Meaningful Life

The other day entire world woke up to hear the shocking news of shooting down the Malaysian passenger flight MH17 in Ukraine. 298 lives were lost. It is unsettling. Lately I have been watching few movies, which evoked nostalgic memories in me. They reminded me of my childhood days, in the 80’s, in the banks of Meenachil. Playing cricket in paddy fields and spending long vacation with my brother and cousins, doing nothing. It reminded me of some good days and good people. It reminded me of my roots and the place I once belonged to.

I cherish those good moments. Sometime I wish I had never grown up. You do not need all the luxuries in the world to be happy. Mine was a rustic life. It was silent nights and mostly silent daytime. Of course sometime I feel that I wasted valuable time of my life without doing anything useful. But to the most part it is forgivable. What connect me to the past are mostly memories of people I loved.  I watched two movies, 1983 and Manchadikkuru, both had depicted some part of my childhood. Su recommended them to me. Once in a while, it is nice to be reminded of the simple life you once had, especially when the whole concept of ‘life’ is turning out to be complex everyday. The focus of my life has changed from people to philosophies and now to the science of it.  People-centric life was simple and happy. Philosophy-centric life was confusing and meaningless. Science-centric life, the one I am living now, is practical and intellectually stimulating, but there is the emotional part that remains unattended to. One question that always puzzles me and always excites me is ‘what is the meaning of life’? I may never know the answer to that question, but I do realize that a life becomes meaningful when you have someone to share your thoughts and emotions with. In this world with billions of people, unfortunately, there are not many who are willing to tend their ears and time for your thoughts and emotions. Never should you lose those people in your lives whom you can share your true feelings with.

This mental time travel through movies might have fired up my emotional side, I presume. It has made me sensitive enough to feel the pain of those thousands of people who lost their loved ones in the mid-air. They were 298 people full of life. If we take them one by one, each one of them were an unwritten novel, which is intervened with the stories of several others. Each one had someone expecting them and someone who love them or had loved them at least at some point in their lives. How many people will feel sad if I die now? I can think of a few. I can think of similar faces in the lives of each 298 people who died in Ukraine sky on that fateful day. It is depressing when we think about it. Not only this particular incident, but any event that cost the lives of innocent people who just want to lead a normal life, who just dream of being with their loved ones.

It is a tribute to everyone who is pained by the lost of someone important in their lives. It is also a tribute to the power of art in evoking compassion and empathy in people’s mind.