The many purposes of my life
I get into this existential crisis way too often. I have to assume it is a function of ageing! I wonder what the purpose of life is, and I am reminded of the quote I cannot recollect by whom, ‘The only purpose of life is to live a life of purpose’. It still needs to answer the question.
I think these ruminations are because of me missing my favourite escape act of the day. I go running, and most of the time, I am interested in what I do after running: having coffee, dosa or the newfound healthy drink made of ragi! In the last few weeks, my left knee has been challenging me, and with my willpower, I tried to show who the boss is, and my left knee had the last laugh. I go to my doctor, who believes I should stop running. He cannot seem to accept with my BMI (which seems to be what philosophers would call the changeless substratum) that I can even attempt running and, as any good doctor says with a smile (which I interpreted as condescending), “Do Brisk Walk”. I wish I could listen to him. He does not know he cannot take away my daily escape act!. The daily escape act is essential as the endorphins it claims to release (read it as ‘The pain it gives me’) help me navigate the day. I rejoice that God has given me the ‘Pain Quota’ for the day!
Now, let me get back to the purposes.
Mother — After I left my job 8 years ago, I have not been able to explain to her what I do. I overheard her talking to someone, and it was like this. ‘I do not know what he does (He takes his bag, goes somewhere in the morning, and comes back at night. That’s all I know. I think he is earning nothing!)’. So much support for being an entrepreneur! But then she has two uses for me. One of them is ‘Scraping Coconut’. The relationship is symbolic. She will keep a knife and coconut on the table before I bathe. And once a month, I will get a WhatsApp message: ‘Get Betacard AM’!.
Wife — A year back, she stated with exasperation. ‘Zun, I have given up on you.’ Do anything that gives you peace. (She gave up long back but found the words only a year before!) I must credit that she has stuck to her word. Once a month, she will slowly sneak into the room where I am sleeping with the pretext of not disturbing me but with the explicit intention of waking me up; I know the time has come to change the ‘Gas Cyclinder’!. Her backstory is that her Dad never made her lift weights!
Kids — It is only fair if I have spent their formative years running around something I cannot seem to place a handle on; their expectations of me are generally abysmal. I wrote a while back about checking your call logs, and I see there have been no calls from both of them in a month. I checked my message log, and my son sent me a screenshot asking me, ‘Which train should he take?’. I check my daughter’s message log and have one document with a note ‘print this off’. For some reason, my son thinks I am a travel agent who can get him in the shortest time possible to his destination, and my daughter thinks I am running a printer shop!.
Sister — She is the one who thinks I can elevate my standards. She will send me some books whose titles I need help understanding and ask my opinion on some long-form poetry. She cannot accept that I have trouble fathoming newspaper headlines!
Friends — They are the only ones who understand you and rightly understand that my entire life is centred around ‘food’. One of my friends has taken it to such a height, and most evenings, he will send a nice photo of Bajji or Bonda his mother makes, and he said, ‘My mother asked me to send it to you as she said you will love it’. What utopian love is expressed through WhatsApp when I know this fellow only intends to irritate me. . Their other random calls are also on similar lines, saying I am going to this place. Can you tell me ‘which restaurants to stop by’?.
I look back and am happy to live a life full of purposes, summarised below.
Coconut Scraper
Gas Cylinder Changer
Travel Agent
Printer
Reviewer
Restaurant Matcher
Can it get any nobler than the above?
But as one other noble person said, It is in the simplest things of life we find the greatest joy. So …
Have Fun. Enjoy Maadi.
Zunder
