Live more, love more, writes Priyanka Chaturvedi

In the month of February, this year, all friends, family and extended family had got together to bring in a very dear relative’s 50th birthday. This week we got together yet again, but to mourn his passing away. Words fail to express the grief at the irony and the shock of it all. How life can turn upside down in an instant, without any warning is difficult to fathom. But then such is life. 

We have been taught, and we have known that life can be unpredictable yet when such a moment hits, one is left gasping for breath. Every time I attend a funeral most people regret not having spoken enough, told him/her that they loved them loads, didn’t appreciate the deceased often enough. It is a very common human trait and I don’t hesitate to say am guilty of it too. Not staying in touch or often enough with people I care about the most is one regret I have and perhaps one resolution of changing that to myself. 

In the highly competitive times we live in we are so driven by the I want it all syndrome that we forget that taking time out for family and friends is imperative. The ‘they’ll understand that I am busy so it doesn’t matter if I don’t connect’ is a complacency that afflicts many.

Remember the poem by William Henry Tennyson that ends with these lines: ‘A poor life this if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.’ Today, just standing and staring randomly without a purpose can easily get you tagged a moron! So, when we are standing at a train station or a bus stop we are staring, with our heads down at our mobile gadget. A very common sight everywhere you look. 

Gen Next feels awkward without having anything to do. Suggest that they do nothing at all and chill makes them stare back at me with horror in their eyes plus a ‘How can you even suggest that?’ look. 

The ‘I have nothing to do am so bored’ is the most commonly heard complaint with most kids, including mine. Ask them to sit down and talk gets me their attention span for all of five to ten minutes.

In the short time span allotted to us on this planet let us make it a life worth living and others wanting to emulate. Reach out, laugh more, help more, live each moment more. In the blink of an eye, everything can change forever, so forgive often and love with all your heart, you never know when that chance is snatched away forever.