We, as humans, have this ridiculous habit of being unsatisfactory, whatever we have. We don’t value much the things we already have in our hands. And as an Indian, I know our priorities in life are way different than those in the west. We work for family, we live for family or kids, and after retirement, we live taking care of our grand children. I think it will take that retirement stage at least to understand that we had achieved much thing in our life.
Last day me and Lays were talking over a coffee and were of course comparing our lives with other friends. How they have built a new home, and we still live in an rented apartment. How they have good jobs, and we hadn’t achieved anything in life so far.. blah blah blah. Then I told her the classic dialogue I heard from a younger Vietnamese guy, who is working as an apprentice in my company. We used to go for break together, and talk about the entire different cultures. He being born and brought up in Germany, knows two different culture, mighty German and fighting Vietnamese. He was very interested in Indian culture though.
So one day he was asking about my family, and surprised to know that I have two boys already and a job as a consultant, at the age of 34! He was 30, living alone with no partner and an apprentice job. He told me “Waaoh, your life is so settled! You had achieved all the things in this age!”. That made me think, yeah, its true. Getting married and having two kids with a stable job to pay off, should be called as the fully achieved life. But here we are still thinking, we need to make a home, teach children, get retired, all those futuristic concerns.
Why can’t we understand or think of what we achieve in our life so far and lead a relaxed life. Why can’t I think like how my friend thought about me. The definition of fruitful life, should be changed to, “the life that we hadn’t achieved so far”! Peace Out!
A Fighter's Book 