The World We Are In

Years ago, there lived a girl. She stayed with her parents and her brother in a bustling city while her grandparents stayed in their ancestral home in town.

The girl, along with her family visited her grandparents every year and spend her summer at her home town. She and her brother used to meet with their old friends and play with them all day long.

Go with them to all the ponds and parks around the town and eat the local delicacies with the 5 rupees her father used to give her. She thought life could not get any better (little did she know that this would not last as long as she thought it would).

Few years down the lane, she got busy with her education. She used to talk to her grandparents over the phone daily. Gradually, her schedules got packed with her studies and extra curriculars. The time she spent at home became less as she progressed. The time of the year came when they travelled to the town, but this time the people travelling changed. She stayed with her mother while her father and brother travelled. Gradually, her daily call with her grandparents turned into monthly, then once in a blue moon.

This is when the change began. The change which took away the time she had for herself, for her family, for her grandparents, for her friends in her town.

The time had come where she entered the real world, "the world" which had changed so much that she couldn't recognize it.

"The world where the kids had streets as their home, where they used play for hours was gone.

The world where the bus rides to school was equivalent to a picnic was gone.

The world where there were daily breakfast rushes, lunch gossips and dinner conversations with family was gone.

The world where parents worried less, children stressed less and people were positive was gone."

The world she has entered is the world where people worry about why one celebrity unfollows another becomes the headlines.

The world where people posting their wishes on Instagram instead of wishing personally becomes a norm.

The world where conversation with parents is for 2 seconds but 2 hours with a stranger has become a culture. The world where you travel the entire world but not have time to go to town is normal.

Yes, she has entered "the world we are in". She is apprehensive, she is scared, she is doubtful, but she knows, this is the world she has to live in.

The world so different, she doesn't recognise it. The world so weird, she doesn't believe it. The world so confusing, she doesn't know what's wrong with it.

She prays to go back to her childhood, she prays to go back to her town, she prays to go back to her parents to spend some more time with them, she prays to back to her grandparents to hug them.

But she knows, this is the world she has to be in, this is the world she has to live in, the world we are in.

SHE IS YOU AND ME.