“LIFE”
My Mamma always said, “Life is like a box of Chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
-Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks)
(From the movie “Forrest Gump”)
"My Tribute to Forrest Gump"
I didn’t seem to understand this when I first heard this words in my favorite movie “Forrest Gump”. But if you care to think about it, he was so right! (Warning: - I know this might sound absurd to many but logically and mathematically life can be proved by this concept also, so here I need a thinker not simply a reader!)
Our life, like a box of chocolates is full of choices (this includes both good and bad choices, like good and bad chocolates…). Whenever we see a box of chocolates, we react according to our own nature. Our nature in this way does get revealed when we are faced with a box of chocolates.
Some take the best piece from the box (In life, these are the people who makes it right at their first attempt itself!);
Some take the best piece for his/her dear ones and keep the inferior one for him (these people are notable for their love towards other people, they will do the same thing in their real life).
Some take more than 1 piece (In Life, these are known as greedy people).
Some take a lot of time to select a piece of chocolate because they are confused by so many choices (In life, these people will never reach to a correct decision), and some select it instantly without a second thought (In Life, these people just take the opportunity, whether it is good or bad only time can tell, these are the people with a “just do it!” mentality…)
Some people change their minds at the last moment (they liked a certain chocolate but they chose another chocolate for reasons only known to them), and some people never select any chocolates because chocolates are not good for their health (these people in real life are known as cowards they run away from world’s complexity in life they are also known as incapable people) or they don’t like chocolates (In real life, these are the people who don’t like their life) or they have enough chocolates in their hand or in their stomach.(In Life, these people are known as satisfied people, who don’t want anything from their life, they can be old people or saints, anyway a satisfied soul never progresses in life) , or somebody took away that piece of chocolate which he wanted (this in real life is similar to a rejected lover, who is not willing to consider somebody else in lieu of his previous love!). But we shall consider here those normal people who like chocolates and like to eat chocolates.
We can know the person’s decision power and his quick thinking ability by the way he chooses his chocolates from a box.
Life is like a box of chocolates, full of choices and we are the persons who have to select a chocolate from that box. The choice of the chocolate is actually determined by the person himself and not by anybody else.
In life the order of importance by which decisions must be taken are Love, Morals, People, Knowledge, Money & things but our world has completely the order reversed!
Sometimes it may happen that you find a chocolate just by accident (this in life is known as an opportunity). Now, whether you take this opportunity or ignore it, it depends upon how brave and clever a person you really are. Opportunity also brings with itself a risk. The chocolate is good or bad depends upon your luck (and also your bad luck, if that chocolate is actually a poison for you).
It also may happen that you loose your chocolate before even putting it in your mouth due to some reasons. This in life is known as an accident. Accidents are unfortunate events that do happen in life. It also may happen that there is only 1 chocolate in the box and you really are in need of a chocolate and so you select it without any of your personal considerations and without your wishes, in life this is known as compromise. We do have to compromise in our life on every step.
Luck, accidents and compromises are part of our lives.
So, Life is like a box of chocolates where everyone has to select his own piece of chocolate. The selection of the chocolate also depends upon many other things as well. You may select a chocolate just because you should select 1 chocolate from that box, or you are too shy to take the bigger piece (even though you wanted it) and you take the smaller piece just to get away with it and then you feel jealous when a smart guy (not shy) sitting besides you takes that bigger piece and relish it with pleasure. When somebody takes our chocolate, the way we react to this also reflects our nature, some people will shout and claim their own chocolate, some will just select another one (if its available), some will fight for their chocolate, some will sulk & cry in the corner, some will not show their emotions but will take a revenge some day, some are pleased to let go off their favorite chocolate (in real life these are the people who turn out to be the one who just love to sacrifice without the need to do so!).
After we have got the chocolate, the way we react also depends upon our nature. Reflexes depends upon 2 conditions, if we got the chocolate we wanted and if we got the chocolate we didn’t wanted. Every human have different reflexes to this situation.
