~ Keep Walking...~

Today I write about a soul who is a father to another lovely soul who happens to be his only son. He dotes on the relationship he carries with him, more so as God has given him the responsibility and the resolve to nurture him well as he was born with serious medical condition “fickle mindedness” and will always behave like a child…

The bold father ("Maheshji" as I call him) took upon himself to raise him with whatever resources the family had at their disposal, as a gift of God, - his karma in this life.

The anguish which life offers when such instances happen in one’s life refutes the presence of God, “Why Me” is the only question which comes to one’s mind and unfortunately, the answers are not to be found. Maheshji had none of this torment when we were talking, his simple composure on the topic led me to believe the dignified approach he has meted out towards this happening, as if he has found the real meaning of life! 

Pankaj, his paraplegic son does not remain with him, as he has grown up now and cannot be taken care of by him, touching retirement, Maheshji is not in the best of his physical health to give a proper care and comfort to his ailing son. The alternative has been sending him to a far off home care center for such kids – Pankaj has been a resident of his surrogate home for more than a decade now , he has made friends and plays with them and shares his pains and pleasure with his lifelong inmates.

On special occasions such as Diwali and New Year, Maheshji brings his son back and makes him enjoy the family’s presence – the house is lightened up with utmost brightness and sparkle, not by lights but with the giggling and loudness of talk the family does when he is back – no wonder the mood gets ecstatic on such occasions but all the happiness gets short lived once the new dawn arrives, the mood gets somber and Pankaj has to be driven back to his dwelling where his caretakers are eagerly waiting for him. The parents can’t afford to keep him for long as there is a high risk of a fit happening which needs medical care.

Just the other day during my general conversation, the topic erupted and Maheshji was quick to address it with no qualms. “ I am not the only one God has done this to, there are many such parents who are doing their duty and have got such children, Its life sanjeev, this happens!, just keep walking till you reach the end…”

These words became a bedrock of my motivation – you sometime feel deprived of your aim and the zeal to perform and keep walking in the solitude of nothingness, with all the bad stories and mayhem that you have observed in life, suddenly you confront a man who has been raising a ‘differently abled” child with responsibility and no absolute vices towards the almighty.

At the end of life what really matters is not what we have built, but what we have shared, I guess you have found your man whom you can always look forward to at times of disgust – Thanks Maheshji for telling me the true meaning of our living… Just keep walking till you reach the end…

~ Calling it a day…~

 He came and quietly sat down near the space which he thought would be fit for him to rest and also to hide himself from other roaming street canines. His dark color and sublime nature were not noticeable to me first but as his eyes shine when he looked at me, I was able to see a glimpse of him hiding in a corner!

His persona was meek and as he sat rolling his eyes, I could sense the pain that he must be going through, the freak little dog could not stand on his own feet and my “Pooches” had no takers. Giving him a biscuit would not comply as he had turned around his face in uniqueness, he was just not interested to have it , Gosh – I could have leant the language to communicate with animals with such misery. Suddenly he thought of turning his face and tried his best to see me, I caressed him and tried my best to make him comfortable, but the weakness of his body severely restricted his movement.

What made me grow in anger was to know that the mutt was tamed and was somebody’s pet and was having a strap around his neck. He had been abandoned seeing his frail health, the poor dog had to feed for himself not to forget that he has to take on the hostile environment of the outer world – the vengeance and superiority and power struggle of street kingship of other canines, the insensitivity of humans was all remarkable!

As the time passed he tried to slept and just lay ‘as Dead’, as I tried to touch him, there laid no sign of life for once and this made me believe that the poor fellow has called it a day, but suddenly there was a movement and he started to wag his tail , though slowly, giving me his acceptance of our new found friendship!

I didn’t wanted to disturb him more left him with some eatables, though I knew that he was not in a condition to have them, as my short lived experience with the pooch had shown, night had fallen to its full darkness and it was time to sleep but the canine was all over my mind.

