Then and Now

The other day Namgang (my friend) and I were gossiping during our leisure time about how life has suddenly changed in time, how we are tuned to fit into that maze of change and how we are made by certain circumstances to change. Change is inevitable you know. As a kid or a young school and college goer, what do we expect from life? The timely entitlements, fun with buddies and laudable result at the end of day were only something that really bothered. There was nothing like living and sailing through as a captain yourself because you have not much to mind about, there were fewer nags, less compromises and fewer nuts to worry about. That period is the best.

And suddenly when you join corporate life, all these begin to fade and this transition is not very easy and hassle free. Your shoulders are bogged with more responsibilities, you have more reasons to worry about, and more things at the date line to be accomplished, more sleepless nights and sometimes you end up blaming yourself for not convincing someone who doesn’t understands you. When put upon the other’s shoe and sit on their chair, we do understand that they were right those times and that our thinking was only from one direction.

Don’t you miss so called college life?  Yes I do! Those silly fights with friends over silly reasons; the times when we witnessed friends becoming crazy over girls and how teachers used to catch and embarrass them in the morning assembly, the teachers themselves hiding their silent crush on the student; the meals which the more you take, the more hungry it would make; the common midnight calls and unforgettable theft cases. Even the undergarment clothes wouldn’t be spared! Is it not funny?

But now when we reminisce back and think upon it deeply, such incidents were but the only essential part of so-called learning. Through all these, perhaps we have become wiser, more tolerant, more vigilant and more decent. Perhaps we have known what an embarrassment or the difference between love and infatuation is? Perhaps what we are today is exactly shaped by those funny and strange moments.

Now what do we have? Only memories of the past which are both sweet and sour! Every day is a routine and scheduled; go to the work, get upset by some silly corporate and professional reasons, come home in the evening, regret about the day, redeem yourself and hope for better the next day. This cycle repeats maybe with slight change. You miss the luxuries you once had the privilege to experience. You hardly have time to contact your best buddies and the tight grip we had once begins to loosen. However at the end its life and it has to goes on.