is life worth living....?

It was my alter ego who spoke first. “Is life worth living?” he demanded with the confidence of a pugilist. I found myself sitting at the bus stop, chewing pensively on the remnants of ‘our’ earlier conversations. I bought time as I ravaged for a fitting rejoinder.

My deliberation was cut short as my loquacious ‘partner’ was speaking again. “Life for most of you is as sinuous as a verbose English sentence punctuated by birth and death, conspicuously imperfect and unconscionable. Seldom are you careful enough to dot the i’s and slash the t’s. Your indulgences have overshadowed the very essence of life. You are like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void, straightjacketed by waste, horror and degradation. And as if the intricacies of life were not enough look at the mess you’ve created around you - coffee has caffeine, water has pesticides, and the road can kill you.

I was taken aback. Never in our earlier bouts had he exhibited such effrontery. The scathing accusations left me stranded in a hideous lonely emptiness. However I did not feel defeated rather the more I fathomed the facts the more they piqued my interest. The root of our plight lay in our failure to realize that we live in a relative world where flaws are as conspicuous as there are people, therefore any demarcation in terms of responsibility and accountability is redundant and futile.

Having mustered my thoughts I replied, “Life does not know any bounds nor does it understand limits. It has never offered explanations nor has it demanded any. But it is inherently perilous for otherwise it wouldn’t be fun living it. Life hails ‘existence’ and not ‘essence’. Life has never been utopian, though the nature of perils has changed with time. Encyclopedias give us a vivid depiction of the prehistoric horrors – ice ages, gargantuan predators etc. Historians have mentioned in detail the gory wars fought, the disgusts of industrialization, imperialism, and nuclear bombs etc. Every eon brings with it concomitant dangers but life continues. Life has only one rule - ‘all is permissible’. If you try to violate this sacrosanct rule life loses its appeal and reduces to a pedestrian set of tasks not very different from the fate Sisyphus was condemned to.”


I could see his confidence melt away. His tone was no longer imputative rather that of apprehension and speculation. “But”, he began, “ last night when you were asleep I overheard the coke bottle plot against you. And the mobile phone under your pillow the one you trust so much, well he was all praise for the coke bottle. And soon the Cadbury chocolates joined in; their perfidious instincts aroused.” He was almost out of breath by now.


His naiveté apprehensions brought a smile to my face. It also made me realize that I had a gift - the gift of life, which in spite of being incomplete was sans peur. I also realized that life was beyond reproach, in fact it would be an imbecile attempt to inculpate an individual for promotion of his self interest unless his actions are aimed at deliberate harm. It doesn't really matter that you cannot alter your behavior on the basis of consequences that you cannot know, because you are not accountable for your behavior anyway. Therefore to say that people responsible for pollution should be sought and punished is as preposterous as finding a needle in a haystack. It therefore becomes imperative to accept the fancies of life in their authentic form and to sift out misleading essences. The ultimate aim should be free, autonomous existence.