Tuesday, October 26, 2010

On The Run

A banyan tree stood tall in the center of the common meeting place in the village since it was planted there many long years ago. Apart from the trunk of the tree that had grown thick over the years along with it’s branches that had expanded and occupied the nearby area around the tree and a few new huts that had cropped up, one could not spot many differences in the village during the day. In the eerie darkness of the night these small differences seemingly disappeared and the place looked just the same as it always was in the memories of the villagers as far as they could recall. It was difficult for comfort to find an entry into the village in its crudest form, although comfort was certainly not one of the priorities of the inhabitants. They had more serious issues to deal with. It was survival – the most basic instinct of any form of life that they were struggling against. Some of them had even been successful in defeating the beast and putting an end to their miseries forever. Others were still desperately clinging to it holding on to their pain and sufferings with all the strength that was still left in them. The feeling of love and compassion still persisted and the morality that they had defined for themselves still existed in most in varying degrees. The desperate struggle against hunger and pain brought in distorted beliefs. As the human attempt miserably failed to bring relief, god took an even larger form. It was after all God – the supreme who was to be made happy. God’s indifference to their issues did not discourage them much. One of the villagers unable to cope up with his struggle for survival and yet not ready to give up ran as fast as he could.

Many miles away was a prosperous town unfamiliar with these struggle for survival. Their circumstances differed but the instincts were the same. People continued with the practice of accumulating more and more although they had forgotten the purpose of it. This process of accumulation left them completely exhausted and stressed out. It was a habit that they found difficult to forego. Comfort was in abundance but they never gave up continuously creating new forms of comforts day and night. However, the accumulation of wealth and comfort failed to bring in happiness that they longed for. Their belief in god was growing feeble and many had started questioning the existing morality. They had created new set of issues for themselves and faced different kind of emotional crisis that was not heard of in the village. The man from the village found himself in this new place amidst people with completely different set of problems. Disillusioned with this new life of confusions and conflicts, he ran once again. But this time he did not know which way to go.

5 comments:

Harmanjit Singh said...

That is the modern man.

Great writing.

Susan said...

Thanks Harman.

Tushar Mehta said...

Vry nyc...but nw u will rarely find ppl who care for such things.

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed reading it.

Susan said...

Thank You.