Life As We Know It

When I was walking down the street the other day, I saw a couple of kids playing with an old football. It was torn in several places but nonetheless reasonably round. What fun those two were having! For a few moments I stood watching one of them baffle the other with his trickery and excellent ball-control. This young boy, barely thirteen years of age, had the potential to give any defender serious nightmares.
However, he never will. He lives in a slum near my house and will soon be working for a living. When he turns fourteen, his father will make him work as a cleaner in a nearby restaurant. For ten hours of hard labour, he will take home a paltry sum of forty rupees. Some of us will spend his entire monthly wages for a few minutes of fun without batting an eyelid. Some of us will look the other way when he comes to clean our table in the hope of escaping reality. Some of us will become experts in looking the other way whenever we find it convenient. The rest of us will become masters at ignoring our guilt. All of us will find solace by asking the following question: "How many can we help? There are too many".
There are indeed too many. Its life as we know it. We just have to deal with it. Unfortunately, I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel for the boy. He looks set to live a life of poverty and there seems to be nothing on offer to change that. Looking at him playing football, blissfully unaware of the future that awaits, I feel like a fool. Why? Because I spend far too much time worrying about things. If only I could be more like the boy, joyfully enjoying his moment in the sun. Perhaps I need to learn the true meaning of contentment. As the saying goes: "To get what you want is success. To want what you have is happiness". I intend to start living that way.

Happy New Year!!! Hello 2008

So this is 2008. Funny, it doesn't feel any different. And I'm glad.
Eight years ago, I was celebrating the coming of a new millennium. What a feeling, knowing that I was part of something special. I also remember thinking to myself that the years were quite simply flying by. Eight years on, I still get the same feeling and it sends shivers down my spine. These are the years I hope to look back on as part of the "those-were-the-days" era. I'm on a virtual paid holiday at NITK and life couldn't be better. (Well, my love-life needs an injection of the opposite sex and a whole lot of luck - Apart from that minor issue things seem to be going along nicely)
The thing that bothers me is the fact that time is flying by. A few years down the line, I'm going to really miss my present life. As a result, I've reached the following new year vows:
1) Enjoy myself at all costs.
2) Get hitched. (Yeah right!!! Who am I kidding?)
3) Be nicer to people. I do tend to rub some people the wrong way.