Just thinking how it would be to wait for death in loneliness and where you are incommunicable to others. For our old generation, who have been just been ‘Abandoned’ by their children for greener pastures, they leave behind their legacy to unchartered waters, the oldies remain at the mercy of their destiny sometimes awaiting that last day of their life when suddenly a moment would come and they would rest lifeless.. This dog episode had a great learning for us humans, we are grown insensitive to others, be it plants, animals and of course our peers, forgetting our own end…as they say time is a big healer, today it is this unfortunate dog, tomorrow would be any of us… the end would remain the same…

~ GOD…Where is HE? ...~

A thought as an expression of your mindfulness begets several questions which your inner self asks to the outer world...observe if. Listen to it...there lies the answers to most of the intricate questions you have ever asked yourself.... one such question which we might often ask is “Is there any GOD?”

Everyone of us have different notion of him, for some, there is no actual God or Satan, for me God is a symbol for a higher realization of the self and Satan is your bondages to Ego, Anger and other perils of human consciousness.

We are in a hurry to find him but the universe is not in a hurry, it took its own sweet time to develop and is still evolving, but we are always the contrary , in a hurry and in constant rush to beat time, don’t know what we are running after?

Many of the things and the situations in this world are simple, it is our own limited intelligence that makes it complicated, we as humans have set our life paths that are comforting to our needs, fully knowing about our uncertainties of future, we have thus created a notion of GOD, a higher intelligence on whom we can fall back on at times of adversities. 

Many of us regularly ‘talk’ to that higher intelligence, consciously when we pray or subconsciously when we are asleep. He is our sole refuge for any purposes whom we can seek anytime of the day or night when we feel distressed or when we don’t fit the bill in our philosophy of living.  We all follow different paths in our pursuit of that unknown force and internally we are at perils of any situation we might encounter to which we have no answer.

I know certain souls who have call it quits after chasing their dreams and have thus realized that anything and everything you achieve here stands meaningless after a certain age or point of time, I have also made friends with oldies who shover their life’s experiences and quite stoically tell their story of hard work and toil to realise at this fag end of their life and they still don’t find answer to the most confounding question of life “ Why we came here and what was our objective?”. Still there are those who done the hat of a mendicant and leave everything to destiny and start to chase and find that elusive power whom many believe is running the show of this universe – don’t know if they find HIM ever?

We have different subjectivities of GOD and we pursue different paths according to our own thinking to pursue that supreme soul whom we have been taught is our creator though this logic creates a sea of questions in cerebral mind as to why we are not able to meet or see him ever in life. Many souls have come to this planet and have tried to chase the intangibility of thought called “GOD” but he remains elusive, they read mega mythological parables, chant numerous mantras and other hymns but still remain the same as they are.  such is the power of his creation, everyone is engrossed in achieving his / her higher self but how? – that chimera still remains and will continue to remain ever till we first find ourselves… the rest will surely follow suit.. till then continue the chase to dig out answers to the most intriguing questions life offers us…..happy hunting…!!!

~ The Body...~

Just recently when you start feeling feverish and things are not good as it seems to be, you start to admire the agility of the body. The idiom “Health is wealth” stands the test of time and it is during these thought provoking times that you consider to upskill your way of living once you get back in your vigorous best – considering your body to be an asset and certainly not a liability, you will do your best to take good care of this God’s gift. Many of us have neglected this piece of marvel and have almost abused it many a time.

When I just had a bout of fever due to a recent throat infection (My age-old tonsils got aggravated due to intake of ice cold water), I meekly summoned myself to what my Body was demanding as a need of the hour. As if I had no force or energy left in myself to take care of my general needs, the fever quickly climbed to 103 degrees and there was no respite from an SOS paracetamol tabs – our first line of defense was rendered ineffective. 

As I lay like a lifeless object, varied thoughts captivated my mind and one particular sensibility took over from rest of them – that once I get back to my usual self, I need to be much more careful about the best creation of God – My Body!

