Abandoning the mirage
Once upon a time, a nomad had to travel across an arid and barren desert. The walk was so horrid and humid. He looked for a camel to make his trip easier. But luck didn't favor the nomad; nor was he brave enough. The water he had in his pack, got used in a couple of days and his throat dried like a parched leave. Slowly his hardships mounted to a level, unbearable and unimaginable, beyond his endurance. And he gradually became delirious of the heat waves under the sun and the extreme cold waves under the moon and the stars.
And he soon realized that this adventure is gonna claim his life, ultimately. Not that he was afraid of the end result, but he was worried that his life had no meaning at all, until that point. So he started lamenting the futility of his life and made a secret desire in his heart to add significance and magnificence to his worn out life.
As he scanned the perimeter of his vision, lost in the wilderness of somewhere unknown to his navigational skills, he sensed a ray of hope to the east. He saw something glittering and wavy in the horizon.
A thousand thoughts raged through his nerves about the curiosity of the vision he had just seen.
His incessant questions polluted the already dusty air and refused to settle down. He walked enthusiastically towards his discovery, with his repleted energy. He started running in joy, after a few miles and stumbled upon a sand dune. As his tired legs failed him, he fell and rolled down the sand cliff, face buried into the hot sand.
For a few gripping moments, he lied down there, motionless. He assumed it to be his end. He thought he had passed away.
As if to check his post life status, he opened his eyes and felt the sand grains tethered to his eye lashes. His brain posed a formidable confusion.
His hands attempted to clear his face of the sand grains, that's when he realized something familiar in the clasp of his right hand. It was unusual at this juncture, that his whole body shivered in a sense of fear and fright. His body hairs had all gone erect helping themselves to void the sand particles that have clung on to them.
He could feel five thin and long projections attaching themselves to a web like structure, in the clasp of his right hand. It was so familiar and yet so strange. Unmistakably, it was a human hand.
Rising from his death like state, he went on to explore the discovery in his right hand. His perception was absolutely right. He traced the human hand to a carcass buried under the sands nearby his fall. He looked for any valuables in his shabby backpack and found a bundle of gold coins and a container of water, neatly preserved. He pounced on to the water with a greedy tongue and satisfied his lust. He also managed to ration it for his further journey, carefully. He transferred the gold coin bundle and the water container to his backpack and stood before his savior carcass of the stranger friend.
And he soon realized that this adventure is gonna claim his life, ultimately. Not that he was afraid of the end result, but he was worried that his life had no meaning at all, until that point. So he started lamenting the futility of his life and made a secret desire in his heart to add significance and magnificence to his worn out life.
As he scanned the perimeter of his vision, lost in the wilderness of somewhere unknown to his navigational skills, he sensed a ray of hope to the east. He saw something glittering and wavy in the horizon.
A thousand thoughts raged through his nerves about the curiosity of the vision he had just seen.
"Have I discovered an oasis ? "
"Have I unraveled the mystery of life?"
"Have I found the meaning, I had sought?"
For a few gripping moments, he lied down there, motionless. He assumed it to be his end. He thought he had passed away.
"Slowly my precious life would leave this body and let it to rot under the scorching sun or toast a feast to the ravaging vultures and other scavengers"
"How would my after-life be? will it be in the same backdrop as this desert or somewhere cooler and cozier?"
"Have I died?" or "Have I lived?"
His hands attempted to clear his face of the sand grains, that's when he realized something familiar in the clasp of his right hand. It was unusual at this juncture, that his whole body shivered in a sense of fear and fright. His body hairs had all gone erect helping themselves to void the sand particles that have clung on to them.
He could feel five thin and long projections attaching themselves to a web like structure, in the clasp of his right hand. It was so familiar and yet so strange. Unmistakably, it was a human hand.
Rising from his death like state, he went on to explore the discovery in his right hand. His perception was absolutely right. He traced the human hand to a carcass buried under the sands nearby his fall. He looked for any valuables in his shabby backpack and found a bundle of gold coins and a container of water, neatly preserved. He pounced on to the water with a greedy tongue and satisfied his lust. He also managed to ration it for his further journey, carefully. He transferred the gold coin bundle and the water container to his backpack and stood before his savior carcass of the stranger friend.
"You are me and I am you"
"You will be my future and I have to be your past"
"For we, both travel the same road and try to reach the same destination"
"We have never met alive and yet we both have made a strange connection today"
He mumbled these into the monotonous wind and buried his friend's body respectfully and readjusted his stamina for a further walk into the horizon, onlooking the oasis.
He kept up his pace, now re-energized, and made a steady progress towards his dream or he thought so. It took some time for him to understand the paradox, he was struck in. No matter, how much he travelled, the oasis looked unreachable. The distance between him and the oasis remained the same. Bedazzled by this, he turned around and looked back. He was astonished by what he saw in his vision. He saw a similar looking oasis like sight, in there too.
Visibly muddled,
"Have I walked away from an oasis to another in search of a paradise?"
"Is my delirious mind trying to play a game of sensibility in testing times?"
"Will I ever reach the oasis or will I too get lost in this maze of life?"
That's when he decided to abandon the journey in search of some illusion and walk out as his heart pleased him to. For little did he know the phenomenon of the mirage.
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P.S - An ill-poised vague attempt at writing a story with a philosophical ink.
I believe Happiness is more like a mirage. And mirage is an illusion. So your journey in search of Happiness shall not always end with a fruit in your hands.
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