Last ride in the local..........

10:37 PM, the clock showed in my mobile. 10:40 PM, the station clock was showing, 10:43 PM was the time of the train as per the mobile app. The train that takes my soulless body daily back into my room. Though none of this mattered today, I could catch any train today and reach my destination. I was not worried about a single thing. Not thinking about reaching home on time, ordering food, sleeping on time to get up early in the morning to reach office. It was a new kind of freedom I was experiencing, something that empowered me, something that was making me feel, I and only I, was the true master of my destiny.

A train came, halted for a while, giving me enough time to jump in the 1^st class coach. I travel only by 2^nd class due to my limited means, but tonight was different, I had no fear of getting caught by a TC. Tonight, I allowed myself to break all rules. A casual glance into the coach showed me 7 people. A couple who was separated only because of their limited conscious of being in public place, the limited distance also they were struggling to maintain. An old man who was in deep introspection mode with his thick glasses, his expression pretty much reflected that he has no shit left to give to anyone. 2 young man wearing extremely dirty clothes with frightened and uncomfortable looks, pretty much they were travelling with ticket and they were not habitual of doing it. A man in mid 40s who was sleeping with his mouth open. A young beautiful woman with the condescending look of being extremely self-aware and out of place.

Then I saw him, the young chap, tall and well built, the curves of the muscles proudly flaunting his routine gym work. The expensive mobile together with the expensive headphone showing off his disconnect with the reality. He was in a different world, a happy world, a place where there is no worry and pain, no anxiety and grief, no stress and negativity. His feet were in sync with the beats of music, his neck was waving cheerfully and he was singing slowly. He made me hate the world more, his happiness spread an awful sense of negativity in my whole body. He appeared to be one of those privileged kid in life who always gets what they want without going through any pain.

But of course, it doesn’t matter. He can sing all he wants to, I was not bothered for all I knew that soon I won’t have to worry about anything. I ignored him, his existence and existence of everyone around me and went into a deep flashback of my whole life. I took a deep breath thinking about all the practical decisions I made which made me go nowhere, my misery never ended despite following the well-structured secure path laid down by society and the fact that I religiously followed it to be happy and went into deep spiral of sorrow made my decision more firm. I will put an end to my misery today.  

At the next station, both the young men left happily with the joy of not being caught while the woman left without a single expression on her face. I reached the gate of the train, the cool breeze was not giving me any peace today, I was not reflecting on my day and I was not contemplating hope of a better future. I was truly living in the present today, I was meditating. I was meditating on the thought of the decision I was about to execute. The train was going over the sea now. Deep dark water everywhere and at a distant the shining city. The city of dreams where everyone come to be successful but most are limited to be a faceless entity in the crowd.

The young chap also reached the gate near me. He was still dancing and singing on the tunes. His long curly hairs were dancing on the joy of life. He was experiencing the peace in the cool breeze. He was carefree, he was in a state of bliss. I felt an intense anger, muscles of my neck were flinching. My fingers automatically crawled to make a fist. What could be the possible reason of his happiness? What made his life so wonderful? He looked at me for a moment and passed a smile, I didn’t even made a halfhearted attempt to give it back. He didn’t mind it either, he turned his face towards the sea enjoying the sight again.

I looked back in the coach, the sleeping person was still sleeping and the old man had his eyes closed, perhaps he also slept. Till this chap is here I can’t execute my plan. I can’t end my misery. His existence at the door along with me became one more source of pain for me. Then suddenly a thought occurred into my mind, something that had not even occurred remotely once in my entire life. He has not right to be this happy, no one has the right to be happy if I am not. In a flash of second, I changed my plan. I had second thoughts on the 1^st one, but for this 2^nd one, I had no thoughts. I had nothing to lose anymore anyway.

With a very slow and swift movement, I came directly behind him. I was aware that the 2 other man in the coach won’t know a thing. I gathered all my energy into my hands and I pushed him. He didn’t have the time to scream. I was not aware whether he can swim or not, whether a person falling into water from 20 feet survive or not. I was not bothered, I felt really happy. I hoped for his death, at least he will suffocate for few minutes.  I was not bothered about the consequences of what I just did, I sat peacefully on the seat waiting for another such ride or perhaps one of these sleeping man will come on the door and I may push them on the track in front of another train.

