NOT A BED OF ROSES

Life is not a bed of roses always, there are some thorns too, which sooner or later we get to feel and be pricked by. The softness of the rose petals, its velvety touch, the fragrance and the color might invigorate you for few moments, but the fact is that, the petals, their freshness and the feel soon dies.

That is when the ‘reality’, that where we see roses, come ‘thorns’ too, hits us hard.

I often used to wonder, and now found an answer myself, that how long, how long could an optimist remain an optimist? Surely a day in life would come, when he/she like many others would too give up hope. Hope which has brought him this far, which has made him to cross many hurdles like a ‘swish’ of a wand, and hope that has led him to help others in return.

A day filled with sadness in his life where there seems no end to the constant disturbance that surrounds him, where the place he lives in seems like a ‘mad’ world, everyone ready to show their full-blown dis-ordered symptoms of theirs, an environment where even if willing there is no scope for patience, pause and rest, and if happiness does seems to creep in through a tiny hole, it goes back much more faster not allowing anyone to bask anyone in its beauty.

The hardest game a man can ever play in this ‘short’ lifespan of his is the ‘game of life’. And in case you are thinking I’m talking of the one designed by Funskool, well, NO!

This is a game which you, I, and many others keep playing day in and day out; it’s just that we don’t know what all that comes in our lives will add to the savings and what all will add to the losses. While some players play it smart, and others play it dumb, there are many others who having played all their lives still aren’t able to figure out the reason they were placed on this board of ‘life’ at the very first place. They have their cheerful days filled with the bright beautiful sun rays and laughter and smiles, and their darkness is way too dark. These people are then ready to give up all that they have earned so far in terms of trust, confidence, love, friends, and wish to travel far away where no single person they have ever known is in touch with them. The concern which they initially had about their loved ones, if they would ever ‘fail’ to play the game for them vanishes like liquid water which in no time evaporates.

These feelings come in no vain, for every throw of a dice leads to a number. The baggage that one carries in this ‘game of life’ is a result of millions of instances one has faced getting humiliated, thrashed, abandoned, or some times being left to play the game on your own with no one else to play. Then all that you do is stare hard at the board, the places where other players had reached and where you had reached, and the spot which you have always wanted to acquire (your dream). Those who are strong, even if crippled will go to any heights to reach their goal, and those who explore their weaknesses before they glance upon their strengths are happy to lose.

I have often thought of how only moments filled with desolation, loss, guilt, in short, all the ‘negative feelings’ only make us walk towards our ‘inner self’? Because in our moments of ecstasy, filled with joy and laughter, we become so lost, and why should we not be, that nothing else strikes us!

And while the waves may keep hitting the rock hard repetitively leading to its deformation, the rock continues to stand there, not worrying how the waves, which have often embraced it in its arms, been there with it through day and night, sometimes thrashing and sometimes being too gentle, have always loved the rock, and perhaps this is one way I could put the story of ‘our’ life too.