Yesterday, I had talked about one of the incidents (the bus incident where the conductor had issued more tickets than the number of seats and the passengers seemed to have conformed to the wrong practice by accepting to stand in the bus) from my recent trip which made me write about the significance of speaking out and vouching for change.

Another incident from the same trip to Alibag changed my perspective about Life. There was this guy who owns a piece of land. Earlier it used to lie vacant. Now he has converted his land into a set of three cottages for tourists to come and stay in a peaceful and relaxed environment. It was amazing to see the kind of satisfaction on his face. He doesn’t seem to have been influenced by the rat race and is happy sustaining his life at the same place where his grandfather, his father and in turn he spent all their lives.

A rare feat in this competitive world where the children need to go away from their families in search for better jobs and opportunities. This made me think about the way one should lead his/her life. Is it that being ambitious and striving for societal/materialistic goals should be the sole aim of life? Wouldn’t we all want to share our joys and sorrows and in fact our lives with our parents/grandparents/extended family?

Some of my friends from small towns and cities would say that there aren’t many lucrative opportunities around in these places and it is but a compulsion for them to move out if they want to lead a life their own way and on their own terms. Of course, every individual has a right to make decisions about himself/herself.

As I was trying to decipher the mystery behind the calm persona of the cottage owner at Alibag, I was forced to think as to what would result in that smile on the man’s face? Is he really satisfied with what he has got? or Has he reconciled to what he is capable of getting? And for that matter what is satisfaction after all? Can man ever be satisifed? Or is it that he tends to draw satisfaction when he comes home at the end of a struggling day? Would being satisfied kill the inherent curiosity and ambitions?

All the above are difficult to answer and each individual might have his/her own take on the same. But what is of utmost importance, at least in my experience has been, is that instead of blindly running after materialistic opportunities in life, one needs to sit down and deliberate as to what one might miss upon if he/she were to join the rat race.

Sometimes I wonder how wonderful it would be if we were able to share our joys and sorrows with people who matter the most in our lives, which our society gives the terminology of a family.

Source for Image: http://www.the-means-of-life.blogspot.com/