Making the best of the gift of life

Beginning with the initial event of birth to the inevitable death, life is a long, though limited, journey. Inanimate things, such as buildings, lamp posts, trees or water bodies may, however, exist for eternity. The fact of the matter is that even such things have a beginning, and at times an end. Like, for instance, the mighty river Ganga, taking birth at Gangotri in Uttarakhand and finishing her journey in the Bay of Bengal.

We spend our days going from place to place while pursuing various vocations. A journey I have been performing every evening for years together is the one from home to the Nizam Club for a game of billiards. On the way, from out of the window of the car, I see many things, some familiar and some new. Buildings buzzing with activity, offices under construction, the usual hoardings extolling the virtues of various products and facilities, and the so-called ‘cutouts’ of political leaders. Also, regrettably, depressing things like dilapidated buildings, and ugly heaps of building material, lying by the roadside. The beauty and the beast as it were! As my car moves, I also find men, women, old, young, and middle aged, rushing hither and thither, either on foot or on two, three or four wheelers, pausing occasionally to consult WhatsApp, children innocently sleeping it off in their mothers’ laps and wives on the pillions of two wheelers, lovingly hugging their husbands in the driving seat and, on occasion, apparently whispering sweet nothings.

As my journey progresses, the anticipation for encountering familiar things turns into actual experience. The sheer variety of people and things I have not seen before, never ceases to fascinate me.

I have often wondered whether, as a matter of fact, it is the game at the club that I really set out for, or the enjoyment of the journey.

I keep asking myself whether one ought not to be spending all of one’s life the way that daily car journey takes place, pausing, from time to time, to take in the sights offered on the way, feeling the occasional twinge of jealousy when someone seems to have something one always wished to possess, and a pang of pain when a poor beggar approaches, seeking alms. And I sheepishly succumb to the temptation to respond to the plaintive plea, fully knowing that he is but the business end of pernicious gang of exploiters.

As poet W H Davies remarked, “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare!” If one has been able to cultivate the habit of stepping out of oneself to observe things in the ambient environment and get chastened by the pain and pleasure they offer, it is only because one has made a determined effort summoning all the willpower at one’s command. It has been quite a while since this columnist, like most others aged between 40 and 60 years, also went through the phase known as the midlife crisis, characterised by a common, but often temporary, decline in happiness; experiencing a sense of change in emotional and behavioural patterns and marked by excessive self – reflection, feeling like an observer in one’s own life. A time when one wonders whether life has not passed one by, disappointed at opportunities lost, and at having left one’s potential unfulfilled.

Having left that period behind, one has, in a manner of speaking, entered the era of second childhood. But, as a wise guy remarked, “a second childhood only happens to those who have grown out the first one in the first place!

One is, indeed, fortunate to be left with the zest for life, la joie de vivre, if you will, as the French would put it, with enthusiasm, and energy, and adventurous spirit still informing one’s approach and attitude; enjoying the good things of life with gusto and vitality, of course, in a way compatible with one’s age.

All reasons why one will go to the club again today, humming the lyrics of that unforgettable number from the 1974 Hindi movie ‘Dost’:

“Gadi bula rahi hai, seeti baja rahi hai

chalna hi zindagi hai, chalti hi ja rahi hai”

I recall the words of Psalm 118.24 of the Holy Bible, which says, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

We should keep telling ourselves every day that life is a gift, a precious opportunity to be cherished and a fresh start to live fully, learn and experience joy.

Therefore, as the Latin expression goes, “carpe diem”, or seize the day and make the best out of it.

Hindi movie aficionados will no doubt, recall the lyrics of the song, from the yesteryear movie ‘Gumnaam’ which convey a similar sense.

Meaning, “Today’s evening is young

Be careful not to let it go

It will not come back

No matter who calls for it”

And, imagining that one is in a moving train, and senses that the journey is coming to an end, sit back, shut one’s eyes, and think of the sign posts, milestones and halts, past which the train took one; smiling at the pleasant recollections of the journey, and deciding that others are best forgotten.

A funny incident comes to mind in this context. Lost in conversation with Sitaram Yechury, my brother-in-law, my mother had missed a stanza of a favourite song she was listening to on the radio with rapt attention. Noticing her disappointment, the ever resourceful and mischievous Yechury offered, tongue-in-cheek, to turn the knob of the radio back, so that mother could catch again the part which she had missed!

(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)