Oh! Colombo 

With the availability of numerous messaging applications on smartphones now, the circulation of messages, quotes etc., are frequent and many. Most of these are not read to the end, unless it is some salacious gossip or happening. 

This morning when I woke up and checked my phone, I found a message forwarded to me by a person who does not contact me regularly. It was quite a long verse, beautifully written, about how we live our lives these days. I read it to the end and it jolted me into reality about our pretentious life in this city. The verse ended by reminding all that the inevitable end is death and the only thing that it leaves behind is the good that was done during a lifetime. 

Watching what people do, including what I do myself, makes me wonder whether this pretentious life we lead at times is worth it. Socializing, bragging and attitudes have escalated to a new level; so has the greed of human beings. Accumulating wealth any which way they can without helping people in need seems to be the way to go now. 

One actually wonders, especially in the city, whether the modern parent really takes time to inculcate in their children right from wrong. The parents themselves stoop to such low levels to accumulate wealth that they cannot teach their offspring, by example, to respect the laws of the land and culture and behave in an ethical manner. Instead, they spoil them by providing them with loads of money and material stuff, which they, in turn, flash around and talk big of. Such bragging and heavy spending draws hangers on to them, like a moth to a flame, who generally end up taking advantage of them. In another time, the stigma of having made money illegally would result in being dropped like hot coals but it does not seem to be so now. 

Trixie brought up a very valid point the other day when she said that the majority of the guests at most social gatherings or cocktail affairs have some stink of villainy or thievery attached to them. What she found amazing was that it was de rigueur for the guests to show off their fancy watches, designer clothing, big expensive cars etc., and live the life of Riley.  Not a thought seems to be spared to the less fortunate. 

Such is the world now, where some find solace in a beautiful verse and forward it around in the hope that some would actually read it, get real, and change their ways.