One Day One Life

Life is a game of chess, one move builds the next. Every step leads to a goal, and one goal is followed by another. Rather it's a race, the earlier you start running, the further you will reach, don't stop, run, breathe hard, sweat, run, your muscles will ache, you will feel the blood rush to your ears, but don't stop, because halfway down the race, you have already realized, it is just not a race, it is a relay race. You have started it, and at the end of your part, you must pass the baton to the next contestant, your progeny, and then urge them to run, to run for their life, and run hard, because while you were racing, thinking life is a race, you never realized, when and how, the meaning of the race has changed. Now life is not the race, it is the trophy that you get when you win, if you win. And thus, it goes on.

From one point to the next, life changes its color, smoothly, the transition can hardly be noticed; but ultimately, if today, right now, we want to grasp it in our hands, everything slips through the fingers, except a simple calculation. The calculation of exactly how much life we have lived till date. All we need to do is count the number of regrets that we have in our life. From the total number, subtract the number of those regrets which were in the hands of destiny. Now divide your current age by this number that you have got here. Whatever the answer is, that is the exact amount of life we have lived. This calculation though, is easier said, than done. The most difficult part is to count the number of regrets, we all have a Pandora's box there, once opened, it is hard to keep a track of what we were actually doing, the risk of losing ourselves in it is far worse.

In all this racing, and urging, and gasping for breath, we have already lost most of ourselves. Time has ceased to be a moment, or a day. It is a period now, that ends at a deadline, which we must meet, or else we will miss the train.  Yet each day, the sun rises, the birds chirp and the flowers bloom, there is dew on the grass, there are tunes in the wind, which we have missed out all this time, which we are still missing out. When we try to reach out, we can't anymore, the cages we have built around ourselves will not let us. The cage of society, the cage of opinions, the cage of self-doubt, the cage of competition and  fear that we will be left behind. Once we realize our positions inside these concentric cages, that light of one day, becomes a mere mirage.

We humans have come a long way, from the cave days to today, we have managed, we have struggled, we have won. So a few self-built cages can surely be broken out of. We still have time, we can still grasp life by its collar, and live it, one day at a time, everyday. Our idea of life is mostly generated from what we see of others. Their life is the benchmark for us, and that is the very first mistake. Your life is different from mine. Our choices are different, our dreams are different, our thoughts, our characteristics, our principles, our emotions, our desires are different, we are not the same bro! So how can your life be my benchmark, or mine be yours? How do I even know that deep down you are happy with what you have achieved? More importantly, will I really be happy to just achieve the same, may be I need more, maybe I don't need it at all. We all use our egos as our armors for the outer world, but deep within, we don't let our ego define our individuality, and life slips a bit out of our hand there.

For generations we have been made to believe that others, our parents, our teachers, our friends, our partners, know us better than we ourselves do. This belief has apparently made us dependent on them, this belief has, in reality, amputated us of our self-worth. A guide can only show us the way, we will never make it if we don't walk the path. We have let them tell us what is good, where to go, what suits us, what to achieve, and we have most conveniently forgotten to ask our own opinions. Day after day,this has continued, until one day, when we realize that we are standing somewhere far far away from where we would like to stand. The world sees us as a winner holding the trophy, when we peek inside, we know, we are standing there, holding a consolation prize, the consolation of the guide's happiness. Are we happy though, it is already too late to ask that.

How we live, how we have lived and how we will live the rest of the remaining time we have is subject to market risk, the risk of opinions. "Will the society approve?", is one question that the society has trained us to dread. From trivial things like our skin tone to important decisions like our career moves, our love life, what we wear, what we eat, how we sit, how we chew, how much we talk ,or how less, every thing is under scrutiny. The society holds us all together, with its rules, with its admonishing demeanor, with its bloodshot eyes, and we live, sorry, spend our days, going gingerly by the rules, but at what expense? In it's quest of holding us together, society has forgotten to teach us about love, about the basic needs of equality, and has sheeped us down to a point, where we are afraid of our own rightful desires.

If we look beyond all of this, we are left with a simple picture of life, a space which we can call our own, a piece of sky, where we can fly as high as  we want, for as long as we want. Little desires, our very own, little hobbies, little pieces of a discarded wish-list. A space, where we own ourselves, completely, fearlessly, where our own opinion matters, where our choices are important, where we shall not let anybody frown upon us, a space decorated and enjoyed solely by none other than us, ourselves. Where each day has its own meaning, something to enjoy in it, something to look forward to. A space where one day, is one life, and you get to live it at your own call. The calculation of life of life has already been done, you know how much you have lived, and how much you have spent or wasted in regrets. Let each of your upcoming days be your one day of life. Live, breathe, let go, the world will bloom afresh for you, the world will seem a better place.