Simple Life

We came, we saw, we lived.

You were born, the little you. A moment of happiness (sadness for a select few) for people who know you. A moment which you will not remember. Your first step. Everyone screams with you. Your first word, Your first tooth.... and slowly but steadily you grow up.

Very soon its your first day at school and as the clock ticks you are outta school. Science, Commerce or Arts, thats the question. Very soon you are out of junior college. The first kiss, the first kick on the butt by prospective father-in-law, the first heart-break. Bachelors in Science? Medicine? Commerce? Arts? Couple of years more you are interviewing on campus. You have a job at a "prestigious" company, or at a start-up or you think about MBA. Two years give or take and you are working. Either at McKinsey or at Microsoft or at Manikchand or at your Papa's setup.

Then comes the next step. The unlucky few get married to their sweethearts. The even unluckier get married to the ones picked to be their sweetheart (arranged marriage). Few years (ok, at least nine months) from being hum-tum and the first kid is born. The first step, the first word, the first tooth.... the first pocket-money. This time you see it all from your own eyes. Life becomes a routine 8-5 job, home with the wife and kids. Buy a house, make down-payments. Buy cars, pay bills, a trip to Goa, a bottle of champagne for that promotion, relatives congratulating you on that fat pay-check and 5-bedroom house in Juhu or San Francisco.... life becomes materialistic.

When you prepare to close your eyes, to breathe for that one final time, will you wonder:

What set me aside, made life worth it, made me different from the people who live these routine lives?