The spark of life

The Spark of Life...
Back in 2009, three years into the corporate life, I seemed to have lost it- the inevitable SPARK in life, the one which keeps us going. Nothing excited me, everything seemed so ordinary. Incidentally, it was the time for my first onsite visit. My thought was, "Ok, I am going to Canada. The new place will automatically trigger my excitement".

I arrived in Canada. Nothing, not even my life's first snow, impressed me! I even went for ice skating. It was yet another day. Any new place was yet another place. "What's so great about it?" I told myself. So I started being at home, all the time. What's so exciting about going out, after all? It was office then home wherein cooking, eating and sleeping. These were what made my day. Well, cooking did excite me for a few days, but eventually transformed into a routine chore.

People talked about gadgets, movies, Xbox and Nintendo.
“Grow up guys”, I fussed.
"Do you like the latest ifone?"
"Sorry, that’s the least of my interest"
"Will you come for a movie?"
"Sorry, I don’t watch English movies"
"Which Xbox game does u like?"
"Please direct the question to someone else"

But I soon found myself losing out. I realized it wasn’t the coolest thing to say. The plain ignorance was making me a boring person. I recollected what my brother had challenged me years earlier, "What’s so interesting about you? Can you talk on any subject for two minutes?" Back then, the validity of his point had failed my brain. But now, it made more sense than ever. To get over this, I started showing interest, even a bit artificially to begin with. I forced myself to learn things. Very soon, I found myself being able to give so much information to people. Suddenly, I found myself useful, helpful and interesting!

Meanwhile, the monotony of the routine was bugging me- weekends passed off in laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping. Mondays were days of regret, leading to the urge to fast forward to the next weekend. In overcoming this, I started to realize that "Something is better than nothing”, “Let me go out somewhere. Eat out. Go to a movie. Go to a friend's house. Visit a spot. Enjoy the sheer thrill of not doing the regular stuff”.

Suddenly, I learnt a very simple, but important lesson. "Appreciate little things in life. If we take little things for granted, there is no fun in life. And the loser is none, but us". I made sure I spent at least one day of a week outside. At leisure time, I tried to do something that I had never done before- playing tennis, watching a science fiction movie, visiting friends. Surprisingly, life no longer seemed pointless in the remote land. I gained friends. I started living.

It’s amusing how easily we miss the basics of life sometimes. But my moment of truth had already come. Since that day, my years have been exciting, passionate and brimming with life!