Graphics: S. Heramb

This post is for friends who find themselves in a dilemma over demarking career and life, traditional and practical, the sin and saintly.
Here comes another parable from my mind which loves to dwell in them, although for a quantum of time.

A master violinist taught a few handpicked students at his place. While taking lessons, the students often wondered, what was it that made their master’s violin sound unique? All of them used the violin made by the same craftsman in the town.
One day, in his master’s absence, a student decided to uncover the hush-hush. In that effort he discovered that the tuning of the violin was different those of the students. In a fit of bitterness he tightened one of the violin pegs to such an extreme that the string broke. Afraid of the consequences he hurried home. The next day after the class the master had tete-a-tete with this boy. The master admired the boy’s quest to find out the secret. The boy learnt that day, that the key to the tuning was to tune it to the right degree. If the peg wasn’t tightened enough the string would be too feeble to express his emotions and if it was turned to the other extreme the string would succumb under the tension.

Is life tuning us every moment like the master’s violin? And are we trying to undo this by withdrawing into our safe zones?

What if we would indulge in sensual pleasure all day or accept extreme immaculacy? Can we ever know when we have crossed the thin line between such extremes, if it exists?

The new age won’t belong to those who seek out ‘stability’ but to those who have well understood that our work and uncertain life cannot be compartmentalized. While with the aid of modern medicine we have increased our life expectancy, the factors which make our life fragile, have changed over the years, making our life more vulnerable.

The coming age will belong to those who can surf over the waves of quandary. That which we most love, we are afraid of accepting wholly out of the fear of losing it. The perplexity of the what-happens-next moment which flavours our dull daily lives becomes the most feared thing.

Be it any diverse career or geographical region on our mother earth, those who are willing to cross the troubled water must venture out, while the rest entertain themselves on the safe banks of their not-so-assured life.