Read it Live
dedicated to promoting budding poets, writers and bloggers

Have you ever wondered what kind of lives we lead? If some one in the future were to look at our lives, what would they see? Would they see meaningless survival, of day to day struggles, of a blind walk up the ladder of success, for either fame or fortune without a grip or the truths of life that are? Do we ever question ourselves, our values and most of all, our knowledge.

Just how much is it that we know about the world and choose to know. As for me I definitely have moved from an intellectual struggle in my youth to the laziness of accepting the world as it is and becoming busy in creating my own little world. A world of family, and weekends and bills and holidays. A world where the struggles of others only needs a cursory glance, where the rituals of charity are used to nullify guilt for lack of action, proactive fight for rights of others is a waste of time chosen by those who have plenty thereof, and a world where time for books and newspapers is rare but for gossip a welcome relief.

Most of us don’t have time for books or writers or thinkers. And if and when we do acquire knowledge, we yearn for the opportunity to pass it on to all those who remain ignorant of the gems we now possess. The world is becoming a platform where we all struggle for power and knowledge without the support of wisdom or spirit. We lead meaningless existence where the questions of the ultimate and divine truths, Sufism and the soul are buried under matters of the heart and more often, woes of the pocket. We choose to be ignorant and shallow. I certainly do. There is a calmness that comes from not rising from the comforts of routine. There is a relief I experience when I switch the channel to avoid seeing yet another bleeding body, a wailing mother, a hungry child.

I never was like this before. I did wonder about life and death, until life came and bit me in the face. I did think about the issues that concern the world, about the pain that surrounds us all until it became too overwhelming for me to bear. I did read the books and ponder over their meanings until I lost myself in the struggle to make my life.

I was about seven when I was given Diwan-e-Ghalib, which I would actually read and try to understand. Now this has been overtaken. The only real questions I ask myself are those of morality, only as a resort to reiterate my own self righteousness and the wrong doings of others. The only literature I read comes in gossip columns or articles written by friends. The only real goal I have is to rush towards the weekend and spend that sleeping, chilling and/or socializing.

I wonder, am I too shallow or has the world become too dangerous to dwell in completely? It was so much easier to find meaning in life when life itself had little meaning, it was easier to dwell on the Truth when I had no fear of the truth. It was easier to strive for betterment of mankind when there was less bitterness and more hope inside me. Now all I find is that there is too much to tackle and too few can truly make a difference. I have been tempted by the joys of the world and therefore have immersed myself in the strive to have a better pay cheque, a cooler holiday, larger circle of friends and a lovelier home. I am now no longer what I had the potential to be. I am too shallow for this world. I have become a part of this world rather than the driver.

All I see and meet are those who are even worse off than I me. Their lives are governed by looking pretty, a show of wealth and power, of a false sense of superiority and an over indulgence in the superficial realms of the self. Where education, if it matters, is simply a matter of where you have studied rather than how you studied, its not how you drive your car but which car you drive, of men whose careers are focused only on making money and women who aim only to spend it, of a strive to be fashionable and a desire to be noticed and seen at all counts. In all my shallowness that makes my existence unworthy, I still remain a higher being than most around me. And therein lies my comfort, that drives me to take no action, to make no change. I am better than most. And in a world where a person as shallow as I is better than most says very little about the world we live in today.