How many of us have talked to our own selves, looking in the mirror and on close observation, you will feel the slightest of changes your body is giving indications of – it may be greying of your hair, or little wrinkles on your face and skin or may be the loss of strength which you usually had, all these indications are the ‘Silent Talks’ which your erstwhile body does to you – but are we listening? 

A day comes when your body call it quits and it shudders you from within as its defense mechanism surrenders to the zillion infectious agents it silently fights through its aggressive immune system. Once the veil gets blown, you get compromised and as a finality become a victim of some disease.

The Body is exclusively yours to take care of, it took time to be build and become what it is today. You can enjoy your being if you have a hale and hearty body, at the same time this can quickly turn into a liability and make your less agile and in worst cases being bed-ridden. Taking good care of it can make you cozy in life , it gives you pleasure if it stays fit, else there is no respite. It is complex from within, every vein, artery, organ is intertwined but still function as an independent piece of machinery, though rigid, many of them are equally fragile.

So the next time you stand in front of the mirror, observe yourself and see to it what your ‘Body’ wants to talk to you – may be it is giving you an indication of how tough it is fighting to keep you fit from within – respect its being, for that is the best ‘Asset’ which you can always have till you exist, as once it becomes a liability, it will be tough for us to come back to our usual best…Stay healthy , stay happy!!!

~ Why do we Pray?...~

So, what in essence is the logic behind the prayer? Why do we pray? Is it the fear of that unknown power which we deep inside think can do anything to our existence, anything worse which is beyond our control and we fall back at our nadir Or we stand with folded hands before that unknown source of energy to just thank him for our daily existence.

We have many loose points and much to fall back on, what happens when we lose someone special or we can be made miserable within nick of time through some unpleasant events in our life. Prayers for many of us can be our offering of gratitude and thanks giving to the almighty or that unknown consciousness, whatever we may call it, at the same time Prayers can be our selfish desire to want and achieve something substantial with a cult which we firmly know deep inside our soul that cannot be achieved without an invisible hand or providence. 

We bribe God many a time – this is a hard and compelling fact which we know internally but would not accept openly. Sit in silence and think as to how many times have we been gracious enough to thanks the almighty for giving us tough situations and then held our hand to pass through those toughest moments or for that matter we have been bestowed on so many happy moments to fall back on whilst we were ignorant to facts of our living.

Many a time is see humble prostrations from sundry who by the look of their body gesture have succumbed to the perils and pressures of life – they have got to know one big thing in life –“We are not the doer of this world, we didn’t created it and we cannot control various situations in its entirety!”, one who has ingrained this pivotal thought in their mind would start living happily as the burden of the doership will just vanish from his /her being. You will just do your best proposition with all your might and faithfulness and leave the rest to that ultimate power to give you results.

There have been many such examples in our lives which proves beyond measure such facts which makes us believe in this simple Idiom “ We are not running this world, there sure is some divine intelligence who is taking care of situations for every atom or molecule in this universe and not only this planet.!”

Many Scientists, Astrophysicists, Medical professionals, Researchers and Engineers when go deep into their research find perfection in every sphere of their research – at a grandeur level, observe our galaxy and solar system – so much perfection has been attained to provide life on our planet, everything seems to be aligned with one another in perfect harmony – a genuine question thus begets to the thoughtful mind “Who created this perfectness? And how? “. We still don’t know how life began on earth and how universe was formed. All these questions make us believe that there is definitely some primordial power or conscience who has created this grand design for us to exist.

Patiently observing the marvel of life and death , you will start to believe the power of his ‘Maya’ which begets situations to unearth with the passage of time as we loose souls who have been living with us for ages and we don’t know where have they gone now. On the other hand,  we make additions to our families with advent of newborn children, whom we don’t know from where have they come in our life!

Our prayers for that source of wisdom gives us that adrenaline rush to start again lest we fall. The incomprehensible nature of life makes us believe in His existence in our life as a driving force and as a divine energy who is channelized in our life each day. This cat and mouse game shall always be there for humanity to surrender to the surreal world we called “Maya”, our only resolve will be a total submission towards our thoughts and every act we do to achieve our objectives taking into consideration the uncontrollable results which we would incur on daily basis… Praying is the only solution towards our liberation, sooner or later you will realize this in due course of your life…

~ Theology of Life ~

Today I draw my thoughts and imagination to a very vital question towards our fag end of our existence, these thoughts generally come to your mind when you hear some unfortunate news of someone calling it a day!

