“I had to pay money to laugh.”

I was taken aback when these words were spoken by one of my students in class with a plain face and distressed mind. I start my class with an ice-breaking ‘How are you?’ question. In my MBA class, a girl suddenly spoke amid many other voices about a recent stand-up comedy show she attended. The ironic statement unsettled me for a long time. I was clueless as to how I should respond to her. I just wrapped it up with a small smile. The class was about two weeks ago, but I can’t get over it.

I have been wondering how true it is that, as a society, we are moving forward with a blind upward pace. A race where we barely have time to look at ourselves or sit down with an empty mind, doing nothing. Just sitting and not feeling anxious. Just silent and not overwhelmed. Just having a cup of coffee, feeling relaxed, and gazing at sunrise or sunset without thinking of anything. Whoooooooooh!

I barely remember the last time I did or felt any of these feelings. What an irony! What a paradox! Adding to the already complex life we are leading, we all have agreed to pay to be able to laugh! What a pity!

Many things come to us quite naturally. I am sure laughter tops the list. I had never thought I would reach a point so early in my life where I would have to schedule laughter. This makes me introspect deeply. It turns out that I am living in a time when the thin line between surviving and living has gotten thinner for many of us in our late twenties and early thirties. Isn’t it too early to be wholly lost, feeling empty from within, struggling to get up in the morning and forcing ourselves to sleep until almost 2 AM regularly? There are so many questions, mountain-high aspirations, gigantic aims and constant consciousness that ‘Nothing Seems Enough’. Whatever we do to the best of our abilities, the world will have taken a long leap already, and the charm of winning and achieving will have been lost. Hence, the joy of achieving something would have been gone before we could even feel it. Huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This makes me think about our priorities at his juncture– in the late twenties and early thirties. Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, lost, and empty should be considered normal. A normal where I don’t have to upset someone to make myself feel better. A normal where nobody takes pride in being impolite to a colleague, friend or just a classmate to maintain one’s thin ego and take sadistic pleasure.

Well, I am calling it a day on this note. I don’t want to bore you with longer and longer write-ups. But I am sure, probably, leaving you with the food for thought!

Take care until we circle back!

Meanwhile, never forget to smile!