LIFE IS RELATIONSHIP
As I stood there in the market deep in my thoughts, I saw a simple feat of friendship. The same vendor who grabbed a bunch of prawns from a pile in a hurry to sell them to a customer, was taking his time and hand picking the big fresh ones from the same pile for another customer. I asked myself, why would the vendor do that ? How are the customers different from each other? He charged the same amount from both of the customers. But why would one get hand picked ones and one get random picked ? I just stood there and watched. Then the first customer just paid and left, but the second one stayed for a while, shook the vendors hand, made conversation and paid him and left. The second customer who got hand picked prawns was my father. He always greeted the fish vendor with same enthusiasm every time, even if he did or did not buy anything from him.
A few days ago I asked my father, what was the purpose of life ?, as he seemed to have figured it out. With a smile on his face and a steady voice he said, “Relationships”. I was puzzled. I could figure out until a certain point by what he meant, but not till the full extent. He further explained it as, life being filled with relationships, your relationship with a person, with a car or a shoe. Then, as his theory started spreading through my mind, I started realising. Ever since the day we are born until they day we die, we are webbed with relationships. Relationship is constant throughout life. I started understanding as I could relate to it. From the clothes I wore till the air I breathed, I was bound in a relationship with them. I thought to myself, how could such a simple thing be the purpose to life?
“Sometimes the simplest things in life can be the hardest to understand” said a voice from inside me . I had got an answer but not an absolute one . My father’s theory made sense, but perhaps there was something more to it. I felt like there was a big part of it missing. But, I was happy that I had gotten an insight into my question and had something to start with.
That afternoon as I was eating big, fresh prawns unlike the first customer, something crossed my mind. The vendor had a relationship with both of his customers, then why would he treat them differently? As I told before, father used to always greet the vendor and conversed and they had developed a friendly relationship. It’s obviously because of that reason, he got fresh prawns. But why was there a gap between the two customers? Then it struck me! There’s another thing which is constant throughout life other than relationships. And that is “Time”. Just like relationships, we are bound by time throughout our lives. I had finally figured out the big missing part from my father’s theory. Relationship and time have always been co-related. You can’t have a relationship without spending time on it. And , you can’t spend time without having a relationship.
The first customer only spent time on making relation with the prawns he purchased. But, my father spent more time on the vendor than the prawns. Every living organism spends time on relationships. The reason why everyone’s life is different, is because each one of us chooses our own preferred relationship to spend time on. So in other words, “Life is all about spending time on relationships”. It’s as simple as that. Maybe there is something more to this theory, maybe there isn’t. Other than time and relationships, nothing is absolute
aN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY MY SON ON 23.03.2018 which enthralled me where I felt he needs no more education as he has decoded life itself
LOKESH SANGHI