Suddenly your mind focuses on the personality that he / she was and about your relationship with him / her and may be the good times you might have shared with the soul.

Going by our mystic philosophy, we sometimes ponder about the other dimension we will go soon after we loose our physical bodies, varied thoughts come to your zestful mind, how that other world would be, what would be cause of our death in this world, how it will occur, will it be painful, who will we meet when we co to the other sphere of life.

Everyone at some time in life wonders what happens after death. Throughout history, some of the most thoughtful minds have advocated that life does not end with the death of our body but continues on via a process known as reincarnation. In the Western world, followers of the Orphic religion in ancient Greece were the first known exponents of reincarnation. They were succeeded by Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and a host of other philosophers.

The Vedic literature of India advocates that the soul, or “Atma”, gives life to the body. Life does not arise from a particular combination of material elements as some modern scientists theorize. At the time of death, we leave one body and enter a new one. That is called reincarnation, many old civilizations believed in the process of reincarnations. Civilizations such as Egyptians used to preserve the mummified bodies of the dead with a hope that one day it would come back to life as an incarnation, 

The concept is not as alien as it might seem. We can observe that we change from one body to another throughout our lifetime. Our body at birth is completely different from our adult body. Yet throughout these changes, the conscious self remains the same. Similarly, the conscious self remains the same at death and transfers from one body to the next in the cycle of reincarnation. 

Our present body is the result of a long series of actions and reactions in previous lives. The law that governs this is known as karma: every action has a reaction. Our previous actions have produced our present body, and our current actions will determine our next body. 

Only in the human form can we free ourselves from the endless cycle of reincarnation, of birth and death, by re-establishing our eternal, loving relationship with Lord Krishna. As Krishna states in Bhagavad Gita 8.16, “From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one attains to My abode. never takes birth again.” 

~ Are You Rich or Poor...~

Sitting with best of minds make you ponder on lateral question which begets you conscience every now and then. Today had a conversation which stretched beyond prescribed times but was spellbound and resulted in spectacular observation which you can ponder on in any stage of your life should you feel down or hapless. 

The million-dollar question that came during the general chit-chat was “Are you rich or poor?”,

We were group of four chaps sharing a common table in the neighborhood park and out of curiosity started to converse with each other.

One Septuagenarian out of us was eager to answer the question in his own vernacular. He seemed to be over eager to quote a fine example to all three of us and make us explain the relevance of his answer. He gave us his introduction to be a retired mathematics teacher of a Government school and he often caressed his students with his life wisdom rather than bookish rotes, he thus began: 

One day I popped up a life’s most intriguing question “ Are you Rich or Poor?”, the students got a little confused and seems to be in a fix to answer this presumably looking straight forward question. Sensing that I would not get an answer I started my explanation to the same. 

I asked the class following questions: 

1. What is ZERO?

2. What is INFINITY?

3. Can ZERO and INFINITY be same? 

Some of the students spoke in tandem and thus replied as following, 

ZERO means nothing 

INFINITY means a number greater than any countable number. 

ZERO and INFINITY are opposite and they can never be same

Listening to the answer from students, I rolled out another related question towards them.

 ‘How can there be any number which is greater than any countable number?’

 As expected, there was pin drop though provoking silence in the class and  I had no answers. 

I then explained the concept of infinity in a very interesting way, which I remember even after more than 35 years. 

I said that imagine that there is an illiterate shepherd who can count only upto 20.Now, if the number of sheep he has less than 20 and you ask him how many sheep he has, he can tell you the precise number (like 3, 5 14 etc.). However, if the number is more than 20, he is likely to say, “TOO MANY”. 

