Good Life…?

11/30/2010 11:04

I chanced upon this video on Facebook this morning and this got me thinking about something I had not applied much thought to for a long time. I am embedding the video for those who read while warming their feet in similar shoes as mine.

I have all the assets that most of my friends from my school days would envy me for. The place I grew up has this cultural thing about judging a persons worth from the sum of book values (before depreciation!) of the assets they own. For the limited means and qualifications I come with, never being good at education, and worse off at examinations, I have made quite a few of them fairly envious. I have the two houses, a car, living in the west (that is considered an asset in itself), wide screen LCD TV and also the more recently acquired DSLR camera that captures photos at 18MP clarity. All in all, I have fairly acquired significant luxuries.

And here is what today looks like for me. My wife and I are in different countries with a 12 hour time difference. My parents and sister too are living away from me. I woke up this morning with heavy eyelids to attend an early morning conference call, went through my email and sent out a few responses to make sure everyone knows I am not on a vacation. Have been sitting through meetings and instant messenger sessions ever since wondering about the chocolate chip cookie I will have in the afternoon.

And I am sure that by evening I will have tried futilely to have read an incremental 5 pages of the latest Robin Cook novel, switch on the giant TV watching some meaningless crime drama, have a dinner that I will cook just for me and fall asleep on the sofa before waking and dragging myself to be.

Has it turned out great for me! This is the life that many dream of and this morning I am hoping this is a bad dream that will get over. I am not sure I can live in the village with no clean water and leafs for toilet tissues, but a bit more simplicity and company would be nice for a change…