Life is unfair

This is my new mantra in life. Life is unfair. It was always like this and it is going to be like this.

Why do we remember Eklavya so much? We can all agree that his role in Mahabharat was negligible, yet we all remember him and his sacrifice. Was it his sacrifice or the injustice meted out is the reason we remember him?

Similarly, in the life of Krishna or Rama, all faced injustices. Would Rama have been hailed as the great king, had he refused to go into exile? Maybe not. When the war was fought in Mahabharat, Bheema killed all the Kauravas, yet, Krishna was the one who received the curse from Gandhari. It feels so unreasonable. (I would definitely have held a dharna against this.) These are examples of a whole different time period sooo, let’s talk about people of this Yuga.

Everyone has their own hardships. From the Ambanis, Bezos, to the roadside beggars, all have their share of problems.

Let's talk about it more.

Have you heard of Phil Knight, Bill Gates, and Byju Raveendran?

(You right now-Ye bhi koi puchne ki baat he! (facepalming))

Now, do the names- Bill Bowerman, Paul Allen, and Divya Gokulnath ring any bells? For all the quiz wizards, 30 points to you for guessing it right, but for the benefit of the majority, these are the co-founders of the same organizations respectively. Why is it that we don’t know much about them; unfair, isn’t it?

Let’s establish the baseline that almost everyone listens to music. For all the music buffs, we all remember the singer. Do we know the instrumentalists? You will not because the music labels don’t even mention their names. The only people in conversation would be the singer, music director, and lyricist. Feels unfair?

We were still talking about others, let's boil it down to our lives.

It is invariably true that a certain classmate/ colleague/friend is so lucky. He/ She scores more marks, even when we have worked more, they get the best opportunities, they get away from tight situations easily blah blah blah. One is always left wondering what is so special about them and the bigger question -WHY AND HOW ARE THEY SO LUCKY.

Some want to lose weight while some want to gain. For the ones trying to lose, eating a grain of rice is enough to gain a kilo and for the ones trying to gain weight, even after eating like a starved beast, you can’t seem to add an ounce of weight. Utterly unfair.

A piece of bad news or a rumour spreads like a wildfire and hits the headlines of newspapers. The truth also gets printed later but in a corner of the newspaper. (Mantra repeats- Life is…)

There are so many of us who have or had a romantic interest which hasn’t fructified, and as Akshay Kumar said in a movie- “humey jo chahiye, usse hum nahi chahiye, jisse hum chahiye wo kisse chahiye…”. It is unfortunately true and feels like a slap on the face. All we can do is accept this unfairness.

Why is it the way it is, I don’t have an answer to that. The only fair thing in all of this is that it is equally unfair to everyone; no one’s life is rosy. What do we do? I keep getting back to economics. My teacher asked us what is the objective of economics? We were giving all sorts of answers but none satisfied him. Finally, he told- the objective is to achieve equilibrium. And probably, the objective of our lives too. All of us have our ups and downs. To lose our mind on it creates misery. If we see all the evolved souls, they all had equilibrium. When I mentioned about Rama and Krishna, they remained at peace irrespective of circumstances. When Rama was offered to be crowned as the king, he was unbothered as much as the moment he was sent to exile. He wasn't aloof. Just indifferent. They didn’t give the power to the circumstances to determine their happiness.

I get it, it is extremely difficult to be like that and that’s why it is our ultimate objective. If everything was easy, it would be no fun. Isn't it? Even though we crib about things being difficult, we all secretly love challenges. Challenges will always be there, it's all about what you make of them.

As humans, we are the weakest in all creation. We don’t have strong claws like bears or tigers, neither are we the fastest like cheetahs, and nor are we the fastest swimmers. The list goes on. Despite having nothing, we are everything. We can run, swim, climb and what not. If we were to sit down and complain to God about this injustice, then the whole of mankind would have had been eaten up by tigers and bears and I wouldn’t be here sharing my thoughts and you reading mine.

Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers to have ever lived, more so for his contributions outside the ring. He was denied service at a restaurant for his colour even after being an Olympic champion. He threw his Olympic medal into the Ohio river because of the inferiority with which he was treated. He understood the pain of his people and made it his mission to end this injustice. He received a lot of criticism when he refused to join the army to fight Vietnam. He was forced to surrender his titles, received a 3-year ban from boxing and had to go jail too. He too accepted the unfairness and chose to fight it. Given his fame and reputation, he very well knew the flak he would have to take for refusing to join the army but still chose to fight it because he "refused" to be treated unfairly.

You get the point, in spite of the numerous injustices we face every day, there is an opportunity. It is once again a perspective one looks through. Some see it as an opportunity to be a better human, a stronger person, some to fight it and some, an opportunity to crib. What do you want to be, is in your hands.