The problem with life is that everybody wants that bigger piece or the best-flavored piece. If you feel yourself like a piece of chocolate then you have to decide for you, which piece you really are or want to become. Nobody really cares for those pieces that are considered the lesser ones, but there are different persons who have different views about different chocolates. The piece of chocolate that is considered by many to be the best may not be the best in the eyes of a few people. They may like some other flavor of chocolate. As I told that every kid chooses his/her own chocolate. The kid actually does make a choice of only that chocolate which suits him/her. To him, what really matters is not the look and wrapping of the chocolate, but how tasty the chocolate is for him (and how bigger his purse is when he is buying the chocolate)
Like the bad chocolate (inferior) even the good chocolate has it’s own set of problems. The good chocolate thinks that everybody is after it to eat it. Like the bad chocolate that suffers from inferiority complex, the good chocolate suffers from a superiority complex (it can be easily said from this that too much of something is actually equivalent to nothing). That superiority complex of the good chocolate breaks, when it meets that rare person who doesn’t like its taste. It is an old saying that from a box of chocolates every chocolate chooses his own kid and every kid chooses his own chocolate, but it is clearly apparent that every chocolate suffers some kind of a complex and every chocolate has its own set of problems. We are just chocolates from that box of life.
If you are lucky enough to get a 2nd piece of chocolate from that same box, then you don’t know what piece you are going to get the 2nd time, when you are picking the 1st piece from that box of chocolates. Life is unpredictable and you need to take the right decision on your 1st time. Nothing in life beats the thrill of 1st time, whether it be 1st Chocolate, 1st Cry of a child, 1st Walk of a child, 1st School, 1st Love (and also 1st Eye to Eye contact with her), 1st Friend, 1st Job, 1st Business, 1st Transaction, 1st Salary, 1st Bank Account, 1st Marriage, 1st Trip to some unknown place, 1st Experience of doing some unknown work. 1st Meeting with some unknown person, 1st Taste of some unknown food, 1st view of something yet unknown, nothing is better than doing it right the 1st time.
There may or may not be a 2nd time for you and there is not even any “take back” button in life so you need to make the right decision at the 1st time, as it is there in your Computer Game. So, many things can be learnt from just that box of chocolates.
We have compared ourselves to be a chocolate eater and also compared ourselves to be a piece of chocolate, because in life we do both of these roles quite nicely. A chocolate eater is faced by the problem of choice, whereas a chocolate is the one who have to believe in destiny. Sometimes we do make judgment based on our own perceptions and sometimes we cannot do anything regarding a particular situation. So, a chocolate eater and a chocolate reflect two states of a person’s mind.
The 1st state of a chocolate eater is the state when we are capable to solve a problem and we have to make a choice i.e. things are under our own control.
The 2nd state of a chocolate comes when we cannot do anything for a particular situation and just hope for the best.
It looks like, we need to become good chocolate eaters first rather than good chocolates. A good chocolate eater is a good decision maker, as he selects the best alternative out of the possible choices.
But in life, situations do come up when you think yourself like a chocolate rather than a chocolate eater. In this situation, we must hope that we get a good chocolate eater. This kind of a situation was very common in our school days, when we use to pray that teacher was in a good mood (if on that day his wife hadn’t beaten him) to check our exam papers and give us good marks. At that time we use to write our papers very carefully and waited for our results. In that situation, we had to become an as much good chocolate as possible.
The same strategy of chocolate and chocolate eater is implemented in every day life also.
Take for e.g. in Chess, the attacking side (or the superior) is the chocolate eater and the defending side feels like a chocolate and just hopes to do well.
In Business also, the boss is generally the chocolate eater and the employee is a chocolate for him and he has to select whom to promote. The employees do their best to please their boss, as they are the chocolates.
But in Love, things don’t happen that way. In love, we are the chocolate eaters and the chocolates at the same time. So, love is and always will be an exception to every rule in our lives. In love, apart from the choice of the chocolate eater, the chocolate eater also worries that would the chocolate like me? What if he/she misunderstood me? Actually, the only difference between world and love is, world always wants back something in return and love never wants anything in return. Love can be a nice fairy tale and can also turn out to be a war between two souls, i.e. if the two souls can love each other so much then they also have the capacity to hate each other that much, but whatever the form, it is still only love. I have never fallen in love, but anyway, just consider these nice ideas for now…
1) William Shakespeare once wrote that “If you fall in love with someone and you have a reason for doing so, then it’s not love!” And
2) The Heart has its own reasons, which the reason knows not of! ... -Pascal
3) You don’t live your life unless you find someone to die for… - Anonymous
4) You have to decide for yourself whether you love your own love more or you love that person whom you love because there is a fine line between these 2 loves (In the 1st One you keep your love with yourself for your entire life, in the 2nd You don’t keep any love with yourself, you just give it when it comes to you). To correct this, you need to control your own imaginations about her, because these imaginations or dreams when uncontrolled will be a hindrance to your love in the real world! Never imagine anything, just stick to the real world. Attraction begins from the eyes and ends (or may not end) at your heart, but love begins from the heart and lastly ends (or may not end) at your eyes.
