Blog@GraceJunction

Hey Freddy,

I reached Mumbai a week back in search of a better job and opportunities. But I have been missing those beaches and the time that we used to spend watching those beautiful waves, sipping lemonade, our hangouts near D’Souza restaurant and those football fields.

Here you get the real taste of city life. The huge population, the busy streets and stations, rush hour, the confluence of the rich and poor, skyscrapers overlooking hutments and slums, brightly lit buildings hosting glitzy and glamorous events and the hungry man who begs on the roads and sleeps on the streets.

I have been getting lot of time these days in the midst of hunting for jobs and sending mails to job consultants and prospective employers. One thing that keeps me busy these days is my cousin’s telescope which he uses to gaze in to other people’s apartments, not a very good habit, but I also enjoy using it to get a closer glimpse of this city.

Looking through this telescope my perspectives about life have begun to change. There is a couple on the fifth floor of the opposite building who have been just blessed with a new born, but they both seem to be struggling to keep pace with the changes. The husband has to go to work while the mother is juggling with all the new duties. The maid takes care of the child and kept in the crib with pacifiers to keep it from disturbing the mother during her TV time.

You should look at all the kids, they really have to work hard from a young age. I was thinking we were really lucky. They have to get up early in the morning and I can see kitchen lights on to get the children ready for school. They have to carry the heavy bags and reach on time to get to the school buses.

Mr. Sharma on the seventh floor who is also my uncle’s good friend, I can see him every day morning being on his mobile phone. Probably his boss calling up, he really looks tense when he is talking. He is the vice president of his company, earning a six figure salary, having all the wealth in the world and of course that beautiful car of his which he got from his company. He comes really late in the night when everybody has gone to sleep. He might be hardly seeing his children, as by the time he comes back home, they might be asleep and go to school by the time he wakes up.

My cousin keeps looking to keep watch over a lady who he says is married to a businessman, who keeps traveling quite often. This lady has an extra marital affair and other man keeps visiting her apartment when her husband has gone out on a long trip. My cousin says that, he is waiting for the day when her husband will come to know about her wife.

There is an old couple on the tenth floor, whom I had met yesterday at the jogger’s park. A very painful story they have, but to keep it short, they had two sons whom they had brought up with lot of struggles and sacrifices. But now they are both alone and both their sons have migrated to the U.S and have not come to meet them for the last ten years. They are now just surviving on their pensions and there is a relative here in the city who comes to visit them sometimes. Their health has been not good for the last month or so and I am worried for both of them.

But when I have looked at the new born to the old, I see that they are not happy with their lives. They have all the pleasures of the world but they are hardly able to enjoy it. Parents do not have time for their children, children do not have time to wonder but have been burdened by the cares of this world. They have jobs to live their lives but now they live for their jobs and are worried about the insecurities that come along with it. They have the best of technology and luxuries but to earn more they cannot enjoy what they have already got. They have fast and sleek cars but no roads to go fast and slow traffic to boot. They spend half their lives speaking on mobile phones, but no time to speak to their own. They have toiled their lives to give their children a good future but they have become the past for their children. The rich and famous have the entire world around them but in their rooms they are the loneliest of people. They are running from morning till night but the 24 hours is too short for them. If you ask them, what is their life’s destiny, they don’t know and they are just happy to live for the moment.

I see man who has lost the purpose of his life and when I look upwards using the same telescope I see another of God’s creation. The sun and moon give light for the day and night. The clouds bring refreshing rain, the winds bring a cool breeze. The rainbow is still beautiful and the world is still in awe looking at God’s provision and promise. The birds sing and soar in the sky. They all seem to playing their roles to perfection but man seems to have lost the script.

Solomon, the one of the wisest and richest kings that the world has seen says

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work,
and this was the reward for all my labor.

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.

And he goes on to say

He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Let me tell you this, eternity which God has put in our hearts can be filled only by HIM and till HE fills them we will run around to find the true purpose of our lives. We will do all the things that our hands find to do but only God who is eternal can fill the eternity in our hearts. In this I find the answer to why the world is running around but yet groping in darkness and surrounded with chaos. They have great achievements but none have been good enough to satisfy them.

Hope you will also ponder on it and give your views on this because I don’t want to live the life that I am seeing here because as Solomon says ‘everything that we do is meaningless’.

Love and regards

Renny.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Articles, Letters, Navin, Society, Stress, Thoughts, Trends, Troubles & Problems, Workaholic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.