Another year has passed reminding me that I am growing old. What an amazing year 2009 was for me. A year has passed and a lot of changes have taken place, both professionally and personally. The year was full of happiness, joy, sorrow, laughter, jealous, pain, madness, anger and finally a year of amazing new lessons. What a eventful year is leaving me tomorrow, leaving me with a departing message, to start a new journey. The past is going away leaving me to start a new journey urging me to move on in my life.

Tomorrow is my 23rd Birthday and I remember this poem which I read 7 years ago written by John Milton.

“On His Arrival at the Age of 23”

 

OW soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,

Stolen on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!

My hasting days fly on with full career,

But my late spring no bud or blossow shew’th.

Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth

That I to manhood am arrived so near;

And inward ripeness doth much less appear,

That some more timely-happy spirits endu’th.

Yet, be it less or more, or soon or slow,

It shall be still in strictest measure even

To that same lot, however mean or high,

Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven.

All is, if I have grace to use it so,

As ever in my great Task-Master’s eye.

 

 

A complete explanation of the poem can be found here: http://www.enotes.com/his-having/q-and-a/what-short-expanation-sonnet-john-milton-his-93179

About John Milton

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/milton/john/

I don’t know others but I feel like the poet, at the age of 23 and what is that I have done till date. What I want in life is the question which every one has asked at least once. Tomorrow I will be turning 23 and I haven’t done anything remarkable. 23yrs of my life feels wasted though it has left a lot of learning, friends, memories, knowledge, enemies etc. Is this my destiny? When I talk to myself of what I have done till date, I feel it is nothing.

People around me say Raghav/Satish you have done a lot for your age. They complement with words like ‘great’, ‘cool’, ‘amazing’, ‘interesting’. All these terms do not wake me up or my inner self. Some say I am mad, fast, confused and have no focus or goal. I never took these things seriously and I will never do so. I try to learn as much as I can from each person whom I meet, talk, interact online or offline.  Today I am lost in thoughts and dreams of some things what I want in my life. I realized my life, my thoughts, my own actions made me walk all the paths. So if I want to go somewhere, there is no one to stop me except myself.

Some ask me to grow up and tell me I am not a kid any more. Some say I don’t have enough maturity. When I ask myself if this is true, I realize they are expecting me to be like any other individual in the society. What is meant by mature way of thinking? Every one has their own way of expressing; talking, laughing, playing, writing etc can I judge someone by observing these things. I think that’s the biggest mistake I will ever do if  I judge anyone based on these things.

It’s true that I behave like a kid and that is my DNA. If I am not like a kid I will never move forward in life. If you observe kids they ask lot of questions, they do what ever they feel like, they laugh when people are with them, they cry when things turn against their will. Is not interesting, amazing, and awesome to be like a kid? There is a difference between me and a young kid, I call myself a “Grown up Kid”. I love to be kid forever as my learning will never stop. When I was a kid I learned many things which were tough too. This has helped me to learn some new things. In fact most of them learn very little. Am I not being truthful? Be frank put your thoughts in comments section.

Every sec, every minute, every hour, every day, every year and whole of our life we can learn but do we realize what are those learning. I dare to say none of us store what we learned on a hard or soft copy. I do it and I go through them when I feel de- motivated or to wake up my thought process. This has got amazing power and it took time for me to learn.

Today I see all these extra ordinary brains of nature making impossible things and making lot of difference to the world directly and indirectly, I ask myself what is that you have done Satish? The answer for that question is still pending, I may get the answer or may not get. World may consider that I have done or doing some thing, but spiritually, mentally and consciously your soul might want more and more. Even the kid loves to have more than what is with him. It may take another 23yrs of my life to do something remarkable, I don’t know where I will be, what I will be doing and if it comes to the extremes, I might not have done anything and living like any other social animal. It may be the other way around too. I may have done really something remarkable. If I am satisfied with it my life stops, my learning comes to an end, I can say like this I am equal to a person who has gone to sleep to never wake up.

Hellen Keller said she needed 3 days to see the world, nature, people etc or life, with her own eye’s and hear with her own ears. 3 days are enough to live a complete life if I close my eyes and put myself in her position. I might not even want to live for a minute. What was the driving factor for her? I have seen more world than Hellen Keller but what difference did I make, my inner soul asks. She might have undergone more problems than me and she fought against the world and life for her rights, so as to keep her spirits and confidence to make a difference to the world. She made it and it’s my time to make a difference if not to the world at least to a few people. Every one lives for themselves, but how many of us live for others. I wish to walk on the path which only few people have taken, even if it does take me to a different world all together. If the path is endless and it might take me to a wrong place, it will not bother me as the decision is taken by me and I am the victim of it. I will be happy either way.

Today I want to say to the world, if only we can ask what is the value that we are adding to life and world; we are really grown up in a term which is unexplainable.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAGHAVENDRA SATISH PERI