Do you exactly remember the last time when you guffawed with your family and friends without even getting bothered about the past, the present and the future – a stuck-up life, exasperating relationships, bungled workplace and many other things to swell your share of misery? <br/><br/>Perchance, ‘yes’ and may be, a modest ‘no.’ As we are constantly preoccupied with ephemeral things, we have attuned ourselves in such a fashion that we have become mere contraptions responding to the outward stimuli, always looking for signs to react! <br/><br/> <br/>Paralysed emotions and numbed senses, as if the whole body is frozen right from top to toe. We see but do not perceive, touch but do not feel, eat but do not savour, as we continually breathe in and out, killing each moment of our existence, struck in the quagmire of a never ending riddle called ‘life’. Appalling it may seem, yet this horror is the crux of our life. <br/><br/>Cunning, perfidy, avarice, suzerainty and a despicable desire to control others’ life has become the blight of mankind. Bereft of any emotions, we are breeders of hate, an appalling vermin whose petty ego won’t even think twice before snuffing out someone’s life! <br/><br/>As if a part of assembly line production machines, our thoughts, actions and emotions, all are governed by set patterns – a blueprint formulised by our society, an equally wonderful apparatus established by our forefathers. Such is the virtuosity of this system that it works without even letting us know whether we are being used or abused by it! Right from our birth till death, like a giant octopus with its numerous tentacles, the society binds us and governs our actions accordingly. <br/><br/>Bend or break is the catchword, as to be a part of this order; one has to undertake several litmus tests in order to prove its undying allegiance to the system. We are constantly governed by this society. A system that wants us to be as meek as lamb; we are trained to accept everything except question because in doing so, we inadvertently defy its inviolability. <br/><br/>Each day, we try to perfect ourselves by becoming a functional part of this system, thereby losing a very crucial part inside us! If the system wants us to be callous and insensitive to our surroundings in the pursuit of power and pelf, we happily comply with it. <br/><br/>In the end, is such a life really worth it? Simply no! Where is all the simplicity gone? Do you ever sit back and realize what we have lost? In the pursuit of achieving something big, we have lost the gift of life, enjoying some of the simplest things around us, be it our age old value system, morals or childlike naivety. <br/><br/>Smothered by the experiences of the adult world, just remember how pristine was the past, our childhood! In such an hour of crisis, simply recollect the memories of your past; go back to your early days of childhood and reminisce the sheer fun of walking down the alley back home from school on a rainy day. Conjure the whiff of earth when the first gush of raindrops slakes the thirst of the parched land amidst the thundering clouds and the constant pitter-patter of raindrops as you frolic on your way back home! Just remember the concern when your younger sibling rolled his/her tiny finger around your hands in a busy lane for the fear of losing the way in the crowd! <br/><br/>Just see in your mind's eye digging in your favourite ice creams, unaware of spoiling your best shirt! Hiding comics under the couch for the fear of being caught reading them at home! Playing hide and seek with chums till late night while mom called home for dinner. Those last hour preparations for exams and constant prayers to God for success! Those silly, almost every day infatuations and your first crush! Remember your last day of school with teary-eyed friends bidding goodbye and then suddenly bumping in a handful of them a decade later on our way to workplace! Aren’t those memories special? <br/><br/>Oh, we were so full of energy then, always brimming with ideas! Something, which we have lost in this mad race, called ‘life’. We have become so alien to ourselves that we have severed all ties from our real selves. Well, if growing up means losing one’s identity, I am more than happy to remain an ‘overgrown kid’ throughout my life! <br/><br/>How can we, all of a sudden, become so insensitive to all the goodness that went into our making? Where is the verve, the quintessence appetite for life? <br/><br/>One can break the spell of this choking system only if one erases and rewinds. To let go all the petty things in life that coerces you in becoming something else. Each time you are down and out, remember the child in you and recall all the glorious moments of your years that bequeath uncanny endurance to carry on even in the bleakest hour of your life. Remember that the child in you will never let you fail. Keep the faith!<br/>