The 12 AM Birthday Wishes

It’s 10 PM, 2 hours to deadline, you put your phone on charging as you know it’s going to be a long night. You have a tentative list of people in your mind that are going to call, any addition will be a pleasant surprise and any ‘no show’ will be a big disappointment. You rehearse your responses as you can predict most of the conversation. There is nothing to worry about as you are no longer in college hostel, you don’t require any padding, no one is going to crush raw eggs on you and pour juice in your hair before venting out all of their life frustration on your butt. Life is going to be much civilised now.

It’s 11:30 PM, your best friend calls, nothing unexpected, you knew it, although there is nothing new to talk as you talk to him every second day, you just tease each other by mentioning at 26 Nadal had won that much grand slams, Sachin had played the desert storm, Zuckerberg had founded Facebook while we have done nothing, not a single tale of greatness yet we are the heroes of our story. Now you wait for those calls who will get into waiting, you keep on waiting, nothing happens, you take leave from your best friend and wait till 1 AM. You check on Facebook, no birthday wishes there too unlike few years back when the wall used to get flooded with so many wishes.

It’s a bad start for 1^st birthday outside college life. Lots of thoughts, no one has yet changed the class group name, no one has yet changed the name of other groups. School friends, graduation friends, post-graduation friends, 1^st job friends, 2^nd job friends, Facebook friends, friends of friends, so many domains, so many networks yet no 12 AM wishes.

Utter disappointment, followed by attempt to sleep while coming to terms with the reality and setting the expectation low for the day to follow. Random dreams, phone beeps, it is 7 AM, 30 minutes before your 1^st alarm, your old school mate has woken you from your dreams and brought you back to reality. The call start with birthday greetings followed by his explanation of not wishing at 12 AM, phone beeps again, call on waiting, engineering college friend calling now, birthday greetings followed by her explanation of not wishing at 12 AM. 5 more calls, same pattern, birthday wishes followed by the explanation of not calling at 12 AM.

The party has begun, whatsapp has flooded with message, all the relevant groups name have been changed. Bombardment of calls, too much to catch up, too many stories to tell, too many things to share. Rest of the gaps are filled with replying to people on whatsapp and thanking people on groups. So much change whatsapp and Facebook has brought in our life, even the shifting to Facebook app from desktop version has changed the pattern of birthday wishes. No one checks birthdays at 12 AM anymore, people get to know about birthdays by the Facebook notification early in the morning and hence the walls and calls do not start flooding at 12 AM, the timing has just shifted.

What’s more wonderful and amazing is the shifting of platforms of wishes. Those who used to wish at 12 AM once by calling, some of them won’t even wish anymore, some of them will just write a formal message on some whatsapp group, some will express their wishes on Facebook wall. People who used to wish in person on whatsapp will shift to some random group, people who didn't even use to wish last year will give you a call, people who do not even existed in your life last year will be buying you your birthday cake and you will be throwing with them late night. There are constants and variables in life and that’s the beauty of it. With time, both the birthday celebration and birthday wishes will get more mature. Life will take its toll. As the clock ticks by, as the count increases, the anxiety and fear also increases, too many people to catch up with, too many dreams to chase, too much to explore and too hard to keep pace with life.

Guess the constants on the day of your birthday are your greatest assets even if you talk only twice a year on each other’s birthday. I have realized that a birthday is not only a nice time to introspect but a great occasion to catch up with people and also a nice conversation starter. A birthday wish might be an indicator of what place you occupy in someone's life but definitely not a valid proof. In the end, life is much more about who bothered to remember and wish at 12 AM, there is no time for true wishes.   

Pursuit of happiness......

The night was peaceful, silence unperturbed by the cool breeze flowing like a soft rhythmic music occasionally getting disturbed by random noises with no definite source. Two friends were sitting on the roof top discussing what lies ahead and what to chase. Amidst the chaotic superficial thoughts of getting admission into a good b-school and fetching a high paying job, the conversation was now deep enough to hit the core.

There is something mystical about late night talks, especially those carried after 2 AM. You feel freer and much more relaxed to share your deeper insecurities, you trust the listener more than the day time. You tend to converse more with yourself and explore your priorities more in the pretext of discussing the same with the listener. 2 AM conversations are like meditation, quiet and subtle, like gently exploring the hidden realities of your life.

The philosophical conversation eventually reached the heart of the discussion and the question two friends now faced was what they will earn by getting into a good b school.

“Money, that’s all I am looking forward to, I want to earn, I want to spend a luxurious life, I want to have expensive foreign vacation, I want to buy fancy stuff”, said the first friend, his voice steady defeating the cold wind’s futile attempt to shake it.

