making yourself happy' to deciding theres no point philosophising and trying to pinpoint what the mission in life is.
I think, the more you live 'in the moment' and live it well, the more successful you feel in life. Thats how my current thought process works :)
Lovely post! Compulsive reading, indeed!
There's no general answer to the question of life. All we do is solve temporary problems, strive to attain short-term or long-term goals and move on. Most of the time, we find ourselves too preoccupied to even think about alternative scenarios leading us to such extensive thought processes about the question of life. But such moments do arise quite often, and I'm sure you've written this post at the spur of one such moment! :D
I've too pondered about the meaning of life only to end up embracing 'Fight Club'philosophy, here.
I was enamored by your "making others smile" thing. That's sure the nicest thing one can do to brighten up his/her day! :-)
I wont say this is a beautiful post....but this is one of the most beautiful way of thinking n if u r leading a life with this sort f a concern... then you must be the happiest person in the world!
i think, if one could bring a tear of joy in someone's eyes....then that moment s going to give him greater satisfaction than all the rest f his achievements...!!
In this world f "sick hurry n divided aims" its so easy to 'wear' a smile...but the smile that comes frm the heart is contagious...so keep smiling..:)
People always think about this and i can very well relate to a lot of things you've mentioned. I'm sure i bring a few smiles into the world, in the face of my parents when they see ther son's in a good job, on my sister's face when i call her each morning to wake her up(though not always), on my girl's face when i put her to sleep with my fone call each night, and on my classmates' face when they go thru the mandathanam's i made when they flip thru the old college pics. But i feel that it's nt you bringing smiles on other faces but you having a smile on your face that makes all the difference. I think so, maybe i'm selfish, maybe i'm egoistic. But i feel at the end of the day if you have a smile on ur face with what you did, you've done your part in the world :)
Mats, that was a great post. I completely agree with you. Sometimes a kind word, a pat on the back, some moral support, listening to someone's problems, and things like that which does not cost us much can make a lot of difference in another person's life. Take care buddy.
Thanks Mathew for your comment on my blog..
Would like to follow yours too, can I add your blog link to mine? There's certain astuteness in the way you write.. Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Sudeshna
You're giving me ideas....
First thing I mumble in the morning are curses...at the irritating alarm from the mobile, and at the ice cold water that flows out of the pipe. And the Autumn is setting in, making it harder and harder getting up in the mane..:(
k..k.. good night now..Im off to bed..its the only one which keeps me going..:)
Its a conversation between two.A somewhat confused,about the things she read,about the people she met,about the things ahe write.B,a celebrity intellectual
A) btw,am very much on with a question now a days
B)hmm.thats good.whats that question that haunts you dear
A)Can you plz tell me who is the one content with knowledge and life
B)laughing.and finally coming cool.
Pause and "Vayanaattile ulkkadukalil sooryane mathram ariyunna oru paavam ila"
dai nalla koora.
enjoyed some of the descriptions there...lovely post!
we'd all be a lot happier if we set our goals to simply spreading happiness.
Its easy to do and also most defenitely rewarding!
Such profoundness at 26!
those great philosophers arrive at such conclusions after years of meditating and growing a long white beard etc...:p
Mathew baba! :)
Mathew,
I had a super ambitious friend who was keen on changing jobs, getting better profiles etc and she managed to do that couple of times.
Some months back she met an accident and is no more.
Then I realized, these things are trivial when you look at it at a macro level.
-Nikhil
it holds a wonderful question besides where is my mundu?! LOL dont all of us??
Not to sound overly philosophical I disagree with "our greatest calling is to spread a smile" and whats more.. I dont even know why.. but I just cant agree..:D
Loved this post, and it is so true sometimes all it takes is a simple smile to make someones day better .
Pondered over the questions long time back and realized it was pointless thinking about it! I don't think about anything about life now, I try to do so :D
@Salil
Thank you…
@freespirit
I think we don’t need philosophies to drive us..We already know it..
Just that we sometimes turn a blind eye to it..
@Hari
I have written it after pondering over it over a long time..such thoughts though come at spur of a moment..it definitely keeps coming back..
Making other happy is surest way to keep yourself happy too..
@Merin
‘i think, if one could bring a tear of joy in someone's eyes....then that moment s going to give him greater satisfaction than all the rest f his achievements...!!’
Perfectly told….wearing a smile is so different from a genuine one..you can easily make out them….
@Abhi
The point is that at the end of the day if you have a smile, it should come from a worthy reason..
@Alexis
Nice to see you here..was missing you in the space for long…
I know you are one person who really does follow this motto…
@ Sudeshna
It is definitely a honour….;-)
I liked the poems in your blog…
@Scorpiogenius
Hahaha..yes its getting difficult to wake up in the morning these days..;-p
@Ann
Angane oru paavam ila aaayirnenkil nannaaiyrunnu….atleast it would have the burden of thinking ..;-D
@VMJ
OK…
@Pooja
Thank you…ee pavam cheruppakaraanei oru Babayum aaki alle…
Njan schoolil vello drohavvum cheythoo irrinooo.. ..;-p
@Nikhil
mmm..I understand that..and such incidents are truly humbling..
@Abraham
Well try doing that and you realize its worth it…;-P
@starry nights
Thanks…and very true…
@ Tom
You are in the same phase of life as I was a few years ago..This Tom to shall change..;-p
ah, the perennial question.. everytime I think of it, I promise myself to find a permanent solution to it.. when I retire from work.. and I plan it for 'after 10 years'. If not for anything else, the thought of retiring from work makes me forget about the question for a while! :P
am a fellow traveler in this journey of life and can relate to what you have written.. and listen u need not apologise.. I think only when we are emotional we express ourselves best.. Albeit keep blogging and commenting :)
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