The Eight Stages Of Life

Dear One,

We begin our journey on this earth by taking a deep breath and cry our guts out proclaiming our arrival. When it's time to leave, we heave a deep sigh of relief and make others cry in return. In between those two vital breaths, is the one journey called life.

Life, so it seems, unfolds a new chapter every eight years of your life. These eight year itch turns out to be a hit or a glitch based on the way you live it.

The first eight years are filled with a sense of freedom and fun. It is when we taste the joys of a carefree childhood. We play with toys, talk to the birds, listen to the skies and ask wonderful questions to appease our imagination. It is a time a blissful self expression; it is a prelude for the years to come.

The next eight years are the years of adolescence.  It is marked by diligent studies and exploring the realms of your body and mind. Books become your constant companions. Grades become your sole target. We stop exploring and start agreeing. It's when innocence takes a U-Turn towards adulthood.

The subsequent eight years are the most exciting part of our lives. It's when the hormones play a frenzied dance at the touch of slightest stimulation. Toys get replaced by friends and theory by practical exposure. Rules are broken. You smoke your first cigarette and taste the addictive bitterness of beer. Matters of the heart rule over your mind. This is the period of eternal youth when you become a mighty Hero ready to take on the world. That's just before reality sets in.

Now, comes the next eight years filled with intense labor and hard work to claim your rightful place in this competitive world. We struggle to build our career, time and money to take on the next eight years. Girlfriends give way to a wife and you get ready to be tied in holy matrimony for life. Earning money becomes the prime factor of your existence.

This is the eight year stage when two becomes three. Children of all shapes and sizes fill your life with pure joy and happiness.  You work doubly hard on your finances so that you can make provisions for the future. Your stint as a doting father begins with excitement and borders on to righteous frustration when you are forced to juggle various roles and responsibilities to keep the flame alive. Gone are the carefree days when you simply packed your bags and went out to explore your wild side.

Then comes the eight years of mid life crisis. You don't know where your life is up to. Your job starts to weigh you down as a heavy baggage on your shoulders, even when you aspire to be your own boss. Your children, by the way are attending the best of schools/colleges and that requires constant pumping in of moolah. So you choose to hold on to your dear lifeless job and life lest you become a jobless martyr.

This next eight year stage leaves your head with a mixture of black and white; rather more of white. Your body is worn out by the constant exertion and your mind seeks solemn peace. You have resigned your job with a decent bank balance and now all you want is, to live your life all over again. Is that really possible?

Alas! Your body has become a host to many diseases, who came in as a guest in your youth but stayed with you ever after. You rely on children for your existence, hoping they repay you back your kindness. Your children think of you as a burden, more so, you think yourself to be one. Your words no longer have the ring to it and your life too is losing it's shine. Your wife of many years (blessed art thou!) is the only friend you have left.

All you do now is wait for the angels of death to come and take you to a kingdom far away, hoping to have a lavish life that you always dreamed of. You let go a real life to embrace a dreamy death. Oh Man, what a plight you have gotten yourself into.

All throughout life, we are in some constant search or the other. A search that has no meaning; a search that never ends. You live all your life through the years, failing to fill all the years with life. Is that what we call the journey of life? Is that it? What is the true purpose of life? Find it - Know it - Live it.

Don't let go of your life. This journey is once in a lifetime offer. Realize it's worth and live it completely without any regrets. All the best.

Peace in oneself - Peace in the world.