5) In one case, Man Proposes and God disposes and in another case, God Proposes and Man disposes, both these cases yield the same outcome, “nothing”.
6) It can also be said that In Love and in Dreams, butchers and poets are on equal grounds!
7) Love and God are many ways similar to each other, if you believe in it then its Love (God) otherwise its just Attraction (superstition).
8) The only reason a lover leaves his love intentionally is for her happiness. To be loved is to be fortunate, but to be hated in this way by your own love is like to achieve a distinction.
9) Love likes to break laws. Love challenges every limit that you have as a person. Love destroys prides & egos (Beauties and prides goes to the graveyard!). Love heals everything because Love brings Hope in Life. Love brings you near to God. True Love cannot be hidden, no matter how hard you try it, it's always seen in your eyes. You don't dive in love, you just fall in it. Love unites persons of two different worlds. You can fall in Love with anyone. Believe it or not Love is the hidden force behind everything and every work of mankind. "When you are in Love, you bet everything upon it, including yourself". Love isn't sex; it's far greater than that even greater than God himself and God know this... Love is not based upon Memories, Time, Words, Relationships, Beauty, Luck, Intellect, Knowledge, Sex, Wishes, Thoughts, Understanding, hopes & Valiant sacrifices but it is based on your soul. Well, for our real world, love is based upon Money, Status, Religion, Beauty, Age, Education, Personality, Fashion, Sex Appeal, etc, etc.
10) You don't loose by your love, you loose by holding back... –Anonymous
11) Lastly, It’s not a big question whom do you love? (You already know that…) An even bigger question in this world is who loves you? Do you have this answer with you?
I know this is a very simplistic definition of love (to begin with), but I am trying to explain in a way that chocolate lovers are comfortable with. Anyway, the language of true love is always based upon meanings rather than words (Love, God, Music, Chess, Computers, Mathematics all have their own languages!). So, any numbers of words are meaningless to describe one true love.
But actually, life is not constrained by any box of chocolates theory (Sorry, Forrest!). Life is much more larger than that. Life is not black and white (like Chess) but has many different colors. Your Life actually depends upon your soul. A painter would find his life in the paintings he makes, a mathematician finds himself with life when he is calculating his equations, and a chess player finds life when he is playing chess, a computer programmer finds his life in a computer, a musician finds his life when he is playing his notes, and a lover finds his life when he is with the one whom he/she loves, a teacher finds his life when teaching things to his pupil, in life we do like to do, what we like to do. Each person has his own definition of life to tell, because it depends upon how he sees his own life.
Now, What can we tell about God, is he a chocolate eater or a chocolate?
Actually God is a chocolate chooser for us. Although we many times believe that he is just a chocolate and he is helpless. That is the design of the God; he does his work quietly, without making any noise. He does not want anything in return. He makes all the hard choices easier for us.
God is actually not even a person. It is energy. He can be anywhere even sitting besides you. He can take any form. He can even be you.
Have you seen a man helping a person, the helper takes the form of God. Actually, that same person is a regular guy and not any mahatma, but god puts in his heart the feeling to help that person and that same feeling is implemented in the real world. In this way god helps the inferior chocolate to be a better chocolate.
Actually, there are many people willing to help the Inferior chocolate to become a better chocolate. They are known as Teachers. Teachers are living Gods on this earth. There are teachers of many kinds having different styles. A teacher teaches his pupil many things, he teaches him those things, which his parents are not able to teach him. A teacher also shows us dreams and how to fulfill them. The teacher has a responsibility for the pupil to teach not only the books but also what is real life. In this way even if the teacher does not have any blood relation but he does have emotional relations with his pupil. So, teachers are regarded greater than parents.
