One early December afternoon, Prof. Usharbudh and his wife Dr Suzy on holiday from US were going for a drive towards Grand-Bay. Hardly on the highway beyond Forbach roundabout, their son Govind sitting next to his father who was driving, surprisingly enough asked why there was clear water shining on the road in front in such dry weather. What was amazing was that the boy discovered the nearer they were getting to the water, the farther away it moved and this went on and on until they reached the end of the road. To satisfy the child’s curiosity, the professor then explained it was a mirage, something unreal we can see on a hot day but can never attain.

Certain thinkers have drawn an analogy between a mirage and life. They have compared the various stages of our life to a mirage that keeps shifting as we advance in years till our destined end. It is an inescapable fact of life.

A mentor even likens life to the state of a thirsty stag at the height of summer. It follows the mirage mistaking it for clear water flowing in a stream in front. The faster it runs longing for water, the further away it seems to be. But the stag continues pursuing the mirage, ‘unreal’ water - mere illusion till it pants for breath, collapses and dies. It can never manage to satisfy its thirst. In this observation is enclosed the whole philosophy of life - yearning .

In its eagerness to grow up fast and become big like its father and mother, the child often wears their clothes and looks at itself in the mirror no matter how funny it appears. All in the family laugh but the child is never disappointed: it goes on with its adventure aping others and doing things just to show that it is no longer a baby.

When the child attends school, the scene shifts. Unlike at home where it was free in many ways, here it learns what discipline is and the meaning of competition and doing well. It has friends as well as enemies. The desire to be as good as or better than or even the best of all gets hold of the child - something encouraged by parents and teachers.

After education, training or apprenticeship of the enthusiastic student comes youth. Here the yearning first turns to the search for a satisfying employment. It is shortly followed by the desire to get married to the person of one’s dreams and settle down; yet, the yearning does not end there. To have a family of their own, the couple is keen on having a few children. Already having some important deductions from their salaries for loans, they now meet the expenses of child rearing. Added to these are educational, household, medical, etc. costs. Their financial situation is such that their income barely covers their expenditure. Still, they also have to put aside a little money for emergencies.

The mirage continues to appear in the middle years. As good parents, they wish to look at their children doing well in life by encouraging them to concentrate on their careers. But they sometimes have to bear the pang of separation and seeing these children moving away and settling down elsewhere because of their jobs. Like stoics, parents accept all and pray they prosper wherever they are. After a life of hard work and sacrifices, they do with their present conditions. Looking back on the past, they often wishfully think of the things they have seen but “now can see no more”.

In their old age, the yearning is still there despite failing powers of mind or body among most people. They want to be surrounded by their children because they cannot manage their daily lives on their own. Although help is still forthcoming in many cases from children, other relatives or occasionally friends, the weakened sense of family solidarity is quite common in a complex industrialised society like ours. They long to tell the story of their lives and struggles but hardly anybody has time to listen to them. It’s a pity that time is running out for them. Unless they can write, their painful episodes are bound to remain without a voice.

And so, the mirage - that illusion-like yearning keeps on haunting us at any stage of life. It would be here most fitting to remember Shakespeare who writes:

“Life’s but a walking shadow;… … … … … … : it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury

Signifying nothing.”

It is then a crude reality that life is a mirage

<B>Kaviraj SOHUR</B>