Summer! The one time of the year every kid dreams about.
That last day, that last bell, makes kids scream and cry like they have won
independence from a cruel king.
I remember my plans when I was in school. I
couldn’t even concentrate on studying for my exam because my brain was busily testing every artistic skill of mine to be sharpened during the upcoming
summer vacation. “ooooh! I have got to try baking! And painting! I am going to
learn some martial art. No, no, I am going to learn stitching. And I will
become an astronaut too!”, these were some of the ridiculous plans that I had made.
The first week would go with some success in those plans, but the next weeks
you could probably find me lying on the couch snacking on God knows what and my
eyes glued to the television.
What was on the TV? Well, there was this guy who was
fighting, fighting for love, to save a damsel in distress before the beast
could devour her. His love for her made him strong, strong enough to grow big,
big enough to stomp the life off those guardian reptiles. He broke boulders
with his head and leaped across valleys for her. His love, his passion, his
strength was all a girl could ask for. But his life was in my hands, I
shouldn’t blink, if anything happens to him I will not forgive myself. Oh
Romeo! No, wait. That is not his name. “Oh! Mario. I will do everything in my
will to get you to that princess. I swear!”
That is how most of my summers went. Play, eat and sleep.
The game used to be so annoying especially when you have to start all over
again. At times I would ask, “Why should I help you? What have you ever done
for me?” He never replies, his mustache never moves.
But anyways, the whole
concept of finding out what the mystery princess would look like, kept me
motivated. I never stopped to properly collect those coins, I just ran to
finish every level as quick as possible. My patience was tested every time on
those moving ladders and as a summer surprise I had to fall into a lava pit
more than once. Finally, I reached the base ball pitching machine and the fire
breathing, ridiculously fat and funny dragon. I guess he had too many mushrooms,
if you know what I mean.
The first time I finished the game, I was super
disappointed. Really, that is the princess I fought for so long? And I threw
the console down and went to eat whatever my stomach could digest. But after a week, due to boredom, I picked up
the grey brick of console and started playing once again. This time trying to
collect all the coins, using every bit of bonus, fire ball and magic stars. I
just wanted to barbecue every visible tortoise for absolutely no reason (may be
this is how serial killers are formed).
It was different, as I concentrated
more on secret dungeons, trying to sit on every pillar just to see if it would
lead somewhere. MOM! I have completed my squats for today!
Slowly I pulled my little brother into this world. He
had been a very good audience till then, so he deserved to play too. And
without any complaints, he took the role of Luigi because he was green and my brother was a firm believer of an idiotic theory that boys are always green or blue. By
this time, I was tired of the game already, but I had to play. My entire
dignity was on trial here, what if he wins with more coins? Couldn’t let that
happen. Besides, I had to show him the tricks so he could learn and play on his
own without bugging me. After all, there is no Luigi without Mario. And that
ungrateful little princess didn’t care who was saving her. Apparently, she was not
a marriage material.
The game was one of my strongest memories of my childhood.
After so many years, I still remember those levels and struggles I crossed to
finish it. I never thought that game would in any way help me out in future. I
was wrong…
Life is not a rat race. I absolutely hate rats, so I would
rather not compare myself to one. According to me, life is a Mario game. For
the ones who grew up playing this game would know how much we had to endeavor
to cross each level. What astonishes me even now is our perseverance to reach
our goals. Though we failed time and again to even reach a check point, we
took breaks and came back to play or at least to eat those mushrooms. (Well, as
long as they are legal).
Those stupid tortoises were supposed to be slow in
real life but unfortunately, not in Mario world. And yet, we tried again and
again, doing the same things, learning new strategies, patiently fighting the
same battle and all for a princess, whom we never met.
And now we are here, doing the same thing, striving and
fighting for a future we never know. We fall, we break our bones, we get up and
we walk just to fall again. We blindly believe that we will succeed sooner or
later till we reach our saturation point, then we give up. The problem is we forget
that we don’t have to fight for one single goal throughout our life.
Initially
we start running for us, then slowly the track changes and we are no more
running for us. We run for money, love, family, kids and for their future. And
if we come across a big wall, we stop, we give up and wishing we didn’t have to
run anymore, wishing we were dead. Well, if Mario comes to know about this, he
would probably sue us. Hasn’t he taught us enough through that mind numbing
game? We don’t have to always play for the princess, believe me, she is fine.
The dragon seems to be a vegetarian. Why can’t we keep running just to see
where each level takes? Why can’t we keep running to see how many dungeons we
can discover and how far we can jump? Why can’t we keep running for Luigi?
Sometimes, life takes a different course and we lose our
sense of direction. We lose the ones we love, we lose the things we love and we
even lose ourselves in our struggles. We may not feel the gravity which used to
pull us towards our destination, but that doesn’t mean we stop our journey. We
just have to adjust our sails and keep on moving. We can go back to our
checkpoints and try not to repeat the same mistakes. The trick is to keep
moving and someday, our life will turn around and when it does all our
struggles will be worth it.
It doesn’t matter for whom or for what we are running for.
As long as we are running, we will reach our destiny. So let us keep this in
mind, if we don’t want to run for the princess anymore then let’s run for
Luigi.
All comments are welcome.
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