“Glory, I want to be known, I want to have an identity, I want to become an example, an inspiration for others”, said the second friend, his eyes beaming with the imagination of his glorious days that will come one day.

“Lots of famous and glorified people have lived a sad life because of no money, money is the ultimate objective”, uttered the first friend with full faith in his philosophy.

“Lots of rich people commit suicide and become depress, money is not everything, with great money comes several other variables that no one accounts for and which makes a person unhappy”, contrasted the second friend

“To me, money is happiness”, the first friend took a firm stand.

“To me, glory is happiness”, said the resolute second friend.

“Seems like we both are chasing the same goal, our ultimate objective is to be happy, we have different approach towards it”, said the first friend in a joyous voice as finally there was some unison in their thoughts.

“Indeed, I hope once we have chased our dreams we will be truly happy and we will live a peaceful life”, hoped the second friend.

Both friends chased their dreams, cleared competitive exams, got into excellent institutes and both received a fair share of glory and money but as they moved up the ladder they were able to see their illusions fading out and the reality far more different than what they perceived it to be. As they inched closer to their goal of money and glory, they found themselves much distant from their eventual goal of being happy. Their money and their glory came at the cost of their happiness.

So what is happiness? What is its definition? Who is truly happy these days? Just close your eyes, take few deep breathes and try to recall who was the last person you met that claimed to be truly happy, now try to think about the last time when you felt you were truly happy and how far you are from that state now. Happiness, so simple a goal yet such a challenging task, everyone is chasing it but no one is getting close to it. Happiness has become a mirage, happiness has become a maze, happiness has become a puzzle which looked very simple initially but with each step towards solution, it becomes tougher and tougher.

The present generation, popularly and ‘sarcastically’ known as so called ‘millennials’ is said to be one of the most confused and unhappy generation who has ever walked on this beautiful planet. One can easily see loneliness in our social media check-ins with multiple people, the laughs we have on memes are temporary, we appear cool with our booze and food where we claim to celebrate life dancing in darkness and random music knowing in background that we will wake up on Monday morning, mechanically wear our dress and go to our school/college/office. We wait desperately for weekends and spend the weekends in fear that they will over soon and we have to face weekdays again.

We were showed a path by our previous generation, a path to success, a path to victory, a path to ultimate happiness and we obediently followed that path killing the painters, musicians, poets, writers, sportsperson and gamers inside us. We happily clipped our feathers to crawl on a well calculated and well defined path. We were fed the fact that the darkness of uncertainty that comes with flexibility of freedom far outweighs it and there is no point moving in a life of misery. We were shown light and we followed it blindly, we closed our eyes and shut our brains.

We fell, we were defeated, and we were embarrassed and insulted countless time. Countless times our faith in ourselves shook but yet we were never broken. We somehow summoned the courage to put together the broken pieces to continue to the destination but we were truly broken when we reached there. Because we didn’t know now what to do, we patiently waited for happiness but it never came. We were completely dumbfounded by the fact that our safe and secure jobs, our prestigious educational institutes, our fancy hobbies do not converted into happiness.

So when we look outside towards children playing on streets from the cage we ourselves have created, we wonder whether this is happiness or happiness is the life of that vagabond who has no source of even food or happiness lies in further success. Everyone we see is unhappy and when someone says he is happy, we don’t trust him, we believe he is hiding the truth. We don’t believe in the notion that one can be happy in the present world. Happiness is always the next step, something that will follow after what we are doing right now.

So what’s the solution or the question is rather whether a solution exist or not? I think the answers are always simple, if you are not doing exercise then do exercise, if you are not studying then study, if you are not reading then read and if you are not happy then be happy. So why to write a prolix post if the answer is so simple? I think being happy is like a magicians trick, it stays unsolvable only till you don’t know the secret but once you know it you realize it was never that amazing that it looked few seconds back. It is like a video game mission, you try and fail countless times and when you finally clear it you can clear it easily any number of time later.

At the same time, I guess it is advisable to finally realize that no one can stay happy all the time. Life is and will remain complicated, there will always be ups and downs, highs and lows but the maturity is in realizing that nothing stays forever. No doubt there will be countless other variables. There will be toxic work environment, broken relationship, evil people, poor grades, no promotions, diseases, bad luck and many unforeseen unpredictable circumstances that will impact your simple equation of being happy. But at the same time there will be great trips, wonderful people, delicious food, amazing movies, great books, promotions, next job, recovery from diseases, serendipity. Life will be balanced and the decision to move from one stage to other will remain in your hand.

