Those moments of deep contemplation.

Is it You Are Here? Is it the Splitsvilla Agnee theme being played over and over again? Is it all that I've been doing in the past fortnight? Or is it just me discovering a bit more of myself?

This last fortnight, since I've started hanging out with Deekshit, has been very eventful. I've been doing a lot of new things, talking about a lot of old things and discovering another dimension of myself. But isn't life all about that? New people, Old people. New things, Old things. New relationships, Old relationships. But is life just that?

Well I've been thinking a lot about the very essence of life after I've started reading Meenakshi Reddy's You Are Here. Ani gave it to me 4 days back and I finished it yesterday. Did I like it? I don't know. But I suppose I enjoyed reading it. I generally like reading Depressing books. Why would I like it if it is a depressing book? Well, for one, having loved reading The Catcher in the Rye and Bicycle Days, which no one else I know really liked, I realised that those books were categorised as Depressing books. I know there isn't a lot of story in either of them but that is why I liked them. I found them liberating. The protagonists in both of them are good-for-nothing whiners, losers who have problems with the world around them. But they made me think. They stimulated me into a mode of contemplation. And ditto, You Are Here.

Is life just that? School->College->Job->Marriage->Kids->Retirement Plans and ... ? Ok. Then, what after that?. And if life ain't all those things, what is it exactly? I don't know. See, the most comfortable answer given by all of us. I don't know. But then how would you know the answer to that question? Why was I born? What is the world around me? Is there a God? And wait a second, what exactly am 'I'? I suppose none of us have answers to those questions.

As Deepak Chopra, Richard Bach, Robin Sharma and Paulo Coelho, to name a few, would put it, life is all about finding all those answers. But how do you proceed? By following your heart? I have no idea what that actually means. We live in a fragile system of people, money and egos. The worst part is all of us know we are being victimized by the system we have created but can do nothing about it. Probably, the most I loved about You Are Here is the way the author got us back to that recurring situation where life's moving ahead of you even before you have a chance to live. Why are we never ready to live life? And, what exactly is Life? Is it the moment right now, is it the past you are re-living or the future which you hope to fulfill?

Holy crap! And the phrase which we use the highest number of times everyday is , I don't know. We have an I don't know ready for everything. So, if you throw back an I don't know to life whenever she is giving you a choice, does that mean you are living or denying to live? I know this piece started off somewhere and it is going to end somewhere else(where to is the question even I cannot answer).

Am I doing the right thing trying to dissect life and know the plan even before I've lived my life? I don't think so. Stop reading all those psychology books which you thought would teach you how to live. The only way to learn to live, is by actually living. Stop trying to be someone else, how much you idolise or like them because then that would be a waste of the person you are.

I suppose the only way to live life(whatever that means) is to stop thinking and start living. Take every moment by itself. Do what you are supposed to right now. When you are watching a movie, watch it with a free mind. Don't think about your impending assignment. When you are driving on a highway, look at the greenery around you, take in the smell of pure air. Don't look at the goddamn speedometer and try to reach a 140. When you are kissing the love of your life, savor every moment of it. Don't think about how you would end up 6 months down the line.

And finally, when you are Living, live your heart out because it is well and truly your only chance to Live.

P.S: You don't even have to read this Bulls**t written by some loser guy who thinks he has a right to preach to other people how to live. Its your life, go grab it.