The temptress called life

I have always been a person who believed that we are nothing but puppets whose invisible strings god yields and makes us run about to his whims and fancies. There are people who believe so much in fate that they actually dont do anything, they think that since fate will run its course anyway, it is completely useless for them to attempt to do something. It is indeed grim that we are but mere puppets, but sometimes it strikes me that ours is a very fragile existence. Sometimes, like today, Im rudely awakened to the possibility that any moment in our lives might be our last on the earth.

As I was getting ready for my usual evening wanderings today, I received news that one of my batchmates during engineering had passed away a couple of days ago. The news was put on the group email and just mentioned her death. Frantic phone calls to a couple of other friends confirmed that the person in question was killed in an accident. The girl who died was my age, had just embarked on a new job and was returning from a pleasure trip to a waterfall near Bangalore. I took the news on face value first and then realized how deeply it had affected me. I could not take part in any conversation around me for the rest of the evening and was completely distracted.

As is illustrated by this incident, life is fragile. This moment you might be alive and vibrant and happy and the next moment, life might be snuffed out of you. Live life while you still have the chance to live it. Do not let all the beautiful moments pass by, live every moment. Do not leave all the simple pleasures in life waiting for a bigger joy in life to come your way. That might never come along and you will end up not having had any happiness in life at all. Take a minute and smell the roses, as I love saying. Life is too precious a gift to be wasted upon trivial matters.

Never for a moment, think that you are unfortunate and rue your existence. As Dr. Christian Barnard would say, every living moment is for celebration. As he writes in his wonderful piece called 'In Celebration of Being Alive', live and experience every moment and do not be a bystander in your own life.

PS: The girl apparently died cause no hospital would take her in as it was a medico legal case. Two doctors I know said that they could not blame the hospitals as if any of these cases leads to a death, the hospital might lose its license. If so, then the law that does this is inhumane. If the law lets a person who has a shot at life die a dog's death, it is no law at all and it needs to be changed immediately...
PPS: RIP Sowjanya...