The Real Thing

The Real Thing

Schazeen Bokhari

A lot of people in this world remain engrossed in trying to search for their “fairy-tale” lives, dreaming about true love, guts and good luck. But this is not the real thing. The real world sometimes becomes a cage. The real world opens people’s eyes and teaches them lessons- the hard way. Sometimes, it steals your pride, deadens your ambitions, limits your imaginations and psychologically cripples you.

I reckon that it takes about two minutes to read each entry in this blog. Well, according to statistics, in that space of time, 300 people will die, and another 620 will be born. I might take half-an-hour to write this: I’m sitting on my bed, concentrating on what I am doing, with some books around me, ideas in my head, cars driving past outside. Everything seems perfectly normal, and yet, during those thirty minutes, 3000 people have died, and 6200 have just seen the light of the world for the first time. Where are those thousands of families who have just begun to mourn the loss of someone, or to smile at the arrival of a son, daughter, nephew, niece, brother or sister? Hundreds of those children who have just been born will be abandoned the next moment and will go on to form part of the death statistics before I have even finished writing this.

How strange. A simple statistic, which I happened to read, and suddenly I’m aware of all those deaths and entrances, those smiles and tears. How many are leaving this life while alone in their rooms, with no one realizing what’s happening? How many will be born in secret and then abandoned outside a children’s home or a convent? I think to myself that I was once part of the birth statistics and will, one day, be included amongst the number of dead.

People do not think very much about death. They spend their lives worrying about absurdities; they put things off, and fail to notice important moments. They don’t take risks, because they think it’s dangerous. They complain a lot, but are afraid to take action. They want everything to change, but they themselves refuse to change. So many things that make life rough around the edges- an indiscriminate dent in your car, a door slamming in your face- are due to lack of consideration. Imagine for a minute, a world where everyone is just a little kinder. When you are trying to merge in traffic, someone lets you in. At the supermarket, you allow a person in a hurry to go ahead of you in the check-out queue.

If we thought a little more about this, we would never forget to make that much-postponed phone call. We would be a little crazier. We would enjoy the power and beauty of our youth. We would not fear this incarnation coming to an end, because you cannot fear something that is going to happen anyway.

- Schazeen Bokhari

Posted in: Schazeen