Don’t like your job, leave it and get a new job, can’t get a new job right now, then wait patiently till the right time and then get a new job. Getting poor grades, study and try to improve, can’t improve then improve something else that will compensate for poor grades, single and lonely, try to meet and interact with new people, can’t even do that, and then learn to be happy in your own company. You are fat, then exercise and take proper diet, can’t do that, then stay happy being fat.

I know I am oversimplifying things a lot. But that is my experience so far, I have chased happiness and crossed long distance. I am still chasing it. Some days it seems like it is everywhere, some other days I can’t trace it existence till time eternity. But I have come to realize the fact that I can’t blame others for the decision I made, I can’t blame any person for my state if I know that I have the power to change it. I can change both the inner variables and outer variables, or at least experiment with them than doing nothing.

I think this is about time to take accountability of our decisions, the decisions that we took that are making us unhappy and how we can change them and we can help each other to take those decisions that will make a happier future. Let us extend support to everyone struggling in this mean cruel world and spread happiness. Be it a small compliment, be it a little help, be it greeting a stranger good morning with smile, be it sharing your food with someone who is not that fortunate, be it helping those who are making same mistakes as ours, be it forgiving people and forgetting bad experiences, be it taking a break from the path of excellence. I don’t know, there are countless way I can see to be happy and I know they are simple.

Ending with one of my favorite quotes from Jim Carrey.

“I hope everybody gets rich and famous and have everything that they have dreamt of, so that they will know that it is not the answer”

An unfortunate day in life

I have blue prints of quite a few posts in my mind, I have written content for few but somehow I keep delaying them but events of past 2 days have forced me to come out of both my writer’s block and procrastination and write about how unfortunate past few hours have been for me and after the usual stirred up frustration and annoyance, when everything finally settled, I was able to find the bliss we live in daily and we never appreciate.

The weekend was quite happening. We hired a Ford Eco Sport and enjoyed the Mumbai Monsoons at its best. From driving in the slow drizzle to fighting the heavy rains and winds and feel the life at its full intensity hidden in the crowd rushing for their destination or a person enjoying a ‘cut chai’ in complete leisure, all the colors of Mumbai were out there. There were failed experiments at ‘Pizza by the bay’, experiencing the Mumbai Metro Crowd at ‘Prithvi Café’, not getting entry at an expensive club because I was in slippers (pretty much felt how Gandhi ji must have felt when he was kicked out of train in South Africa), watching people let go of themselves and dance like crazy on Punjabi songs in a Brewery (although I was probably the most bored person out there completely disengaged from what was happening around).

This was pretty much what one will call a perfect beginning for the weekend. And then the chain of unfortunate events began. The triggering event was my default number which I am using for last 7 years without any trouble and consequently which features as a registered number everywhere stopped working for no reasons. I enquired with customer care representative who said that the number is active thus the possible damage resides in SIM card only. Then I put the same SIM card in another of my phone which I am using for last 5 years and which has served me well as a faithful alarm clock. The SIM carried its misfortune in the phone and after a while it also stopped working. In between, Federer won 19^th grand slam and increased his lead over Nadal significantly.

I made a mental plan of how to deal with these problems which basically included buying a new phone and getting a new SIM card of same number and slept peacefully not letting the misfortunes of the day become any hindrance in my sleep. I reached my next destination at 6 AM in Vashi from where I have to pick a bus which will take me back to my office in Nagothane, a remote location which is quite tough to access conveniently. The same spot where I waited for 2 hours just a week back during the evening time and got to know only later that the bus doesn’t come there during evening. I waited peacefully and patiently for the bus in heavy rains watching the activities nearby confident enough now that the bus will come as I had already picked it once from the same spot last week during the morning hours. 5 minutes passed, some anxiety, 10 minutes passed, a lot of anxiety, 15 minutes passed, panic level to the level of extreme frustration and ambiguity.

I assumed I had missed the bus somehow in the low visibility of heavy rains and the driver as usual never bothered to pick me from the stop. I made a few fruitless call to get help from anyone who is commuting by a car that may give me a lift but I was quite late. Due thanks to technology and the respected people who have created many wonderful applications, I get to know that I can board a train from Panvel around 9:50 and reach Nagothane around 11:30. I went from Vashi to Panvel and got myself a ticket. So far so good, coming office late by 3 hours is not a big deal. I have never travelled alone in a passenger train is also not a big deal. I am quite frustrated by my helplessness to get things in control and plan everything out well is also not a big deal. The big deal is to reach the office somehow without any further obstacle.

