We Are Enrolled In A School Called Life

Name of the school - LIFE.

Class of Standard - 40

Average age of students - 40

Class Strength - 62

Scene early in the morning

Teacher taking attendance calls out the names of students

01.	Affection - Absent sir	02.	Anger - Present sir
03.	Anxiety - Present sir	04.	Animosity - Present sir
05.	Arrogance - Present sir	06.	Aggression - Present sir
07.	Boredom - Present sir	08.	Callousness - Present sir
9. Complacency - Present sir		10.	Contentment - Absent sir
11.	Curiosity - Absent sir	12.	Deceit - Present sir
13.	Desires - Present sir	14.	Disappointments - Present sir
15.	Excitement - Present sir	16.	EMI - Present sir
17.	Falsehood - Present sir	18.	Frustration - Present sir
19.	Greed - Present sir	20.	Gratitude - Absent sir

21.  Happiness (No sound) -

Happiness (No sound again)

	Happiness - Absent sir	22.	Hi-handedness - Present sir
23.	Hot-headedness - Present Sir	24.	Insomnia - Present sir
25.	Intelligence - Present sir	26.	Inquisitiveness - Present sir
27.	Jealousy - Present sir	28.	Kindness - Absent sir
29.	Knowledge - Absent sir	30.	Keen-ness - Absent sir
31.	Laziness - Present sir	32.	Love - Absent sir
33.	Lust - Present sir	34.	Madness - Present sir
35.	Methodical - Absent sir	36.	Nuisance - Present sir
37.	Obedience - Absent sir	38.	Obesity - Present sir
39.	Orderliness - Absent sir	40.	Organization - Absent sir
41.	Pain - Present sir	42.	Peace of mind - Absent sir
43.	Pleasure - Present sir	44.	Pressure - Present sir
45.	Pride - Present sir	46.	Quirky - Present sir
47.	Relationship - Absent sir	48.	Respect - Absent sir
49.	Regards - Absent sir	50.	Sadness - Present sir
51.	Sickness - Present sir	52.	Stupidity - Present sir
53.	Tension - Present sir	54.	Uncertainties - Present sir
55.	Uneasiness - Present sir	56.	Usefulness - Absent sir
57.	Values - Absent sir	58.	Vulnerability - Present sir
59.	Weakness - Present sir	60.	Weekends - Absent sir
61.	Worries - Present sir	62. Zeal - Present sir

Class Teacher - "It's sad that simple people are absent today.

School LIFE IS SIMPLE, it has no syllabus, but just subjects to learn, and knowledge to gain. There are no exams, marks or grades, only experiences to gain. Let's begin today's class, MAKE LIFE SIMPLE."

Being “Me”

You hear this almost every second, “Times Are Changing.” And it is true, because everything is changing at a hectic pace all around us. It’s good to be trendy and fashionable, but it is also good to be comfortable with what we wear in line with our age. What matters most is we should look and feel comfortable with what we wear and not that we wear outfits according to set pattern or parameters set by others. This is also true of the “attitude” we choose to wear. Somewhere within us we need to hear this in us.

Competition has become the order of the day, and so it has become an integral part of today’s life, be it launching our career or changing it mid-way. In fact, competition sets into our lives much earlier than it ever was. Let’s not be surprised, there is a competition of the yet-to-be-born’s while in the womb itself, that’s the biological truth too, and every adult understands this thoroughly.

Get a job, be in it till retirement is like a story from the “epics.” Young people will not subscribe to this thought at all. They may not even believe it(remember reading Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Stories).

Changing jobs is the ‘thing,’ for growth by way of experience in different domains, along with hefty compensation packages and by status beyond ordinary. Perhaps it is the version of the generation which is mid-way now defining the new way of life. The generation following this thinks it’s got to be faster than it is now. Absolutely nothing wrong in this sort of thinking.

“Times Are Changing.” With more education and with more and more parents educated too, parents refuse to make high percentages the be-it-all-end-all if their children. There’s more time being spent by parent’s on the development of the child, now than even before. The types of talents we come across these days on TV reality shows testify this trend more than ever before.

The huge participation in the myriad of the TV reality shows be it music, dance, quiz or comedy etc’, is about celebrating talent in people like us. The feeling that we could have been there, by speaking within us in words that might sound like “had it been for…..,” “but for….,” is what keeps us in the

game and hooked to watching these shows. We believe in this, as we tell ourselves and the others “I can do that too.” The difference is between the thought and the reality.

Truly being ourselves and celebrating life for what it is, has got to be the “attitude.” For a long time now we’ve been used to letting others telling us

what’s good, what’s bad, as we have surrendered the powers within us and letting everyone else decide what’s good or bad for us.

Let’s make the whole of this year about regaining the inherent power within us to decide about our standard for life.

We are already sharing many things, like never before, with so many others, seen/unseen, known/unknown, thanks to, ‘the internet, the technology and the social media including a professional one like LinkedIn.’ We become not only informed, we do come across like minded people strung across the globe. We are certainly moving away from being ‘dominated,’ by a set of notions and thoughts, all the time, and once we unconsciously are respecting ourselves and our originality.

It’s about honouring and cherishing our life. It’s got to be, it’s of and

about “BEING ME.” Getting in touch with our emotions is a way of life that we will see more of “BEING ME,” which is also finding relationships that reflect our ‘values.”

It’s about recognizing that our life doesn’t happen to us, but we make it happen. In doing so we look at some of the things we have forgotten for a while now, for eg., the theatre, the music, the symphony, adventure, arts and crafts etc., just to see how we can bring back their magic into our life.

To do such a thing, we need to get into the driver’s seat. We need to decide what we need to do with our time and money, our emotions, our work-life balance, and live life the way we want to in spite of the frenzy pace be it in a metropolis of otherwise.

If we valued ourselves, we would be more at peace with ourselves. We would see more things clearly, as a result, take better decisions.

To do everything without a hurry or scurry.

‘The rushing around that takes us now where,’ which unfortunately has become the trademark of our lives, and in the process make space for more meaningful experiences in life.

We just need to remind ourselves that we need to value not only our life but those of everyone around us. Let us value others for who they are rather than not what we would like them to be.

I will close this to let you know that you all would say to yourselves, it’s all about “BEING ME.”