Dear Editor,
One of the key elements to live a healthy life is to love those around you, while liking food and water. The Godforsaken, Pitiful and Alone, (let’s use the acronym GPA for easy reference), is a classic reminder of Mother Theresa’s quote, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.” While being penniless endures the catastrophe of penury, yet the paucity of companionship which stigmatizes being comfortless and cheerless, is a bigger calamity. Poverty, Nakedness and Companionless (PNC), is an associated acronym, which highlights one of the world’s most powerful quotes. These two acronyms are intertwined in a bonding relationship which binds their characteristics and defines their nature, and also, exposes their deficiencies. One wonders if such an earthly marriage is made in heaven or hell! Possession and attachment can become deadly foes and must not be mistaken for love.
Tolerance for hostility should not be encouraged in order to enjoy peace. There are still people, party and posse which can qualify as GPA, particularly when a person or a pool of persons is stigmatized as unpopular, unbeloved and unattended. The individual or institution incidentally will, perhaps directly or indirectly, traverse the avenue of PNC, growing in pains of destitution, distress and desolation. Such adversities propel man and management to seek shelter as a recluse and to live with withdrawal syndromes, often times deliberately rather than inadvertently. Escaping from the public to lie low in order to avoid responsibilities or to nurse wounds of inadequacies, certainly satisfies a personal agenda. Ultimately, a head pops up intentionally, only to desperately exclaim most times in a negative voice and not positive, to stake a claim in society, reminding the public of its existence, not necessarily of its worth. This act of convenience, desperately fulfills the call of necessity. George Bernard Shaw scripts it perfectly when deciphering consumption of something versus nothing, “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” Grabbing the bull by its horn and then cutting out the bull is an arena for bull fighters and not feather fighters.
Society advances with productive factors. After being GPA with PNC as a sidekick, wanting to get back in the stream line of life to suffice, the urge of being glamorous to survive becomes irresistible at any cost. The appeal of hugging the limelight and wanting to become pronounced in business, pleasure and perks, overrides the principles of standard rules and regulations. Law and order takes a backseat in order to satisfy a satiating appetite for name and fame once again, and, there is no second thought for taking short cuts at the risk of being infamous by being a bully, barefaced or a bodacious braggart. Confucius admirably coins the clean but convoluted viability, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” With the technology of computers, it is easy to keep track of our sole purpose in life.
How many would prefer to embrace obstacles to build a resistance which is required to live a purpose driven life? The vulnerability of GPA concocting with the mediator of PNC, becomes a defector to this concept. Then again, how many would not hesitate to seek to trample on others, not necessarily the meek, weak or innocent? Effective decisions are made in advance and not overnight. To execute a plan calls for careful, meticulous and strategic forethought in order to extract the fruit of gains and not losses. Wanting to remain at the helm, there are those who demand a savagery approach. Supported by partners in crime and an orchestration of battlefield armors, the taste of success is guaranteed and not the touch of defeat. Victor Frankl warns us, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” We only have to deal with a situation when it’s created. The world needs us to continuously do good things and not bad things.
At the end of the day, there is a mirror of reflection. The image should not be a mirage. Coming from a distraught, distressed and disconsolate state, combined with the chemistry of being impoverished, isolated and ignored, this added duress becomes competitive, complicated and compromising. The avenged eyes see a towering inferno and a stormy sea. GPA has to ride on the wave of PNC, knowing that there is a watery grave at the end of the journey. The damage is done and there is no turning back. One has to continue to not speak the truth in order to tell a lie. C. Joybell reminds us, “The only way that we can live is if we grow. The only way we can grow is if we change. The only way we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is if we are exposed. And the only way we are exposed is if we throw ourselves into the open.” The press publicized that “Life is really simple, but social media has made it complicated.”
Yours respectfully,
Jai Lall.
