2011 or 2067 or 5771 or 1432

Breaths follow breaths, hours follow hours, sunsets follow sunsets, and time moves on. Absolute and unyielding. It is mindlessly incredible glory, time moves on in a cold calculated unswerving finality that humans just do not have the ability to understand or even begin to fathom. Except those humans who have had a long acquaintance with time. Yes, they know a bit, they warn us, but we can not understand. The only true teacher is time. The speed of our lives and events are in a way a complement to the teachings of time, but not nearly as much. Not nearly as much. Time moves on.

Our lives pass us by. Except for those of us who have the ability, and courage, and presence of mind to hold the beast by its horns and declare to the world that “I am alive” and I will live. But, it is so much more easier to say this than to do this. Isnt it. There are always conditions, and restrictions, and compromises that stop us from living our days. We can not take vacations because the kids are young. We can not study because your savings are not enough. We can not buy that because you got laid off. In this modern world of capitalist splendours we have forgotten that the best things in life are free. Possibly one of the greatest proofs of the existence of God, but you can go with Pascal’s wager despite its obvious glaring flaw. Food for the most part, is affordable to most people, and there is no comparison of the food cooked at home, be it in a poor household or a rich one. A walk on the grass does not cost anything other than time. The love of one’s family and friends is a continuous bounty even in loneliness. The sunrise does not require any effort other than sacrificing sleep.

We have gone too far in our lives with our absurdly grandiose demands for entertainment and happiness that we have rendered ourselves incapable of enjoying our lives. Our televisions and radio stations have rendered us incapable of enjoying a good book. Our cell phones and pagers have rendered us incapable of enjoying our time and privacy and flights of senseless thoughts. Science and Technology have given us a million great trinkets to play with to consumer all of our time with full brain usage activities. But with each of them we loose a bit of our humanity. We have become robots. Without senses, feelings or emotions. Drones that move about to the beat of our electrical gadgets.

But, must we end this? I will. I have decided to reduce the usage of my laptop and cell phone and television and try to spend more organic time. With people. With things. With thoughts. With sceneries. Maybe I will end up gaining a bit of my sanity and humanity back. Maybe I will realize that meditation can be better than brain overusage. Maybe. But I will try. The only way to learn about life is to experiment. No one ever learns from other people beyond a certain point. Neither will I. Neither can you. So, stop pretending. Make your mistakes, make your benign mistakes and learn. And hopefully, make your life better.

Last night was New Years night. It is an arbitrary unit of time. One always feels the slow and steady movement of time. Each breath, moment, hour, day, period, semester and season is felt passing. But the longer the period of time it is, the greater is the feeling of loss at the end of it. But they are very arbitrary, such as the 31st of December. At the end of the day, I feel that the only natural and real unit of time in the way time plays in our daily lives. Every breath of three seconds, every musing and thought stream that lasts fifteen minutes, every duo of night and day, and the emotional and intellectual periods, and the seasons, and the major phases of life. The year is too long to notice. And hence when it does pass it seems like a big thing.

Every year ends with a sorrow of having lost time and with a new resolve to spend the next in even better a manner. Good for us. I for one will loose more weight and improve my health, give more love to friends and family, learn a new language, enjoy learning a new activity, be a friend of the world, and lastly enjoy wasting my time in the senseless musings and ideation of an empty mind.

Here is to a new year. May it make us better people.

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3 Responses to 2011 or 2067 or 5771 or 1432

  1. Zubia jamil says:

    To new year.. may it make us better people!

  2. Raheel says:

    I searched for the author and i couldn’t believe it was u …….nice thoughts …..am goin through rough time and ur post was encouraging ……..same aim weight lost may b someday we can discuss it 🙂

    regards
    Raheel Asim

  3. Tazeen says:

    Your posts are always encouraging and entertaining. I could relate to almost everything written here. May every new day make us better people.

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