Some of us change at 40...

There has been a raucous noise of a distant bell for a while now. Perhaps it had something to do with turning 40. The thought that I have lived half my life or even much more than half my rationed time; would spring up like it's on a permanent trampoline. It suddenly seemed strange that I had agreed to live a sluggish life of conformity. One that had wanted me to be like this, be more of that, less of these, within that ... and between such red-tapism and bureaucracy it was evident why it was a sluggish life indeed ! I wasn't living - I was staying alive. 

Many people go by the day in pretentious immortality. For some who are more conscious and agree they do reckon this finality more regularly - the agenda is clear. Me, my home, my work and my family. Nothing much else matters. Energy is a limited commodity after all. Interest is best when restricted to what is within 5 km radius; better if it even less. But then there is a different sect; a far smaller one - an informal community. A community of people who are separated by conspicuous differences in colour, faith, race, and geography. But who are common in one thing - in how much they care about several things that are otherwise easy to overlook, shirk or ignore. Whose interests spread across geographies, subjects and logic. Who seek and wish to know more than their eyes can see. Whose sensitivity has grown to be all consuming, stirring them to be concerned outside of what is theirs to govern.

"Many are blind with perfectly functional eyes that see, deaf with ears that hear and voluntarily mute who can speak. A sinister life doesn't need big horrors, it is sinister enough when a life is lived only to care, indulge and protect what matters to you. "