I then explained that in science infinity means ‘too many’ (and not uncountable) and in the same way zero means ‘too few’ (and not nothing). As an example, he said that if we take the diameter of the Earth as compared to distance between Earth and Sun, the diameter of earth can be said to zero since it is too small. However, when we compare the same diameter of earth with the size of a grain, diameter of earth can be said to be infinite. 

Hence, I concluded that the same thing can be ZERO and INFINITE at the same time, depending on the context, or your matrix of comparison. The relationship between richness and poverty is similar to the relationship between infinity and zero.

 *It all depends on the scale of comparison with your wants*.

 *If your income is more than your wants, you are rich. If your wants are more than your income, you are poor.* 

I finally concluded the conversation by telling them that I consider myself rich because my wants are far less than my income. I have become rich not so much by acquiring lots of money, but by progressively reducing my wants. If you can reduce your wants, you too can become rich at this very moment.

When he finished, we had a gala applause to his wisdom, he had convincingly stated and made us believe on to the simple explanation of one of life’s intricate question. 

Thanks Uncle for todays Session, I hope we all cater to and follow up on this valuable life lesson for the rest of our existence on this planet.!

~ Rs 5, is all it is..~

 Today, I write about my first hand experience of what Rs 5 means to many, though for us it might be just a negligible amount which we might even don’t think of when there is no change  to be given back to us whilst we go shopping. When you are providing home cooked food for a nominal amount of Rs.5 / plate consisting of morsel of food containing four chapatis, lentils , Rice, Salads and a sweetener sometimes, your hunger would satiate only when you will partake some of it.

You get to experience humility of a lifetime when you become a part of a initiative which includes providing for sumptuous lunch to the downtrodden and the unprivileged section of society. Within no time your see serpentine queue being formed consisting of people who want to have lunch priced at unbelievable rates.

Suddenly a voice is raised, and you hear thus, “Bhaiya, mere pass paanch Rupay nahi hain!” – [Brother, I don’t have Rs.5], expecting that he would not be served the lunch, he continuously looks into the cauldron full of freshly cooked rice along with ladle serving lentils. He loses hope of being fed but suddenly gets a help from a lonely stranger who offers to pay for him. The camaraderie of people standing in the queue to have grab of their plate is worth watching. Unknown to each other but still forming a bond over those few minutes when they are in the queue is a lesson learnt on humanity. It was not that he would be bereft of his afternoon lunch, but it was made available by a person not knowing him – may be the similarity of predicament they are makes them help each other at such odd times.

The queue starts again and suddenly one more chap turns up with a cheeky smile as if he wanted to tell something different which he actually did. He had a short story to tell “bhaiya, mere pass teen rupay hi hain, do rupay kahin gir gaye !” – [ Brother, I only have Rs 3 and I lost Rs 2 coins somewhere!”], there was certainly no cause of concern and he was served lunch with same aplomb and with no differentiation whatsoever. There are many such examples which make you feel about how important Rs 5 is for them, a full plate can be served, and they can have lunch which is sufficient to satisfy their hunger.

Many of them would come with a second round of having lunch and not before praising the taste of the succour demand more by taking out the humble Rs 5 note crumbled inside one of their pockets. The second time they have their lunch, many burp and give us a genuine feedback of how they felt about the taste and also about the feel they had whilst they had their meal. Feedbacks such as “Bhaiya bahut swadhisht khana tha,bilkul ghar jaisa!” – [Brother, the lunch was very tasty, felt as if it was home cooked!”] – such a feedback acts as a catalyst of motivation for us to serve such souls better day by day and make us feel satisfied by merely seeing such people having a sated appetite and thereafter moving back towards doing their daily chores as satisfied souls!

~ Lets be Free...~

Talking to a friend today, a question popped up in my mind and I was quick to ask him the same out of curiosity, just to know about his thoughts of freedom.

“What does freedom mean to you?” I asked, his reaction to this out of context question was “ Just a holiday to relax and do my own things!” , firstly I presumed his wife must have gone outside 😊 but was proven wrong as I could hear her voice behind the scenes.

