The Curve of life

NOTE: I wrote this essay, as an answer to an essay question in a university application .....

The chilly breeze, coming from the bordering sea, swept across the street in a uniform gust. This was perhaps the most well-known street in India – the Marine Drive, also known as the Queen’s Necklace. I was in Mumbai – the City of Dreams. It is the city which represents the diversity of India. The place where people from all religions, castes, and social classes, live each day, in relentless struggle to transform their dreams into reality. For the past few days, I had known this city only as my SAT Examination center. As I walked along, I pondered upon my reason for being here this evening. I soon realized there was none, except for my random fancy.

I had no idea about what I would see, hear or experience. Lazily passing the buildings that rose steeply from the ground, my eyes fell upon a child on the footpath playing with a spinning top. He spun it again and again, gazing at its dizzy motion, with curious eyes. It seemed like he was aware of nothing beyond the top. Little did he care about who or what passed him. The cars, the sea or the street, nothing interested him as much. At this moment, the swirling motion of the top was the most mysterious, enigmatic and fascinating phenomenon of the Universe for the kid. Such was his innocent curiosity.

As I moved along the curve bordering the extensive sea, I saw a procession of people approaching me from the opposite direction.  The parade consisted of a majority of youths, like me. They held banners in their hands, shouted slogans and the look on their faces expressed fierce determination – Much like the emotion of all Indian youths after the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Their footsteps were bold, yet unsure. These were people who were experiencing life very closely, trying to figure out what occurrences meant – if they had any meaning. They yearned for security, stability and also unrestrained freedom. I could identify with their insecure yet passionate outcries.

As the voices of the procession, faded into the distance, a BMW-530i sped past me and came to a halt a few paces in front. A man stepped out of the car talking on his mobile phone. His corporate suit and the lines of anxiety on his forehead suggested that he was some rich businessman. Ironically, this sight reminded me of the beggar I had just passed a few moments ago, begging for alms from each and every pedestrian he could get hold of. He needed money to make arrangements for his family’s meal tonight. He had the same lines on his temple.

Moving forward on the street, I reached a construction site. The sound of machines drilling a hole into the earth, and hammers thumping against the steel bars, drowned the voices of a group of workers, relishing a break from work, perhaps discussing what their wives would have prepared for dinner tonight. There was nothing glorious about their life, yet there was an enviable sense of tranquility. As I was noticing the contrast between the grandeur of the unfinished building, and the unremarkable lives of the workers, I stumbled upon an old woman, who tripped over her own stick, only to land in the safety of my arms. As I helped her cross the street, she blessed me – her countenance revealing more helplessness, than thankfulness.

Seeing the sinking Sun, setting the sea ablaze, I realized that the evening was coming to an end. As I again turned my view, towards the street, I saw a group of men clad in white, reflecting the sanguine color of the sunrays. Four of them were carrying the dead on their shoulder. Amidst the sounds of mourning, what could be clearly heard were the chants of “Ram naam satya hai” – meaning ‘The Almighty is the only truth’. They turned into another street and disappeared from sight. I thought to myself, whether everything I had seen, heard and experienced this evening, was a disdainful lie, compared to the absolute truth of Death. We travel through the different phases of life (childhood, youth, middle age, old age), only to experience the same finale. Death is the ultimate leveler.

By the time I took the taxi back home, cosmic darkness had covered the sky, and it was night. Everything I had witnessed today, answered a few questions, but gave rise to many new doubts and dilemmas. But it further established my belief in the idea that – ‘it is not what you become in life that is important; it is how you live your existence that matters’. All our lives will come to the same conclusion. It is how we spend these cherished moments, which will make each one of us different from the others.