I’m standing here in the balcony, having the last few sips of my hot coffee, feeling it’s warmth right till it reaches my stomach. It’s a chilly winter evening and I can feel the cold breeze chilling my face no less than ice. A moment before, I was standing here with my father, talking about life and its purpose, yes I do talk to my father about such things, other than telling him about my career plans and shopping lists.

He told me a very simple thing that I think we often forget in the mad race of achieving our goals. He said, “Time seems to run at its own pace but as we look back half of our life goes by living it for people who don’t really matter”.
He left for watching news after saying this, leaving me with clarity.
Yeah clarity is the word.

All of us start with going school where we are told to work harder, get better grades. The student standing second in class is pushed to achieve first position, the first ranker is pushed even more to secure his/her position and as we grow up it becomes our habit to fight for a position, not because we want it, only because this is what was taught to us when we were moulding.

I’m not saying that working hard for getting good grades is a punishment you are giving to yourself, No! I don’t mean that. My point is that, striving so bad to get something that even you aren’t sure about is certainly a punishment. I know a girl who loves playing hockey and she’s really good at it, but she spends an hour on her practice and rest of her hours on studying the subjects that she studies with her mind half asleep and when asked why she doesn’t focus on hockey, the answer is literally more annoying than shocking “Because eventually everyone sees your marks!”
Really? Just because more than half of the world keeps an eye on your score sheet, you choose to live a life they think is righteous?

So many of us live our lives, not live, the right word would be “spend” our lives thinking about how our decision would look like, to them; smart or dumb?
What will they say about the choices we make for ourselves?
What if they will question it or would not approve of it?
These questions are inevitable to come across our mind but to pay attention to them or not is totally upto us!

Why to care about what people think about your life?
It’s one beautiful life that we’ve got and we should do everything that makes us happy.
If wearing pajamas makes you feel happy and comfortable then why to squeeze your legs in tight jeans or ‘oh so wow’ clothes that have to be adjusted every 2 minutes, just because rest of the people do it this way?
It’s okay to be a chef, even if the society thinks you’ve got all the potential to be a mathematician and you’ve wasted it.
It’s okay if you are judged,
It’s okay if people are making fun of your decisions, as long as it is making you happy, their free opinions shouldn’t bother you!
I know a person who got selected in the National Defence Academy but he chose to do a Bachelor’s in dental science. His decision was also questioned but he did what he wanted and has achieved heights.
20 years from now if we look back at our lives, I just hope that we have more number of years lived than spent.

I’m no ‘life guru’ to teach you anything but as we all know, we can live only when we know what our heart wants and not when we do the things that are right for us according to “Mrs Sharma” living in neighborhood. This is one life you’ve got, make it beautiful and yes don’t listen to Sharma Aunty anymore!

Life isn’t complicated,
But complicated are human beings;
They desire to climb a mountain,
But keep themselves chained in a fear of unknown strings.

Make your life count by keeping your faith in little things,
Nobody will help you in flying;
You got to be the wind under your own wings!

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