Since the nights listening to the fantasy stories of grandparents, we have been taught the mantras for spending a long, healthy life. One of them is “stay away from risks”. It is so engraved in our brains that sometimes we give it a little too much thought – for instance, while taking that first sip of wine or even waiting for the tea to boil, thinking “have I boiled it to the extent of turning it into poison?”
A few weeks ago, while enjoying the ceremonies at my sister’s wedding, I got a call from a close friend informing me that his mother had an heart attack. Thoughts kept racing in my mind for a few days after the incident thinking she has had a better lifestyle than most of us. So why and how? The next question was directed at me: when?
Her bypass surgery was successful and recovery is in progress, but in the course of the unfortunate incident, I got some food for thought. We live all our lives restricting ourselves and our loved ones from a lot of things that should have been done at the right time. Green tea sure is a mug from heaven for your body in the morning, but believe me, that sip of wine on a Saturday evening, surrounded by people you love and like to have wonderful conversations with, no green tea can replace that.
Sometimes, to be on the safer side, we forget that the prime motive of being born was to enjoy living, and not to sit inside a cage wondering about “what ifs”. I wonder how many people became successful going early to bed, because what I know is that you have to spend your life without the eye on the clock, to eventually wear that expensive watch on your wrist. I know the basic instinct that we all have is to sit back and watch, waiting for someone else to take that first step, but think, how would the world have known that the ocean contains a lot of colours other than blue if no one had dared enough to jump at the first place? Or how would we have known that it’s so easy to travel distances if someone wouldn’t have taken that first flight?
Life should not be about sitting on your deathbed thinking what all that could have been done. It should be about all that was done and having no regrets. People might call you crazy today, but at least you are living a crazy life. This goes to all those brave hearts who had to hit the brakes for a while, but returned to the road with double the enthusiasm.
Life’s like tea in a mud pot, the flavour enhances with every passing moment. So no more “what ifs”.
harsha.mishra1@gmail.com
