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The search for the meaning of life
The feeling of being unseen in a crowd of seven billion people always haunts me. Yet, I search for meaning of lifeDrishan Dahal
Everytime the word ‘life’ comes up in my mind, a rush of weird yet fascinating feelings flow through my veins. My mind enters a maze of thoughts to find the meaning of life; to find the reason I am here on this planet as a human being. Time and again, when the thoughts of life bombard me, I imagine myself lying dead in my funeral. I come back to reality after surfing the imaginary world. Life and death are the starting and ending points of everything in this universe. And I imagine the end whenever I get the thoughts of the beginning of life.
An English dictionary describes the word ‘life’ as the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.
It describes life as a starting phase for a specific creature to undergo various changes, function in its own environment and surrounding, and eventually stop everything and end life with death. Being a human being we have duties and grow in our human society before we breathe our last breath.
Our life starts as an infinitesimal sperm cell which fuses with ova to give a fertilised embryo. After a successive differentiation and rapid growth of that single cell, we develop into a fetus in about nine months inside our mother’s womb. The cell which is not visible to the naked eye turns into a Homo sapien. After the birth of the fetus, the fetus undergoes drastic cognitive, biological, and physical development. A child learns to grow, to foster and to develop with time and recognises it’s close ones and language of surroundings and turns into a toddler in no time. The toddler learns ethical and moral values, and ways to withstand difficult social conditions. Around the age of four, the child goes to school, gains knowledge, and develops intellectual abilities. The process flows like a fast flowing river and in no time, a child develops into an adolescent. The dynamic hormonal changes inside the body trigger distinct changes during this phase. When he/she develops into a teen, he has many things in the back of his mind such as his dreams, goals or pursuits of life. Within some years he/she turns into a matured human, having adult duties and races to accomplish those duties. Finally, after several years of rigorous running the senescence gets on the way. He/she starts aging. And a sperm that might have died several years ago inside the mother’s uterus (failing to fertilise with ova) dies after many years outside the mother’s worm.
This is a synopsis of a normal life. Nonetheless I made life look much easier than what it might be or what it actually is. But I question: is life only a recipe of living, performing daily toils, earning some pennies, and ultimately fleeting the air as dusts of carbon after the burning of our dead bodies? Whenever I read and hear about great achievers and minds of all time, I try to realise the difference between their life and people curtained among the crowd. I come up with some resolutions to make life more interesting. But, that buoyancy remains just for some time and afterward cools like water in a freezer.
The feeling of being unseen in a crowd of seven billion people always haunts me and yet again I search for meaning of life. What is the meaning of life? Why am I in this planet? I am searching everywhere—inside books, Google, encyclopedias and eventually, inside my own heart.
Dahal is a recent +2 graduate from Trinity International College