What’s this life for?

Have you ever wondered what this life is for ?

I met a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. Lets call him X (I am deliberately with-holding his name). He was, and still is, very bright, has a sharp mind, is cheerful, benevolent and is really passionate about theory. He and I have spent lots of time together at IIT Delhi(includes working together or just hanging out). He was at or near the top of the class both in academics and in research. He told me he wanted to make a career in research. I am very sure he meant it. But at the last moment (towards December 2008) fate forced his hand, and he had to sacrifice grad school for a job.

I met another friend of mine last week. He is currently a student at IIT Delhi and will be graduating in May 2010. He too is very bright and is really passionate about his work. If he sets his mind to something he will pursue it zealously, irrespective what comes his way. He too will be unable to attend grad school next year due to reasons beyond his control (again reasons have been deliberately with-held).

Another friend of mine got married 2 months ago. She and her boyfriend were going good till  for a long time and, to the best of my knowledge, they were very happy with each other and had planned to spend the rest of their lives together. But again, as fate (or rather Indian tradition) would have it, she had to break-up with him and marry the guy whom her parents had chosen for her.

Have you ever wondered what this life is for ? A cat might get 9 lives but we get only 1 (I do not believe in Hindu Mythology). There is no reboot button in life, there is only a shut-down button. Life doesn’t have a parallel processor either, you have to make do with a single processor. You can not have too many threads in life, the only way to escape from a deadlock is to forcefully preempt some thread.

Life is not always fair. We can not always get what we want. Sometimes we have to give up our dreams because, …. , because there is no other way out. They say life doesn’t give you a second chance: If you screw-up once, then you are screwed. But then, sometimes life doesn’t give you a first chance either.

Is used to think that this one chance in the journey called life in the space-ship called earth is a chance to chase our dreams and live our life the way we want to. But then, sometimes your dream ends even before it can start. Your mind’s decision tree gets a few branches chopped off and looks more a decision path.

In such a case What’s this life for ?

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