(Apr 28, 2:44am)

It is common among us to think of a past era and conclude it to be more happy and more blissful..

It is our way to run away from the complexities of today, and imagine that what was past was also necessarily simpler..

Was it?

The other day, as the families assembled in the ground following earthquake aftershocks here, I heard those children discussing the homework..

One was very scared that he had not been able to learn the tables.. and as he narrated the horrifying demeanour of the Maths teacher, it seemed to me that this unseen person was the most brutal of all..

And it was clear, that it seemed to the child that his Maths teacher would most certainly devour him up the next day... for his failure at this "learn by heart" assignment..

Hadn't we all been at his stage and situation in the past?

Didn't it seem to us then, that the lives of adults was so much more superior.. as it seems to us today that the lives of these little children is free of burden?

And still, we run away... into some different situation.. sometimes we imagine ourselves, during our happy dreams, in the shoes of somebody else.. somebody who we think is happier.. somebody who is our neighborhood example of a successful man.. somebody who we perhaps envy..

But do we, in the midst of it all, realise we too are subjects of envy... that there may be so many out there who think we have the more pleasant circumstances?

I think, we ought to... That will make us content... that will make us aware of and embrace the gifts God gave us.. that will end the desire in us to seek happiness in idle reveries that do not come true..

XXX