I recently saw a caterpillar in the garden and it got me thinking of its lifecycle. All it does since its birth is to eat. Eat as much as it can. And one fine day it just builds a cocoon for itself and undergoes a transformation. Out comes a butterfly. Does this caterpillar know about the existence of the butterfly?

Our life is not very different from that of the caterpillar. Here were are eating and preparing for the next. We don’t know when comes next. We just need to prepare for death. There are some hints from spiritual and religious traditions. But all we can do with that knowledge is reflect on it. Even thought it hardly makes sense to us. Just like the caterpillar.

As of this day, it has been almost six years since I left India to Sweden. A lot has happened in these years.

I accomplished what I came here for – obtained a Masters degree; started a Ph.D. in automation in which I have crossed the halfway mark and successfully defended my licentiate; started a relationship and upgraded it to a marriage – with a wonderful person and not my thesis!. More importantly, these years in Sweden have transformed me, at a very basic level, in more ways than I can imagine. I find it hard to locate one or more English words in my vocabulary to even express the extent to what has changed in me. If I am allowed to borrow a word from Urdu, I would say it is my ‘adaab’¹ that has changed or rather evolved.

Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass. 

For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas. 

And you make them long, and you make them tough. 

But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can’t get off. 

Oh, I know we’ve come a long way, 

We’re changing day to day, 

But tell me, where do the children play? /

Those were the lyrics of “where do the children play” by cat stevens. 

My last read was “The picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde.

The book takes you through the life of Dorian, a handsome youth who wishes never to grow old. This particular wish of his comes true, his soul resides in one of his portraits, So the portrait grows old while he remains young forever. A very interesting character in the book, is Lord Henry. A person with a completely different approach to life, and an out of the ordinary philosophy.(which can be debated,extensively) his influence on Dorian that makes Dorian live a narcissistic life filled with selfish deeds-without thinking defining them as good or bad ,keeping his youth as a shield for all his deeds.