What is Life? (Chapter 19)
Life is a new chase every day. Often for a new possession. We gather so many things that our abode begins to resemble a warehouse. What is that inner void that constantly demands to be filled?
In the past 18 chapters, the discussion centered on the elements of that void. If we look around, we have collected artifacts to fill every single void discussed in these pages. These chapters are about those voids, rather, about our reasons for inventing the void ourselves.
With all these possessions, we spend our days worrying about their maintenance. We despair when they inevitably break down, or when storage space runs out. For days now, my mind has been taking note of the useless inventory around me but it seems my mental stationery would run out before the list is complete.
But our warehouse is not merely physical.
We also maintain a warehouse of mental concepts. We collect goals, status, identities, and ideal definitions. We cram the mind with these self-made artifacts, and then we suffer when reality collides with them. We created the clutter; then we created the sorrow when it broke.
A Reel Life Example
The Hindi movie Main Actor Nahin Hoon explores this dynamic with great intelligence. Set as a series of video calls between Frankfurt and Mumbai, it unfolds entirely as conversation. The performances of Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Chitrangada Satarupa are brilliant, and the direction by Aditya Kripalani is sharp and courageous.
Yet the overall movement of the film remains circular. The characters pace endlessly around the periphery of life. They debate authenticity, art, and identity. One moment they play the actor, and the next they claim, "I am not an actor." They try desperately to pin down the elusive core of existence.
Everyone is busy acting out a self-defined role. One plays the corporate worker, another plays the struggling artist, and another plays the seeker.
Even declaring that one is not an actor becomes a new mask: it turns into just another performance. We get so absorbed in refining the script that we forget the stage we stand upon. Because the dialogue circles without landing, many viewers leave the film midway. The ending is left open-ended, and perhaps rightly so.
One hopes the director found his answer. Searching for a fixed definition of life always leaves the ending unresolved. There is a real life example but it is still being written about. Shall upload when that article is complete.
This brings us to the central question: how narrowly do we miss life?
How Narrowly We Miss Life
We miss life by a hairbreadth. Life is not hiding in a distant city, a cross-border call, or a complex philosophy. It is not buried inside a book or an intellectual definition.
The distance between existence and life is zero. The mind invents the millimeter of separation. We are so busy maintaining our room or cluttering our mind with artifacts, that we look right past what is before us. We are so absorbed in defining the core that we miss living entirely.
Drop the Clutter
To stop missing life, we do not need to acquire new artifacts. We do not need a better definition of the core.
We simply need to stop buying fragile concepts from the marketplace. Clear the room. Stop maintaining the clutter, step out of the circular debate, drop the script, and inhabit the immediate present.
As for me, it is dinner that worries me tonight, and there is almost nothing to cook. In all the haphazard rush for next week’s achievements, today's menu was missed. Let me attend to it.
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