Skip to main content

Life and choices



Indian Bloggers



 It is when I actually constructed a house for myself that I learnt how I could have made a better house at less cost.  It is when I reach the autumn of life that I learn how richer life would have been had I made different choices.  But neither can be undone.  The construction of a house is a one-time accomplishment.  At least, one’s life is a one-time affair.  There’s no going back.

Life is a cruel game of the gods if they exist.  Christopher McDougall’s gazelle and lion that wake up every morning in an African forest and start running for survival are poignant symbols of that cruel game.  The graceful gazelle has to run in order to save its life from the feral lion.  And the lion has to run and capture the gazelle for its own survival. 

The conqueror and the vanquished keep running in the wicked game of life.  Could I have chosen to stand out of that game and watch?  Even that wouldn’t save me because I wouldn’t be able to bear the heartlessness of that game beyond the initial moments.  Could I have chosen to be a conqueror and gone on rampages defending my holy cows?  My DNA would have revolted.

So I end up as one of the many vanquished ones.  Like a piece of the flotsam and jetsam cast ashore by the endless restlessness of the ocean whose craving is at once boundless and circumscribed.

Flotsam and jetsam.  Nice imagery.  And it brings to my mind the music band, especially their song, Life is a Mess.  “No way back from here,” begins the song.  Just go on.  Take the ride.  “And your troubles will still be here / Troubles will still be here, troubles are here....”

Let me give the link to that song before I sign off for now and carry on my ride.

PS. This is written specifically for Indispire Edition 129: 

If you were the writer of your own story - Your Life. How would you have altered it? #choice




Labels:

Comments

  1. BushraAugust 6, 2016 at 5:01 PM

    There's no going back.. how true! Lovely post :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 6, 2016 at 5:23 PM

    Life is a one time affair.....and we have to use it well ...cautiously.....Thats a good thought sir

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 7, 2016 at 7:49 AM

      Life is a series of lessons... Happy to see you here, Tony.

      Delete
  3. UnknownAugust 6, 2016 at 8:33 PM

    The gazelle can ogle at juice of the grass, like the lion can have a timid moment with the lioness.
    Moments make life and moments have a life of their own.

    ReplyDelete
  4. incredibleopinionsAugust 6, 2016 at 10:56 PM

    Very thoughtful - Life is a one time affair!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anita SabatAugust 7, 2016 at 11:57 AM

    I guess we need to keep going & making the choices on the way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 7, 2016 at 2:09 PM

      Yes, that's all what we can do. But the irony is that all the lessons we learn will be in vain... If only some of those lessons could be learnt as a child.

      Delete
  6. indu chhibberAugust 8, 2016 at 7:45 AM

    Yes we all tend to reminisce as we grow old.
    My conclusion can be viewed here http://jeeteraho.blogspot.in/2016/07/the-crossroad.html

    ReplyDelete
  7. sunaina sharmaAugust 9, 2016 at 3:38 AM

    It will go on....and on....and on.....it's like the more we know the more we don't know....I remembered Waiting for Godot after reading your post.....you made me want to read that play again....it is one of my fav.....:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 9, 2016 at 6:17 AM

      Nobody dramatised the naked absurdity of human life as well as Beckett did.

      Delete
  8. Swati BatraAugust 9, 2016 at 11:34 AM

    Life is to be lived well. No quitting no looking back. Just do your task and move on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalAugust 10, 2016 at 11:32 AM

      I'm sure everybody wants to live well. But often the system stymies us.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Ghost of a Banyan Tree

  Image from here Fiction Jaichander Varma could not sleep. It was past midnight and the world outside Jaichander Varma’s room was fairly quiet because he lived sufficiently far away from the city. Though that entailed a tedious journey to his work and back, Mr Varma was happy with his residence because it afforded him the luxury of peaceful and pure air. The city is good, no doubt. Especially after Mr Modi became the Prime Minister, the city was the best place with so much vikas. ‘Where’s vikas?’ Someone asked Mr Varma once. Mr Varma was offended. ‘You’re a bloody antinational mussalman who should be living in Pakistan ya kabristan,’ Mr Varma told him bluntly. Mr Varma was a proud Indian which means he was a Hindu Brahmin. He believed that all others – that is, non-Brahmins – should go to their respective countries of belonging. All Muslims should go to Pakistan and Christians to Rome (or is it Italy? Whatever. Get out of Bharat Mata, that’s all.) The lower caste Hindus co...
121 comments
Read more

Tanishq and the Patriots

Patriots are a queer lot. You don’t know what all things can make them pick up the gun. Only one thing is certain apparently: the gun for anything. When the neighbouring country behaves like a hoard of bandicoots digging into our national borders, we will naturally take up the gun. But nowadays we choose to redraw certain lines on the map and then proclaim that not an inch of land has been lost. On the other hand, when a jewellery company brings out an ad promoting harmony between the majority and the minority populations, our patriots take up the gun. And shoot down the ad. Those who promote communal harmony are traitors in India today. The sacred duty of the genuine Indian patriot is to hate certain communities, rape their women, plunder their land, deny them education and other fundamental rights and basic requirements. Tanishq withdrew the ad that sought to promote communal harmony. The patriot’s gun won. Aapka Bharat Mahan. In the novel Black Hole which I’m writing there is...
61 comments
Read more

Romance in Utopia

Book Review Title: My Haven Author: Ruchi Chandra Verma Pages: 161 T his little novel is a surfeit of sugar and honey. All the characters that matter are young employees of an IT firm in Bengaluru. One of them, Pihu, 23 years and all too sweet and soft, falls in love with her senior colleague, Aditya. The love is sweetly reciprocated too. The colleagues are all happy, furthermore. No jealousy, no rivalry, nothing that disturbs the utopian equilibrium that the author has created in the novel. What would love be like in a utopia? First of all, there would be no fear or insecurity. No fear of betrayal, jealousy, heartbreak… Emotional security is an essential part of any utopia. There would be complete trust between partners, without the need for games or power struggles. Every relationship would be built on deep understanding, where partners complement each other perfectly. Miscommunication and misunderstanding would be rare or non-existent, as people would have heightened emo...
9 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

The Circus called Politics

Illustration by ChatGPT I have/had many students whose parents are teachers in schools run or aided by the government. These teachers don’t send their own children to their own schools where education is free. They send their children to private schools like the one where I’ve been working. They pay huge fees to teach their children in schools where teachers are paid half of or less than their salaries. This is one of the many ironies about the Kerala society. An article in yesterday’s The Hindu [ A deeper meaning of declining school enrolment ] takes an insightful look at some of the glaring social issues in Kerala’s educational system. One such issue is the rapidly declining student enrolment in government and aided schools in the state. The private schools in the state, on the other hand, are getting more students. People don’t want to send their children to the schools run by the government systems. The chief reason is that the medium of instruction is Malayalam. The second ...
6 comments
Read more