November 2010 Diwali Issue - The Last Day of the World

Let me take you to my secret place
High above the earth into outer space
Only God knows where, only God knows how
I will take you there somehow

If this was the last day of your life
What would you do to make things right?
If this is the last day of your life
Who you gonna call to make things right?

- Last day of your life: By Glass Pear

Yes, this may just be a song which holds an apt place right now as we all elaborate on how we plan to spend the last day of our lives! When we decided on this as our topic this Diwali Special Issue, we got different points of view from many of our friends. Some said it is a sad topic to write on such a festive occasion. Some said, it’s too early for me to think about my last day I am still very young! But surely there were many, who understood the depth of the thought and gave us very interesting articles. Some may have used humour to make the topic lighter, whereas some have given the true picture of how they would like their last day to be. Some have in fact left some philosophical thoughts for us to ponder on!

My luck that I got to see the movie 2012 featuring on HBO over the weekend. In which, the protagonist and his family do not lose hope of being able to survive the natural catastrophe which had hit the world where, the world was coming to an end that day! The movie ended with the world completely destroyed but there sure were some survivors who then started a new year 01 – 01 – 0001. So the question that comes to my mind is will I be one of the survivors? Or will this day surely be the last day of my life? Well before I saw the film, my intentions were to simply imagine the end of my life and then write this article, but now, I want to give myself the hope of my family being some of the survivors! This means, my last day will surely be a havoc trying to run away from every catastrophe and reaching the safest zone as quickly as possible with my family like in the case of John Cusack in the movie 2012. I will surely not sit down either sulking on the fact that I may die soon, or also not sit waiting happily in the cuddly arms of my family waiting for the end to arrive, or accepting that the end is near. I will ensure that my family is all pepped up to fight the natural disaster till our last breathe! Of course it takes a few minutes of destruction to ruin the whole world, but ultimately those few minutes have to fade off, and if my family and I are able to survive those few minutes then there is a whole new world at the end of this one! Sounds like a grueling LAST DAY but will surely be worth it, if I along with my family can actually see the dawn of 01-01-0001!!

Getting as imaginative as possible, I’m sure media will play a vital role in exaggerating the end of the world, almost months before the actual last day arrives! What better proof can there be than the sheer existence of this movie 2012 itself, which is based upon the realistic assumption that the world is indeed coming to an end on 2012! So if media does play an important role, then I’m sure I will have a list of some of the Dos and Donts already with me! Some of the places which may seem to be the safer options will be worth a try for us to reach as we near the final day! Certain things which may find a place in my TO DO list could be:
- Encashing all the money I have in my bank account? May be exchanging all of it into US Dollars? May be not? What if Rupee gets stronger in the next world? What if none of these currencies exist? What if the age old barter system begins as it was at the beginning of civilization? Then may be converting all of it into gold makes sense? Hahaha well again, maybe not as you never know, gold mines could surface at the ground level and gold will lose its value!! Maybe then it makes sense to simply exchange all the money I have for food and other necessities and leave it with me to distribute to my people on the final day. Wonder how much of it I can really sustain with me in the bid to save my life!
- Meeting all my friends and distant family relations. Well it goes without saying that my immediate family and I will see the end together or rather fight the end together as long as we can, but I would like to meet the others who have ever touched my life, my friends with whom I have shared life’s most memorable moments. Thank them, seek forgiveness, may be seek explanation for any wrong they have done, reveal hidden secrets if any! Etc. etc. My extended family, who we call relatives! May be bid them a final good bye with a hope of meeting them again in the new world.
- Wonder how much it would help to carry my personal official documents like a PAN Card or a passport. Well in the movie, 2012, a green card did help a Russian get on board the submarine which was moving to a safer belt. May be in that case it is better to be safe than sorry, so I would rather gather these documents and keep them handy.
- Make a list of my favorite restaurants, holiday destinations, and spas and visit each one after the other. Enjoy some mouthwatering roadside chats and other junk food.
- Equip my family and myself with basic warm clothes and monsoon wear. You never know which weather the new world will greet us with!
- One more item which will become a collectors’ piece will be the World Map and the Atlas! I think I will have to grab one and keep it as safe as I can. You never know mountains could turn into valleys and some new islands will emerge and the old ones will submerge. This will help me in my own navigation also; I could auction it in the new world and make a fortune for my family with it!!!
- Last but not the least, I will teach as many life’s basics as I can to my son, to prepare him to face this world without me, in case he survives and I don’t. This will only be then my wishful thinking that he has indeed learnt his life’s lessons in the shortest time and will fight his own battle as long as he can.

Hey all this sounds like preparing me for a long holiday or an adventure trip! Well, if that’s the outlook, then it may get easier to handle the truth that life will never be the same here on. If life really ends then the story is over there. The end will rather be a tough one, since I will die fighting every breath to live more, in worry of my son’s wellbeing, my family’s whereabouts and so on. But if the new world begins with the old living creatures still alive and then if I have to be one of them, then life will never ever be the same, for as long as I live my balance life! What a weird thought! Today, a person’s status or ability to enjoy life’s luxuries depends on the disposable income he has but only as long as he lives, when he dies he leaves everything behind. His existence is a combination of the friends he makes, the enemies he defeats, his learning in his failures, and his experiences in his success! With the ending of the world, the amount of destruction will be so enormous that we will lose count of our friends or enemies alive. Money which ultimately is sheer paper will either burn or get destroyed in massive flood waves. With money goes the power, and that brings all of us on the same platform. We will then have to create a new life in the new world, with new people irrespective of their caste, creed, or nationality! Which means it will almost be a re-birth with the same face and soul!

Well, my imagination took me on a long adventure ride with a one way ticket out of this world! Either into the new one, or then into a new life! But the journey only allowed me to introspect further on things that I have always wanted to do but could not! I may have not mentioned them in this article as I never lost hope of surviving the end of this world. But my mind did touch upon those areas and opened up various clogs which will now allow me to venture into lesser known zones, take risks and live life to the fullest. It has made me realize how criminal procrastination can be to my own well being which I always knew but didn’t follow. I have always known, but not always done the urgent and important things in life thinking that I can do those tomorrow, but what if this tomorrow never comes? This journey allowed me to refresh the love and respect I have for my family and close friends, and how much they mean to me. I could actually in my mind form a sort of a ‘Circle of Concern’ that comprises of my own people and how do I currently rank them in my life. I suddenly could remember some of my old school friends whom I have not spoken to for ages while I travelled on my imaginative journey. I could remember some old friends who tried really hard to keep in touch with me, but due to my ignorance I lost contact with them. To sum it up, this journey helped me look at my own life through a third party perspective. It has broadly given me a new set of a ‘Circle of Concern’ and has helped me revamp or re-align some of my short term plans. It has re-instilled some of life’s basic teachings back in the forefront.

My message to all those who thought that this was a sad topic to write on, is that, unless you explore an avenue you can never conclude or judge the outcome of the same. The depth in this article lies in its strength to shake the person inside YOU, to refresh all that you already know, in a way which brings a new perspective of your life at the forefront. It might not teach you something totally new, but it will surely help you realize and feel what you already know. Often, only when you are at the verge of losing someone or something is when you realize the importance of the same thing it holds in your life. This is precisely the crux of this exercise of imagining your life coming to an end. It will quickly like a computerized brain put all your priorities in the order that they should be in and suddenly you feel if you have a little more time, you can sort your life for good! Hope this Diwali and the New Year bring a fresh dimension to our lives and make it a more meaningful life for us and our families. What can be a better occasion than Diwali to start this new journey in our lives!!! Wishing you all a very happy diwali and an even prosperous new year!