The “like” button of life

A while ago I was out driving through the city. I was in the mood so I just turned up the music put on some Rock and roll from the 80’s and I was in my own world of bliss. My version of letting off the steam.
It began raining soon and it all got even more nostalgic. The music, the cool fragrant air in my car, the rain, the greenery around me. As I took a turn on my way back I saw a man. Must’ve been in his 50’s. Had a rag of a coat, some tethered pants, grizzly Grey beard and shabby hair. He had eyes that spoke loudly, they had much melancholy and longing, it was not more than a few seconds that I had a glimpse of this guy. But so much had been spoken already, I could clearly see he had had a good life and somehow on his way down the road he got hit by destiny and his world must’ve fallen apart.
He had this fairly large photo frame in his hand and was crossing the road while looking at it. actually thats how he came across me.
Out of curiosity I lowered my window and tried get a look at the frame and from my distance I could make out a family picture. Someone sitting down and people standing around that person.

The air in my car wasn’t cool any more, nor the music loud. I do not know weather it was my pondering on my thoughts or I had absent minded-ly turned everything down. I was just driving blankly all the way back home. everything was quiet but inside my head there was a big maelstrom of thoughts.

And then it struck me. As hard as a bulldozer. What I have now, all my amenities, no matter how hard I must’ve worked for, to get them, are all so delicately superficial. Nothing lasts forever, and good times- definitely not.

Every time we got out to have a good time we spew out money as everyone else and try to savor life’s greatest pleasures. I think thats the right thing to do. To do it when you can. Who knows what would life give you or take away from you.

All those friends that I hadn’t called in ages, All those things I had jotted down in my bucket list, All the good times I had promised to spend with my family, All that was just kept like old books that become obsolete after a few years. It all came back and that one sight of a poor man who was just walking along the road, blankly staring at his family picture, made me realize such a simple fact of life. This life that we have got, I not an avid believer of a specific religion but I do believe in the theory of chaos.

You see chaos in the reason we came into being, It was just out of some weird unexplainable fact that you are sitting here reading this article, look around you. You will see you are already having so much for yourself, facilities, loving people, a family, what else do you need? I know theres a long list of needs that you have, which I might say is a great thing for our wants keep us going.

But somewhere it is as important to cherish what we already have. It is human Psychology to beat around the bush for something you already have or something you don’t need.
I see people around me, in all the cities that I have traveled to, Its like a dollar bill kept on a mouse trap. Instead of using our brains and making something out of our lives. we choose to chase that mousetrap with the ‘Oh! so lucrative’ dollar bill and when we get our hands on it, the mousetrap gets us. And the vicious cycle of being dependent on money begins.

We never make that call and say hello to an old friend. We never squeeze out time from our busy schedules to go and give the mum and dad a big hug. We never have fruitful conversations with our spouse except on weekends, hell thats the only time you get to see each others faces.
We also never have time to take out the kids to a park, neither do they because they’re stuck on their own set of mobile screens. We ourselves are busy in our lives and our virtual social networks we hardly have time for anyone else.
If a poor guy can blindly cross the road looking at his family he once might have had, Why cant we give importance to people around us instead of money?
In all of those MNC’s and corporates I have worked in, I see priorities are given on basis of goals and products, least importance is given to interpersonal relationships. What does that do? It only makes your life mundane and colorless. If you are working in these corporate troll-houses you’ll know that I am telling the truth. If not, then ask yourself this one simple question. When was the last time you sat down and had a great conversation with someone, without constantly checking into your phone or TV or computer?
Its perfectly understandable that earning money is a basic requirement for each and everyone of us but if that is our number one priority then we definitely are loosing on many beautiful things in life. Believe me you do not need a truck load of bank balance to lead a happy life, for happiness is inside you and it can never be earned like money.

Cherish what you have, put people before your needs, smile, and always take time out for people you care.

Hoping that man will find his family one day.

The waterman.