How many of us have heard the lines written below ?
"It is time you settle down..."
"Great, now that you have a job, it is time you settle down..."
"Now that you've been promoted, it is time for you to settle down..."
"Wow! You've bought a car... Ab settle kar le dost!"
"You've switched jobs... better profile, better pay... that's it.... Now you have to settle down... "
Familiar phrases ? I am sure you must have heard at least one of them in your lifetime, if you haven't "settled down" yet...
Here are a few more phrases...
"Dude, buy a house man! It's time for you to settle down..."
"Bro... Trust me, invest in land... best thing to do... and then settle down in life..."
"Just take a pension and/or retirement policy and then you are settled for life..."
Well, coming to the point... This ideally is an Indian mindset..
WE think... .
If we get married, we settle down...
If we buy a house, we settle down...
If we take a cash rich retirement plan, we settle down...
If we invest in land/gold we settle down...
If we secure our child's future, we settle down...
And the best of the lot....
If we get our child married.... We as parents are done! We have completely settled down...
The question is...
When does this "settling down" end ? Or should I rephrase.... When does it actually begin ?
If you notice the pointers that I just wrote a couple of lines above...
They are sequential... They will, or rather should happen in everybody's life...
If they don't... oops! You will be perceived as someone not very successful in life...
It really doesn't matter if we enjoy living for today and the moment... We will still... be judged...
Even if we have been around the world, have enjoyed adventure sports... got drunk on the beach and ate the greatest of seafood... We will still fall under the category of an insensible person because We are spending our hard earned money... And here's the ironical part.... We are spending it on US.... and still being judged!
Ideally we should only be spending to survive and not live our life.... Ideally we are expected to save our earnings as assets in our bank and investments... for .... for.... (try answering this yourself before reading further )
Let me try.... For later times.... for when you will be old and will not have an apetite to enjoy seafood... For later times... when walking without a break for 10 minutes will be adventure sports...
So when does the settling down happen?
When you are married... you worry about buying a house...
When you buy the house... you try securing your child's future...
When that is done... you worry about retirement...
Then child's marraige... The list goes on....
I am not saying, one should not be doing these things...
What I am trying to home in is...
Let us not measure our lives based on these parameters....
Let us not judge someone based on the items he/she has ticked as completed tasks in the settling down checklist...
Let's LIVE... each day and every day...
Let's measure how many moments we've created with our loved ones... Let's measure on the number of times we made people smile... Let's measure life in terms of happiness and not success... Because trust me... It's fun to live! That's how I have grown up! " LIVING " ....Thanks Mom&Dad!
So... I guess... Don't settle down... Only live it up!
Think about it!
Dipankar
