With The End In Mind...

Recently, I received a forwarded video on WhatsApp, where a young lady was asked to choose between a richly laden plate and a meager one, a big house and a small hut, a bunch of expensive dresses and some shabby rags. Obviously, she chose the former, probably indicating what most of us would chose, given an option. She was stumped at the end of the video, while asked to choose between two identical graves. A caution, perhaps that everyone, rich or poor ends up in the grave. 

Nothing wrong, in reality, to think of the inevitable but how right is it to focus on the end, which will anyways come? To be right and moral, kind and good is always the right way to live life. To put the fear of death, to think morbid thoughts will surely take away much of the happiness which many of us fleetingly experience in our daily lives. As it is, we tend to feel less happy as we grow. A new dress, a praise, a possession or a picnic would give us immense joy while we were kids but now, will faintly bring in a smile. To add to it, daily life grinds us fine and if we stop enjoying the small pleasures too, thinking it will all end one day, Gosh!

As I rattled all this, hubby sat glued to his armchair and TV. The anchors and panel members were shouting their lungs out and he seemed mesmerized. “Hey listen,” I said, trying to get his attention by thumping a cushion hard and raising a dust storm in the process “ weren’t you watching the same stuff over the weekend? I thought you would have memorized what all they were screaming!” He looked around coughing. “ The living room is full of dust, the TV is covered with fine sand and particles”. That really blew my fuse off. “ Yes, so you couldn’t watch the show properly? After all, who is the one who watches the idiot box always? You might as well take a cloth and flick it off, before settling in this chair, so comfortably!” The twinge of jealousy that the chair didn’t support my bulky frame added to me shrill voice.

“Relax, what is dust, after all? What we all get reduced to, someday in our lives!” he said as he shut himself off.

 Frustrated, I turned to my maid. “ Do you see this? And this and this” I held up a series of dust-laden objects from the showcase. “Is this how you clean the house? After the pay rise, you have stopped working sincerely”. She giggled” No amma after I read your status, I stopped bothering about mundane activities and focus only on those which give me pleasure. Like drinking the hot chocolate, eating those “foreign” chips from your cupboard….” I stared guiltily when I realized that I had posted on social media “Enjoy life. There's plenty of time to be dead.” by Hans Christian Andersen