Lights – some guide, some blind

A long while ago, in a dreamlike world someone asked a young girl – “what she wanted to become when she grows up?” She said, “an astronaut”. She liked the sound of the word astronaut – it had a sophisticated vibe and was mystical.

A few summers passed, she grew up and moved from her modest town to a city of towering sky scrapers. She was awestruck with the bright lights and the speed of the city that enthralled her young heart. She knew she had to do something there, something exciting to keep up with the fast pace of life around her. Her astronaut dream was long forgotten and was dulled by the ever lit city. Straining her neck, her eyes would keep gazing at the magnolious buildings of shiny glass and enticing lights.
The longer she stayed in the city, the stronger her determination grew to savour preeminent success in the shimmery city.

Industrious and determined, she joined a top consulting firm after graduating from an Ivy league school. The flame of ambition was shining bright within her and she ascended the ladder quicker than others and it gave her happiness parallel to none. She was living her dream in her ever twinkling city. Could she ask for more? Perhaps.

Success is analogical to climbing a ladder or a mountain – whoever is successful, keeps climbing up the ladder or the mountain. Isn’t it what we’ve heard always! Why up?

So much was up there, she was successful but is success satisfying? There was so much more to scale to and she was inebriated with success, wanting for some more. She leapt up the levels in the hierarchy. She worked hard for what she deserved and fought for what she wanted. Why wouldn’t one after all the hardwork?

From a little girl to a young hopeful fiesty woman, she had felt the transformation of her ambitions and heart. She relentlessly chased her insatiable dreams.

Today, standing at her tower of success on the top floor of the tallest sky scraper in her city, she looks down as she smiles at destiny. A few moments pass and she keeps staring at the city around her. Slowly the arch of smile disappears from her face, involuntarily her thoughts drift from her success in this very moment to her life after she left her small town. All these years, she worked tremendously to get where she is, but was it all worth it? Did she miss anything on the way? – She wondered.

“Anyway, isn’t everything better with success?”, she questioned as she looked at a girl a few floors down in the building in front of her. She noticed that this girl struggled at her work and didn’t appear confident. She thought to herself, “she is not reaching very far up there”. Momentarily, she bounced back to her feat story – her thoughts glistened her eyes.

Some time passed, she took her heels off, flexed her toes and gently sat on the floor. Tepid city breeze was blowing her hair gently, her mind went back to the girl in the other building – would she be happy? Would she ever be as successful as I am? Does she even want that success? Her mind oscillated back to her own life – “Did I want it? Of course, I did! Am I happy today? Of course, I am! I chased my dreams my whole life, I accomplished them”. She paused and muttered, “I chased”.

She realised that she was so focused and fixated on one thing in her life that she forgot living her life. She had friends, however no time to spend with them. She had a huge house, but it was yet to become a home.

At times, we get so drowned in the fallacies of the fancy that we miss living our life. We are chasing out dreams and forget to live life.

While this world was created by God, the norms have been handcrafted by humans. Don’t fall for the so called rules of the world.

Is the desire of wealth and power so great that it blinds us forever?

Is it worth living your life for designations in the material world?

Is it possible to find happiness without pursuing what’s served on the platter?

Do we want to wake up oneday in the middle of our life, only to realise that we wasted our time?

Do we want to spend more than required time on something that may seem miniscule in the long journey?

Are our accomplishments qualifiable only as per the world?

Can we make our own worlds and seek happiness within?

If there were millions of happy worlds within this planet, wouldn’t that be a happy world!