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Trilemma

I am standing now on crossroads, in a serious acute trilemma. I am seeing three clear paths to choose from for my future life and the irony is my heart is divided for all three. A long time back Ertyass asked me of why it is not possible to love 2 persons and the whole world at the same time, i was naive and emotional back then but while standing on this cross road right now, i am remembering her words. I want to live all these three lives that i define but my heart is equally divided. The tiny hearts within my heart city are lobbying based on their own vested agendas, and i am pretty much convinced on whichever road i take, one part of my heart will always be unhappy.

There is this first path which can very well be called a “Faustian Bargain(click to know more) where I pursue my corporate life, going for a business school, moving from country to country and up in the hierarchy in same or different organizations, exploiting corporate lifestyle of surfing the wave and ending up being a director or a CEO or just a back-office knowledge manager, who wants to do all the work without thinking. Just like a blind gardener , growing flowers with all the passion and care but without any reasons or motives other then just for the sake of it. An easy life, of not thinking too much about the bigger questions of life, keeping my self busy with petty targets ; this project roll-out, that sales wining, this country management issues, that region’s financial mess. An easy life compared to the other two with small goals and sense of virtual satisfaction. To trade my soul for all the worldly happiness that i can get.

Then there is this second road going towards my own dream of living a life of a farmer. To live like a king in my own created world and at the same time to denounce the world of technology and spend time in the comforts of my small farmhouse with alot of books and alot of time and papers to burn. To be less dependent on others specially money, to harvest what i can eat without letting money in between, to grow my own fruits and best of livestock. May be i am making it sounds too easy, off course every lifestyle bring its own challenges, but this sort of life may bring more tangible and real satisfaction then the ‘faustian bargain’. It may be a social suicide for me, but perhaps i may be a born loner and this sort of life far from the meddling crown may bring more happiness (atleast most part of my heart if not all) .

The third one, is the life of a wanderer which i often imagine and fantasize. A solo ride, of a lonely writer traveling in search of colors for his canvas of memories. I have done alot of travels in my life and still doing, but transiting countries for business or pleasure is one-thing, but living in the consistent feeling of traveling for months and months with no specific destination is totally another. There is a German word called ‘Erfahren’ which roughly translates to the wisdom that comes from first hand experience. A similar word ‘Erfaan’ in my may language also translates to something similar but more of a spiritual awareness. This life can be all about big questions, to make the whole world as a replica of my brain magnified, where every new land brings a multitude of raw thoughts, every journey a connection between one thought to another and every meeting with a new person sparking a thought of understanding this world of me in a better way. In experiencing the magnified view of my own mind i may be able to understand what the hell is this all about. The best thing about this life is well it may not lead to easy death but but fore sure it will make all my old-hood a good past time playing with all the memories i may be gathering in this life of wandering. Or may be not, i may be dying an early death in the laps of a motherly woman far in some unknown pacific island because of some godforsaken disease acquired during travels, but that risk is as attractive as climbing a wall of beloved’s home just to leave a rose on her feet, with all possibilities of getting caught by his father 🙂

All these are doable, there is no issues about money anymore, nor about time, nor about family or anything, but there is a fight going inside me, the heart is more on going the lonely way, the mind wants to be on top of the pyramid, and a part of me also wants to live an easy country life. And like allways i feel divided in satisfying all.

One Comment

  • Anonymous

    Dear Salman in Africa:
    I feel the same ,but one day,..

    I Travelled the Old Road
    I travelled the old road every day, I took my fruits to the market,
    my cattle to the meadows, I ferried my boat across the stream and
    all the ways were well known to me.
    One morning my basket was heavy with wares.
    Men were busy in the fields, the pastures crowded with cattle; the breast of earth
    heaved with the mirth of ripening rice.
    Suddenly there was a tremor in the air, and the sky seemed to
    kiss me on my forehead. My mind started up like the morning out of
    mist.
    I forgot to follow the track. I stepped a few paces from the
    path, and my familiar world appeared strange to me, like a flower
    I had only known in bud.
    My everyday wisdom was ashamed. I went astray in the fairyland
    of things. It was the best luck of my life that I lost my path that
    morning, and found my eternal childhood.
    Rabindranath Tagore.
    keep writing .,.

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