I boarded the train, didn’t get a seat as expected in such massive crowd, found a spot, stood up quite frustrated like a rich spoiled brat ( How I wish I was)  experiencing the real India for the first time trying to avoid any eye contact with anyone submersing myself in my headphones. The journey was smooth and quite scenic, saw a lot of greenery, rivers and multiple waterfalls which calmed my mood. Reached the destination smoothly and got a company bus to get back to office before the conductor said that I didn’t have a particular card ( I had no idea about this card) and I can’t board the bus. I am not the kind of person who generally gets aggressive, but I poured all my frustration on the poor conductor who then let me sit without any further trouble.

I asked the person sitting next to me whether the bus will go to office or not and he said it will (guess what, it didn’t). So I reached back to my room in the plant township with whole the frustration getting converted into a troubling migraine which left me with no will power and mental state to go to office. I took a leave, slept for few hours, woke up quite refreshed and happy and turned on my laptop to watch GOT Season 7 and guess what, it also crashed. This time I was beyond getting angry or frustrated. I laughed for quite few minutes like Arya Stark laughed hysterically when she got to know her aunt is dad. I was at the stage of self realisation, self actualisation, nirvana, complete detachment and whatever highest form of spirituality one can get into. I realised that god is playing with me, I am just a puppet today providing him entertainment.

I calmed myself down, luckily whatever stupid videos I used to see during engineering days helped me out to start my laptop. I am able to start my mobile by some ‘jugaad’ but it keeps on shutting after working fine for few minutes, meanwhile I learned how to use my laptop as an alarm clock. My new phone will be delivered soon. I have to make a trip again to get a new SIM card. After so much chaos, I just hope everything will be back to usual again. The same peaceful life with everything in control and functioning. 

Thus the leanings in past few hours, we might not always get what we wanted or dreamed of but even a normal day is bliss. If we are not having any trouble, it’s a bliss. There are so many people fighting problems which didn’t have touch us yet. People failed to catch their trains or flights and not reaching their destinations to miss something really crucial. People who lost the only mobile they can afford, people who are commuting daily by public transport dealing with all the uncertainties it bring, people fighting the adverse weather and going out to make a living. Most of the problems we have are quite 1^st world problems, they need to be recognised and addressed as they are problems, but at times destiny put us out from our world of comfort and give us a taste of real world.  

I am not the best person to deal with ambiguity, I like detailed plans. I plan a lot to make life smoother and that in turns make me more prone to damage when things do not go as planned. I learned to be more flexible and open to accept alternative options which may not be the best but fulfils the bare minimum. To summarise, I had quite a happening weekend and I just hope the experience of past few hours will add a little to my maturity. Realising the meaning of something I had written few years back:

"Life may not be as good I could be, but life also ain't that bad as it could be" 

What a 3 year old child can teach us

Children are one of the most beautiful creation of nature. Their innocence, curiosity, beauty, naughtiness can melt any heart. Spending time with a child is the perfect stress buster, a child will take you in some other world and you will leave your notion of the real world, all your problem, issues that are bothering you behind when you are playing with a children. You are just a character in his play, a part of his imagination, a puppet in his hands, you follow what he orders and you enjoy obeying to him/her. I spent a lot of time with my nephew in past few days and he taught me some very valuable lessons.

Forgiving: Children never hold grudges against anyone. You might scold them, tease them, do not give them what they want and that will make them very angry. You may even make them cry but they will forgive you soon and forget everything in a moment. Children do not have any grudge against anyone. They will play with you in the same cheerful manner as they always do and there won’t be any impact of past next time when you engage with a children. They truly forget and forgive and thus they do not carry any negativity, if only we can put behind the complaints we have against people, we can also live a very happy life without carrying any baggage.

Being Curious: It’s but obvious that children are most curious being on the planet, not only human children but children of any species are always wondered by the amazing world around them and they want to experiment with it in any way they can. Once they learn to speak, children can really annoy you with all kinds of question and they will keep asking same questions again and again though you have replied countless time. But I guess that is the reason of their learning, as we grow up we just stop asking questions. We do not find anything incredible or wonderful, we just have a feeling of indifference. On many occasions, we just feel shy, inferior or extremely uncomfortable in asking anything. Our learning stops as soon as we stop being curious. I think children teach us to keep asking questions, to keep wondering about everything around the world, to keep expanding our knowledge and learning new things.

