Being human

Being born, growing up, breeding and deceasing – four steps every member of the human race goes through. Some skip the third one and others are not given the chance to see how it feels to step up to the second tread. Others do go through all the course of life but don’t seem to live each and every moment – numbness blinds their eyes and enthralls them to nostalgia. For years now I’ve been making attempts to unscramble the nagging existential questions that insist on smothering me. I guess I’m not the only one. Why is it that we’ve named ‘happiness’ but have trouble finding it? Why is it that we are so rational but can’t figure out the conundrum of our purpose on earth?


It is believed that we’ve now reached a period when exhaustion weighs us down and wears us out in every imaginable way. Our intellectual abilities have developed to such an extent that we’d rather silence our doubtful voices than blurt our way through with inconsistent words, devoid of sense. As a result we get stuck in between. In-between happiness and sadness; in-between thoughts and feelings; in-between existence and hibernation. If only we could place ourselves on one side only! How nice it would be if the 24-hour angst took a 24-hour break for 365 days! But, we are too humans to go past beyond the whereabouts of anguish! What remains?

Perhaps we should just settle down for a while. Instead of going towards what 21st century philosophy dictates, we could make a U-turn towards that which pre-high-tech world contended. Instead of stupidly assuming we are what we have or do, we have to wisely confess the true wealth is what we are. Who knows how beneficial unlearning might be? Who knows untying the knots of pseudo-development may definitely liberate us from ourselves? Besides, being human is much more than being able to win the professional rat race or control fast-moving machines. What’s the use of receiving information at 1 Gigabyte per second and being unable to process one iota of that entire amount? It’s time we stepped down the ladder on to the ground under which all of us are going to rot. Having your feet on the ground means getting closer to being human. Having your feet on the ground is standing tall in front of your fears and standing strong for the unabating storms that will certainly come. Above all, having your feet on the ground is having unflappability for the excruciating pain triggered by things we didn’t expect to happen.

Of course if we were to write a life’s lesson or a life operation manual, we’d be in desperate need of psychiatric assistance. Such thing is by no means conceivable. But, we sure can reflect a little bit on this staggeringly beautiful puzzling realm of mankind. And that can be achieved by flying low near the surface of the ground, where everything began and where everything will come to an end. Let’s live the present moment. Let’s be wiser than wise. Let’s not allow problems to take us over. Let’s resume our life cycle. May every waking morning mean another rebirth!