Slumdog millionaire: a windfall

Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies- The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

I don’t know why but the world, as i sometimes perceive, is full of psychopaths. Apparently, not one human being is sane. There's one who's so much in love with himself that he'll cheat, deceive and, in the worst of cases, even kill to satiate his thirst for what he perceives as revenge. They are afflicted with what psychologists euphemistically refer to as a narcissistic personality disorder. The fact is they're excessively pompous, they're sadists, and they lack compassion. Then there're those who're afraid of their own shadow; they have this constantly nagging fear that they're being followed or being stared at. There are some who’re even more precariously placed with a multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia, and then there're those with a borderline personality disorder.

Why the hell are we not perfect? Why our brain is not perfectly wired? Why do we never have peace of mind? Why is God so unfair? Does God even exist? Hell wait! Before we even actually start thinking on these lines, we need to understand one thing. Not every human being is born with these disorders. These are not congenital as we may want to believe. The fact is we're all shaped by circumstances some of which have a lasting impact on us. They leave behind so much agony and pain in their wake that our brain, no matter how perfectly wired, succumbs to them. And you end up becoming a victim to one or more of these psychological disorders. Your upbringing is another factor that could lead you into falling prey to these mental afflictions. So you also have your parents and your relatives to blame if you aren't brought up in a way that conforms to societal requirements. Excessive indulgence during childhood, child abuse, ignoring subtle signs and initial spells of manic depressions in the child can lead to dreadful consequences as the child grows up only to realize he/she can’t cope up in a competitive scenario. Forget competition, they even fail in establishing and maintaining good relationships with fellow humans.       

 

We all are excellent performers when it comes to masquerading as good human beings. No I’m not saying we humans are bad. But then our outer appearances are always deceptive. We're guilty, afraid, jealous, and regretful from within; but then we don’t quite like to showcase these feelings to the outside world. I remember reading this interesting saying-Every sinner has a future, and every saint a past. It’s a big dilemma that we live in. On the one hand there’s this past which cannot be corrected and on the other there’s the future staring at us and wanting us to lead a good, ambitious life.

I guess one of the key solutions to leading a good life is not to take life seriously at all, the more serious you're about life, the more you tend to fall into this trap of disillusionments and disappointments. Attachment, they say, is the cause of all sufferings. So as lord Krishna says in the Bhagwad Gita, it’s important that we just keep going, performing to the best of our abilities without any attachment, and without an expectation of a reward. And always remember that the decisions you take are never wrong; the results could go wrong, as results are beyond your control. No doubt it’s easier said than done, but then one can always try, and if you're someone who can’t help but take life seriously then there's always Hope. Remember what Andy writes in a letter to Ellis in the movie The Shawshank Redemption-Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Happy Living!