Optimum utilization of resources: As we grow up, we want specific tools for everything else we don’t start doing our work. But lack of resources is not something that bothers a child. In his world of imagination, rules are quite flexible, anything can become anything. A truck can become an ambulance, a garbage truck, a police truck, a boat and it may fly also sometimes. It can talk if it has too else it will just honk its horn. Animals can replace one another, they can talk if they have to else they are just statues. A simple cardboard box can become a palace, a truck, a boat or a UFO whatever purpose a child find fit for it. Steel glasses are building blocks for palaces and fortress, headphones can become stethoscope, and humans can become anything. You may be a friend of the child helping him in his mission or an enemy who is destined to get killed someplace. I think we should also be flexible and imaginative like child instead of being so rigid on our demands and that can help a lot when it comes to chase our dreams.

Make New friends: Children are great at making friends, they can make friends across ages and they do not hesitate in initiating for new relationships. Although many times they act quite selfish in terms of not sharing their toys or food but that is part of growing up. As time demands, they form bonds quite quickly and play like they are brothers/sisters forever. As we grow up, we feel safer in our established close friend circle and we stop giving chances to people and also we stop trying to many more friends.

Be Honest about your fears: Children do not try to act smart and conceal their fear. They are quite open about it as they are yet to get ‘wise’ enough to judge what an acceptable fear is and what is not. They may be afraid of the moon, the old guy next door, the loud aunty across the street, or the small insect that has no idea what he is doing on the wall. But children will express their fear openly and given some encouragement they also face their fear and get over it. As we grow up, we start hiding our fears be it failures to accomplish our goals, not able to approach our love, getting fat, being depressed and we never let anyone to encourage us to get over them and we are stuck forever in them getting suffocated internally.

Live in present: I think this is the biggest thing we can learn from a children. A child does not live in either past or future. He exists entirely in the present, he has no memory of what he did in the past and he is not bothered about what he is going to do in future and that’s why they are always happy, cheerful, optimistic and excited about life. They do not carry any baggage. They are at peace at what they are right now but as soon we grow up half the time we are in past and remaining half we are worrying about future and thus little is left to enjoy about the future.

Simplify the world around you: Kids don’t believe in complicating the world much, they keep it simple. They believe the purpose of living is to play, play with anything they can get in hand, they talk in simple language, if they don’t understand a word they will make a new word for it and then the entirely family has to use that vocabulary. Now it makes the shopkeeper quite puzzled when we ask him to give us ‘bhui’ which is the word coined by my nephew for cars or ‘konoya’ in place of ‘khilona’ but it works for him and it works for us also these days. We should also simplify the world around us if we can’t understand its complexity, redefine few things according to our own convenience and live happily.

Saying No: Nobody says NO quickly with absolute emotionlessness than kids. If they won’t to, they won’t share their chocolate or toys with you and they would abruptly say No to you making a mockery of you in front of many. Such an important quality some of us later forgot and found us extremely uncomfortable to utter this simple word which led us into multiple troubled situations. Keep it simple, say no if you don’t want to do anything and there will be peace in life.

Laugh & be happy: Children have the purest form of happiness, unperturbed from anything, their smile is the most innocent feeling in the world and they laugh wholeheartedly and they actively find reasons to laugh. A children can be happy if he gets chocolate, cake, a new toy, a ride on bike, on watching a stupid cartoon, someone making weird expression or at times on nothing, they are genuinely happy from inside. It’s such a cruel reality that we kill these happiness later by all the expectation we put on them and ruthlessly make them run into the race of life else every children can teach us to find happiness in small joys of life and celebrate them.

I think we face 2 big responsibilities now. First to revive the inner child in us that we mercilessly killed to become successful, mature, acceptable and whatever pretence we have to do to make a place in society. We have to learn to be happy again, learn to do things that makes us happy, learn to become immature and learn to stop thinking much about consequences all the time. At the same time, we have these tremendous task of saving children of these generation to become the rats in many of the races we want them to run. We have to stop making a champion out of them in everything. 

Parents start competition so early; our child learn to walk 1^st, our child learn to speak first, it looks so stupid that children are being ruthlessly converted into ‘trophy child’ and they are another ‘showpiece item’ to flaunt. We have to let them live like children, let them score 70%, let them play in garden and let them waste time on top of the roof gazing stars, let them be the creator of the future instead of making them programmed robots first in school and then in workplaces.

We have this incredible task of preserving smiles of all the children and I hope by doing so we will be able to meet our own inner child. :)