On your marks, set, GO!

I'm sitting alone staring at the "New post" screen without any idea of what to write about. And as I type these words, I wonder the need of publishing a new post when I don't have anything on my mind right now. But I think there is a reason. Lately I've found myself being short of inspiration. You know the phase when your mind is absolutely blank? When you have nothing to accept and nothing to give. When you aren't looking forward to anything. When nothing really interests you and nothing manages to excite you. Some call it boredom, others call it a break. But I see it as an escape. An escape from the madly competitive race that life has to offer.

Worryingly though, we may sometimes start to find a sense of attachment with this phase. We find this escape soothing and peaceful. Social isolation becomes a blessing. Sitting idol becomes a hobby. And as you sit uninterested on your couch potato, you see the world around you engaged in constant activity. You see people running around trying to complete their minor tasks. You see bus drivers waving fists from the window as a speeding bike passes by. You see girls crying as their boyfriends break up with them. Soon enough, a smile trickles down the side of your lips as you think about the shallowness of our priorities. You ponder hard at why we spend our lives chasing things that won't make a difference in the end. You try to figure out the true purpose of life. Surely, life's purpose cannot be getting a degree or becoming CEO of a multi-national; for these things may well be rewarding enough, but making them a purpose of life seems far from convincing.

I've always seen life as a race with a circular track. We keep going round and round trying to leave our opponents behind, only to finish at the starting line to start off all over again. Some die midway and their places are taken by new competitors. Infact, everyone dies somewhere in the middle of the track and is replaced by another sprinter. Hence there is nothing special in being part of this race and there's nothing special in being ahead of everyone else either. Especially if we ignore the true purpose of life and get obsessed with our position in this race. Simply because all that we're doing is going back to starting line to start off all over again (this time with a new equally shallow task). What then is the purpose of life?

(Contd)