His answer started to make me ponder about our meaning of ‘Freedom’ and that do we really value it in todays time. I thought this newfound freedom was misjudged to certain degree and but for me this newfound freedom has to be adored and respected beyond measure, it was with much sweat and sacrifice which lead us to call ourselves free. So what does freedom mean to you in true parlance, is it the gesture of doing things what you like or going your own way without any restrictions of time, place or anything else which you think can bind you. Freedom has many interpretations, we may have judge freedom to be free from any acts of duress, compulsion or pressure, as we may act at our own will to the best of our abilities and knowledge.

Today being the India’s 75^th Independence Day, a lot of thought goes into the times when we were in bondage of foreign power, black and white pics and trailers show us the treatment we were meted out in our own land. We were truly oppressed citizens , what we may call ourselves as 2^nd class at that time but certainly this great nation had the vision and visionaries who didn’t wanted to live in bondages of life bestowed upon them, just with this noble thought the great Indian struggle towards achieving independence started.

Moving to current times, do we in 21^st century admire and cherish the freedom we are living in, many of us have not seen those traumatic days but only have heard stories of partition and death, the penury which followed after independence, all seems to be a story for us, but on a serious note we truly undermine the gesture. Cut short just 4 months back , when many of us were confines to our homes and were severely restricted by Covid, we started to hear stories of domestic violence, depression, anxiety and even suicide. In just few months we lost hope of a bright sunrise next morning, the melancholy seeped in and we didn’t see the end of the tunnel – today, if we are told that this would continue for next couple of years and would turn stringent, think of the conditions we are heading to. Freedom is what we want to achieve our true potential, be it freedom of choice, thought or action, it is the single most important aspect of our life which shapes it. Our parents out rightly gave us freedom to express ourselves and tell us what we want in life or what we want to do, today what we are is result of such expression of freedom.

Man is born free and his freedom is an asset which comes to him naturally, bounding him to the confines of physicality or a mental graffiti would enrage him beyond a certain point of achievement. Give him time and space to act and you will get wonderous results beyond your expectations!

Your achievements in life is set on the bedrock of freedom as you experiment with different ideas of workmanship, when you succeed you enjoy your pursuits with much chaste and show to the world the consequence of what you can do if given a free hand. I read so many inspiring examples of women who have set foot in man's bastion and have openly challenged its hierarchy, the Indian woman hockey team is the best example I would like to quote here. Many of girls come from unprivileged backgrounds with no access to basic needs of life, but only one thing was given them – “Freedom” to act and chase their dreams….Next time when the world ‘Freedom’ comes to your mind, pause and thanks all those noble souls starting from your home who gave you’re the liberty to be what you wanted to be…

Though coming back to my friends’ state of mind, had go got his freedom whilst his wife at home was altogether another question of debate…. Till then…

Happy Independence Day India...!!!

~ My Joker...~

He is the night watchman of the park, roams around as if he has owned it since centuries. The canine has been a somber looking dog which I have befriended whilst I was going through my regular dose of brisk walking. Quite suddenly he started to follow me silently and behold, he just did two full rounds of the park aisle as if he was doing his sort of brisk walk.

He didn’t growl on other dogs which came to his vicinity and quietly ignored their presence as he seemed to be quite focused on walking and following me. One thing I noticed, he didn’t surpassed me though he could have done that quite easily and without any fuss, he just didn’t! I have pet named him as ‘joker’ as he do some weird things on his own, sometimes trying to catch his own tail to the merriment of all, at other times he is engrossed in his own thoughts and after calling him with lot of pooches , he would not pay any heed to your lovely calls He is a moody canine but still has become cynosure of all eyes, many walk away pedestrians lovingly call him and give him bread and mill, biscuits and other left overs of home, which he nourishes quite happily. 

Just the other day, after it had rained profusely, I went for my evening strolls and was also parallelly on the lookout for my ‘Joker’, but couldn’t locate him, I searched him at his favorite place but my search went in vain, as time passed my search went hopeless and it was time to go back home but suddenly I saw my joker cleverly hiding in the municipality installed dustbin, which he had made his temporary shelter!

