Life in a Box

Have you ever known this fact about fishes? The growth of fishes in a tank is confined by the total volume of the tank. If the same fish were to be brought up in a big pond, it would have grown double or triple the size in the tank. The major reason for this is the stress the fish has to endure due to living in a confined environment. Added to this, living in the same water for longer periods of time accumulates growth inhibitors secreted by the fish which inturn results in restricted growth and shortened lifespan.

The reason why I mentioned this here is that I want all of us to think… What is common between a fish in a tank and almost all of us? In a way, most us live in motion restricted tanks too. We are restricted by out aims. Many of us have similar life patters of being born, getting preliminary education, going to college, gaining professional education and gaining a reputed job with a good enough salary package/or doing own business that pays us well. We migrate to large cities to accomplish this dream of ours/our parents/near and dear ones…. But we do not realize that more than gaining, we end up losing…

We too are restricted in our growth by the confined life of going to office, coming back exhausted, sitting idly in front of TV, sleeping, waking up in the morning, going to office… And during weekends, we have no time to enjoy either… We hardly exercise, go places, spend quality time with family… And what is the result? All sorts of illnesses, depressions, premature births of babies (which by the way is something very common in our generation). We enjoy sports and games, but only on television… How many of us do regularly find time and company to play one game which involves physical activity?

We are indeed fishes in a tank… with hardly any space to breathe and constantly competing among ourselves to survive… I recently read an article about the island of Ikaria, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. This is called the “island where people forget to die”. There is a considerable number in the population who are well above their 80’s and 90’s leading very healthy and active lives than many of us in the 20’s in cities. This is just an example of what we can do with our lives, when we are in close relationship with the Mother Nature.

Please do not misunderstand me when you read this. I do not want to tell you to leave all your work and other responsibilities and migrate to some village so that you could live in unison with the nature. All I want to tell you is that the more advanced we bring our lifestyle, the more complicated it becomes, and we eventually end up forgetting to live…