Is Satisfaction A Mythical Concept?

"Shaadi ho ya election sabko pehle hi saal mein result chahiye"!

The moment you were born, everyone (except your parents) tried to label you. Relatives tried to decide your career - "Bada hokar doctor/engineer banega" and others were simply interested in your looks.

1. You were sent to nursery to prepare for school. You were prepared in KG's for the 1st class. The cycle continued till IX and then you were told about the importance of X boards and then XII. You were told "the competition is tough" and that you must score the highest marks. Most importantly you should be among top 3 rank holders in your entire batch. Nothing's wrong with that but why? Nobody had an answer. I have seen average scoring people (X,XII) working in MNCs.

At this point you had the greatest energy, mind, life balance, time and no personal money.

2. You joined a college, study hard for placements and if you were lucky, you joined directly after the college. If not, you had to struggle but you got the job. If you graduated in 2014 (like me), you are probably making money and finally everything's good. You are prepared for the job, meetings, computer languages and even for writing emails. You are told that "you are a valuable employee to the company". You are repeatedly taught that "numbers matter more than people".  You now pay taxes. You play a very important role in the nation's growth along with farmers, soldiers, teachers, doctors, bureaucrats, etc. You can now afford stuff. You work hard. Your family, friends and society respect you.

3. After 2-3 years, you take a change and it is great. You make more money. You buy more stuff and now realise that buying stuff doesn't ensure satisfaction. If you're lucky you'll find the love of your life. If not, it can be arranged for you. You now dodge questions like "rishta dekhna shuru kiya ya nhi, aage ka kya plan hai?".

At this point you have medium energy, hardwired brain (which can be rewired), life balance and ~ 0 time. You have money though.

You take more change and have a pretty good salary. You marry. You are happy and it's the best time of your life. After a year you are asked weird questions about children because "Shaadi ho ya election sabko pehle hi saal mein result chahiye" :-D

4. At 60/65 you retire. You start asking questions about the peace, security and fun time you were being prepared for. You get new responsibilities and the days are pretty much the same. You think satisfaction is an illusion, a mythical concept. You wanted to do a lot of things and now you don't have the energy to do all of them. You want to see your friends (some of them might be dead already) and some maybe 'too old'. You'll have reunions full of past memories, discussing what's wrong with the present generation and how things could be different if....You can now talk for hours about the struggles in life and wish you could've done things you wanted to do and how things would be more satisfying and different if not great. You advice people to do what they love and believe in. You tell your grandchildren that everything is possible in life and they should have absolute faith in themselves. You now want everyone in the world to be happy. You now understand that -
"Society as a general was preparing you for the retirement. All those dreams about a good life were actually for the money and materials you could acquire to enjoy at "the end of your life". You could have taken those art classes, you could have tried to start your own company, you could have helped another child complete his/her education (you can do it now too). You regret spending less time with your family and friends".

I am not telling you to leave your job and party hard. I want you to at least start. I want you to give up lies that you tell yourselves as to why you can't do it. I want you to challenge that weak voice that tells you - "you're not smart/you are fat/you suck at public speaking/your English is not good/everything's great or they will be better". Understand, thinking and actually taking action are poles apart. You need courage to try, to fail, and to win! Live life with no regrets. Take responsibility of at least 1 person apart from your family. Take responsibility for every decision in your life. Stop whining.

We all can help the families who are forced to starve, children who are forced to work by honestly paying up our taxes.  I don't blame the system because we are the system. In fact I am grateful to the system and society for helping me reach where I am today. I am not against education/job/society. I want everyone of us to be billionaires. We should party and visit places of our dreams. I believe there's no nobility in poverty. But I also believe that no one should be denied - "Roti, Kapda, Makan and Shiksha Sansthan". It hurts me to see an entire generation of people living their life and never getting the satisfaction they were searching. "Fine/Okay" is their best experience and answer to everything.
How are you? Fine. How is your job? Fine. How is your life? Fine!
They all think they'll do everything after retirement and then they don't have energy. I wish more people return the society what they get so that people forced to live under the flyovers can dream of bigger things than planning to arrange food everyday. The earlier you understand this, more are your chances of getting satisfied by doing things that actually matter to you. When you are more satisfied, you are positive. You help others. You motivate them. You are inspired by others. That's a chain reaction! Satisfaction may appear mythical at physical level but it is definitely real at soul level.

Live by - "One for the soul and one for the kitchen."

P.s.
The article is the result of self thought and conversation with 3 senior citizens - a shopkeeper, my friend's grandfather and senior manager in a PSU who is about to retire.