The pursuit of a "Higher" Happyness

When we are asked to write down what our ambition back in the 5th standard, most of us filled in the blank with Doctor, Astronaut, Engineer and many such stereotyped professions (Unlike my brother who wrote train engine driver!) now when you ask the question to us (as in people going to or at crossroads in life) we would say well an MBA graduate from IIMA, or PhD from Berkeley, a degree from Oxford, CA, Blah blah Actor blah.

What do I have to say?

What I am is not necessarily what I want to be. I am a film student with one film screened internationally. I have a great career option of joining films with enough and more resources that shall only be a dream unto others. I have a strong family background in the same field. I am also preparing for my CAT (which I seem pretty ok in) to join MICA by next June.

But what is it that I want to be?

In fact what is it that we really want to be?

When you place a track, you can say after an MBA, then work, then senior manager, then VP, then CEO. Else branch out start your own company. I can keep drawing and drawing the lines as vertical as I want to go. Sky also shall never be the limit.

But how many of us feel an empty space yet…

After an MS in engineering and a great job….then what?

After CEO, where should you go?

After marriage and kids, what more is there to expect from another?

Maybe the fact that most of us merely think of short term goals ( I mean a 10 year benchmark) is in fact a blessing in disguise. Its better to think what the immediate future holds than to worry of global warming will melt all the ice caps and sink us in a Water World. We anyway will be long gone before that, so why worry right?

I mean, does no one feel a sense of loss…of incompleteness…that there is nothing beyond the silver lining. Personally living this life for me feels like the Truman Show. Like someone is sitting and watching us all and we merely play out the parts that are etched to us. But how much can you deviate from the path chosen to you?

But then why should one deviate…why cant one merely enrich the path that one is presented with?

Should we not seek a higher meaning to life?
Or merely join the great hype of life and burn out in the end.

Just imagine, Mittal might be one of the richest Indians in the world, but how much of it does he stop to enjoy?

We run the rat race, but like they say we all are merely rats in the end.

Perhaps it’s not the fault of the people; it’s the necessity that society has created – the survival of the fittest.

I have been in a work environment too and I have loved every inch of it.

Then what is the meaning of all the rush and garble that follows when a person has to shine the brightest?

Is it better to shone brightly once in a billion years and then fade away…or is it better to just remain steady and watch the other stars run out of life then and now.

Should I be a spectator or the player?

Should I live or should I excel?

What is that I want to be?