Apparently, he had thrown out all the collected garbage dump and comfortably placed himself in and was enjoying the drizzling, he must be having a good time of his life. As I restrained in calling him, as he would surely come out to meet me but would have unsettled his comatose position which he was so passionately enjoying, as a result I moved on, quite happily seeing that my joker was happy and safe and had protected himself out of outpour!

Canines are very emotional fellows and can sense your mood quite effectively, maybe they have been given the sixth sense, they can foretell eventualities. My joker was upset the other day as he sat meekly resigning to situation. He was not responding in his favorite mood as I sensed that something was surely wrong with him. Then after some days I got to know that he had lost his friend to an accident adjacent to the road, he was grieving and was not at his playful best, just a cuddle and talk wont do, giving him milk and biscuits turned out to be a failure.

 I sat with him for quite some time and was talking to him in my own tone, cuddling him, trying to make his mood happy, he started to respond though not at his best. After few days as his grim mood settled, he was again at his best, as playful and jolly as I know him. Through this short instance of his life, Joker taught me a lesson though, nothing is permanent in life, keep moving, you will have your share of ups and downs, you will feel bad but uplift yourself from your grief and stalk walking…that’s Life!

~ Early Success - A Dilemma...~

What has been the intrinsic value you have derived from the money you have earned till date, has it made your life happier or have you gone miserable thinking about to doubling it or investing in all sorts of propositions that have open up the flood gates of investments. A friend of mine has been in a position of power in Big 5 accounting firms and has been hovering around numbers for almost a decade, till recently he had made a formidable portfolio to the envious of all, he was going at the right way of an ‘early retirement plan’ which most of the early successful youth aim for. He has done it but not with problems which are copious to his treading this path of wealth and fortitude as up there on the pinnacle of his professional height, he feels lonely and sidelined by average outs there in the society.

A quick view around your living, one can see many strugglers entrenched in daily living and balancing the limited amount of resources they have, the zeal for them to do this is their immediate family and friends – the souls they can bank upon at time of aloofness, but here I am confronting a guy who is all set and done at a middle age of his life, having accumulated riches and wants to enjoy his new found success but the point is with whom ?

The circle he has ventured out is always busy in acquiring fame and trying to climb up the ladder of society, the family is of support but now that the kids are on their own and have just entered collegiate education, don’t have time anymore for their ‘Rich and Lonely’ father, the wife has made her own kitty party circle over a period of time which she doesn’t want to loose as that would certainly bring back loneliness in her life. 

His parents have their own group of oldies with whom they love to gel up, as he has been ignoring them for quite some time now, destiny would settle scores with him at this juncture. The only ray of hope comes in the form of his sister who is as loving as she was when both had a brilliant camaraderie, he tells me that he calls her everyday to discuss matters and shed his inhibitions.

Today, my friend finds himself in a complex vagary of life, where most people want to be financially secure and then start a retired life, he has achieved the acumen at a middle age and now has ample time to defy his aloneness! The other day he told me that he has started to invest his riches in Himalayas to find ‘Solace’, an escape from the daily buzz of life, hearing this I was quick to interpret his state as a ‘Victim of Success’ as his achievements are now paining him to do more as he enters the highness of the sophisticated society, though he doesn’t want to be a part of it anymore, but the pulls will not leave him for quite some time now! It was his own choosing to break the shackles of his middle class upbringing and do something ‘Big’ in his life, he did but not for a price, which he is paying now.

His confused state of mind is a learning allegory to me and may be to many who would read his story – everything you achieve will come with a cost attached to it, weather it is time, money, health, family all needs equal respect…you ignore any one and you fall to your nadir… As the conversation ended, a prelude to a next phase of our life, all I could tell him is ‘Best of luck!” for his future endeavors, as I know that he has the acumen and the skill to fight it back , I expect he would be a better caller the next time we converse on the state of his living.. till then let’s wait and watch!