A teacher is not only human, but can be anything like books, the environment, a circumstance, a failure, a success, our own thoughts, animals, plants, etc. You can learn about life from almost anything.
Failure is said to be a very harsh but still the best teacher. Failure strikes at the inner conscience of the person and teaches him many things that he hadn’t learned so far. Failure can be the first step towards success (at least now you know that which way won’t work!)
In our world, the inferior chocolate always dreams to become a better chocolate. In life we have dreams. Dreams are the hidden power and the path towards success .It is due to these dreams only that hope is generated, by hope we get belief, by belief we get confidence, by confidence we get courage, and only courage is the most important element to become a superior chocolate not intelligence, beauty, strength, or money. We have only a brave heart to complete any task in this world, no matter what so ever!
Now, is god needed in our world? God is actually needed in our world. When a kid is not capable enough to choose his/her own chocolate because he is too small, the mother selects the chocolate for him/her. God does the same task everyday for us. So, god is the best chocolate chooser for us because it is only he who knows which chocolate we will like the most and if by mistake we choose a chocolate which is not good for us then god will come and replace it with a good chocolate saying “No my Child! Don’t take this chocolate; it’s not good for you, ah! Here take this one instead, believe me you will like this!”
Is religion needed in our world? Of course not! A man is in need of a religion just like a fish needs a bicycle! You may love God, but it’s not necessary to love religion, because the concept of religion is based upon groupism and the concepts of Love and God are based upon togetherness…
Life here differs from the box of chocolates theory; in life an inferior chocolate can become the better chocolate.
I don’t say that it will become the best chocolate because the best chocolate is an elusive thing of beauty. Sometimes, the better will be better than the best because the best doesn’t feel the need to move forward than where he is presently but better always likes to move forward. When people tell you that you are the best, it also does mean that you don’t need to move forward and you don’t feel the need to improve but when they say that you are better or you can do better than they do mean that you need to do better, in this way you improve. So our motto in life should be to be better and not best, because best brings us into a rest position. Even if you are best, you must still try to be better. The word best is elusive and better is a realistic word.
We have ignored (or forgotten) 1 thing of specific importance, i.e. the chocolate giver (one who has the box of chocolates in his/her hands & in life it is known as the world) this chocolate giver gives us a box of chocolates (opportunities or choices) to choose the chocolates. The emotion of chocolate giver also affects the choice of chocolate that we make from the box of chocolates. In order to be a good chocolate chooser, we should not care for the chocolate giver (the world) to select the chocolate we like most. In life we would be face with choices from all sides and we must make the choice that is suitable for us and not for the world.
Another thing of importance is the amount of time the chocolate giver will stand in front of you to give you the chocolate, if you don’t respond within that time, the chocolate giver (the world) will move away. In life also, the world gives us many opportunities, if we don’t respond to this opportunity we will never be able to make a choice. So, the choice depends upon the time, when the time is elapsed the chocolate giver moves away to another chocolate eater.
Like the box of chocolates, many things can be learned from the Game of Chess also. Chess players are equals with musicians and mathematicians when it comes to intensity & vanity. Chess is a game of struggle between the superior chocolate (white) & the inferior chocolate (black), which has been going on for ages. They both are playing for their prides & want to win over each other. The inferior chocolate’s task is much more challenging as he is 1 move behind the superior chocolate but still has hopes of winning because he does not like to loose and he is brave in spite of his inferiority. Actually, he fights like a Lion.
At first, on the starting of the game, the inferior chocolate has a responsive attitude rather than the initiator attitude, but when the game progress, the inferior chocolate gains his/her ground in the battlefield of life. In this fight, this inferior chocolate has nothing to loose. He goes on fighting. It is like what Shakespeare told once, “The show must go on…” because when Science (thinking) stops, Arts (imaginations) begin and arts have no limits, science does have.
In life, sometimes it also does happen that the superior chocolate begins to feel inferior to the inferior chocolate because like Chess, in life the superior and inferior depends not upon the material benefits but on the circumstances and quality of your game. Circumstances can be compromising but not the quality of your game. It’s not important whether you win or loose, but it’s important how you play the game as there are no peace treaties between lions and lambs.
