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What If I Told You We Float?

Today, in class, one of my professors narrated an endearing story of how his son clings to his feet every single morning, refusing to let him come to college. Thus, he has to take the back door and come all the way to the front to put on his socks and shoes and then leave unnoticed or he'd be late for work. In the hectic mind of getting to college on time, this act of his (three-year-old, I think?!) son might cause some distress and irritation in him. But he told us that at the same time, it is something he cherishes because he knows it won't last forever. There will come a time when his little son won't need his dad as much as he does now. And that is a fact that no parent in this world wants to come to terms with.

Now that I come to think about it, isn't everything in this world fleeting? Nothing we hold dear to our hearts has roots. They float. They float among us, aside us, above us, below us and inside us. We can superglue nothing to ourselves because nothing stays forever, no matter how much we might want it to.

There is a last time I fought with my grandmother over the TV remote, and I cannot do it once more for she has passed on to a place I cannot quite reach. I had this ever-favourite pink churidar that my mom bought me when I was ten, but I won't be able to wear it once more because it doesn't quite fit me at this age. The friend groups I had in seventh grade, and tenth grade, and twelfth grade were all ones I thought would stay the same forever but they didn't. Time passed. Priorities changed. And though I have occasional contact with most of them, I don't get to know them the way I did before. They all have become entirely different versions of themselves-  grown in the absence of my presence. There was a last time when we all hung out together. There was a last time when we had kulfi and fought over a bite of it. There was a last time we played 'BINGO' in class while the teacher was up front talking about trigonometry. There was a last time we thought our bond would stay exactly as it is, despite the changes in circumstances but life eventually slapped us right across our faces and showed us- no. No matter what, everything- every moment- every second we want to freeze and frame- it'll slip right through our fingers and there's nothing we can do to stop it.

But in my opinion, that is exactly the true essence of human life- the fact that everything changes- the fact that nothing is of permanence. We do not know the extent of our lives. We do not know the extent of the lives of the people around us. We do not know for how long in their lives that those people would actually stay with us. We do not know for how long of our lives that we would remain in theirs. We know nothing. Because we are not rooted. We float.

As I write this, I'm reminded of this one quote by Brad Pitt (who plays the character of Achilles) in the movie 'Troy', and I'd like to conclude with that-

"I'll tell you a secret. Something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again."





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