Your Life can be similar to anything for e.g. “life can be like a mountain (if you have big goals in your life and you are achieving it step by step these are the people full of resolute and their determination is itself like a mountain), life can be like a castle of cards (if your whole life depends on one single thing, if one card is moved away or if this thing goes away from your life, so does your life go away from you), life can be like a game of chess, life can be like a beautiful painting (if you think everything in your life has to be done beautifully or creatively), life can be a book (if you think your life is based upon rules or forgotten past, these people are mostly honest people because they note down everything so they want to have a good image of themselves in this book), life can be like a computer program (if you think that everything in your life is based upon pure logic and nothing else), life can be like a battle or a war (if you think that you have to struggle for gaining almost every thing), life can be a trap (if your life is confined to one place from which you cannot get out even if you wish to, in our life everything we do is bounded by reasons so in life we are all prisoners of the trap named reasons), life can be an illusion (In life it sometimes happen that you strongly believe in your thoughts that something is true but it turns out that in real life it is entirely false and illogical at that time you realize that your life was just an illusion and nothing else…), life can be an innocence (if you think your life or your surrounding is very innocent like the life of a kindergarten teacher), life can be a misery (for whom everything in his life is a misery, these are generally sad people who in spite of having everything, live their life miserly), life can be an imagination (these are generally creative people who imagine things and have the courage to follow their imagination), life can be a terror, life can be like a mathematical equation, life can be magic, life can be a trick (where you have to use your tricks at every step in your life to accomplish your big and small tasks of your life, trick though against morals is the most wonderful form of bravery, after all everything is fair in love and war, dear!), life can be an investment (where you take every decision in life by visualizing far reaching effects of that decision), life can be an invention (like life of creative people), life can be a discovery, life can be a web full of complications (like Maggie noodles or a jungle), life can be a dream, life can be an accident, life can be a fairy tale, life can be a tragedy , life can be like a balance sheet, life can be like a bank, life can be a science, life can be music, life can be a philosophy, life can be madness, or life can be all of these things combined also and many more!”
In simple words, it all depends upon what kind of life you lived and want to live.
OK, I know the rule that “one should never increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything”. But, the definition of life is really quite exorbitant and it cannot be compiled in any number of pages because every person has his own definition to tell based upon his own experiences and with what things he compares his/her own life, because in our world there are many different worlds and environments and life exists in many different forms & every life and every character has its own nature (like happy, sad, honest, greedy, emotional, calculative, dominant, submissive, sincere, corrective, careless, communicative, secretive, good, evil, heroic, coward, practical, philosophical, etc). Just like a box of chocolates has different kind of chocolates in it. Life is never ending in these respects; it goes on and on and on and on and is full of different combinations and unpredictable changes till our last moment we live.
And then, there lastly comes at last a stage when all the chocolates get empty from that box of chocolates, this actually is known as the end of life, which brings us to the most important part of our life, called Time, life is not limited by anything except Time given to it. After a certain point of time, when the chocolate is not eaten it may get spoilt and we just throw it away, every box of chocolate is eatable till a certain point of time only. Just as every box of chocolates gets empty, so does our life gets finished in some way or the other. That signifies that one day we all have to die. Death signifies the end of Life, and at that moment we think that Eh! This was my life… everything else was just an illusion??
I know that I still may have left out many important things of life (like friendship, house, jobs, money, and many more but these things may or may not be there in your life!), but the nature of life is itself like that, it never let’s you know everything You never get all the answers in your life for all the things connected with your life, many things remain a mystery or undefined from you for your entire life. Life never gives you all the answers.
If you didn’t understand my article fully or think it’s too long then always remember that life also has the same characteristic. Whatever may be life’s definition, but one understands his own life completely only at the moment when life seems to have passed away in front of his eyes…
Want a Chocolate Sir!
Story of Forrest Gump: - The Story of Forrest Gump can be summarized in only 4(four) lines, here they are….
“There was a lady sweet and kind,
Was Never pleased by my mind;
I did but see her pass by,
And yet I love her till I die…”
From:
Mahernoz Percy Daruwala,
DT: 7th February 2005
