Escape is not freedom. Freedom is different. Escape, more often than not, feels like some sort of betrayal, something like a criminal act with some degree of satisfaction and happiness. And escape also feels like it has a time limit attached to it: that escape is not forever. Maybe this is just a false impression, maybe the word has been made to feel like this.

      But then we have this better word: freedom. Freedom is an optimistic word. I have learnt that even two synonymous words have some difference between them, most of the times, and they might vary in any respect: in degree, in feel, in context etc.

     For a spent student, a day’s off from school is escape. But a permanent removal from that school is his real freedom: how long he enjoys that freedom is a different question. For a human being, most form of entertainments act like windows to escape, be it music, dance, painting, or simply playing computer games. The sense of freedom we get from them is usually short-lived and we return to the same tiring field of “unfreedom” after the inebriety wears off.

     So we land at this simple distinction between the two: if it is ephemeral and time-bound, it is an escape, and it is permanent, it might be freedom.

     What things, then, can count as freedom? Going to an amusement park? Living in the countryside? A chat with close friends on a deep night beside cracking fire? Or writing heart out in a diary? What is real freedom?

      That question comes as tricky because most of the things you think about initially easily fall in the category of “escapes”. Escapes are necessary, they are okay, but they are not enough. We need freedom. We want something that is permanent.

      This raises another philosophical question: if we, as humans, are not permanent, how can we aspire for something that is of some permanence? This must mean one of the two things: either there is no “freedom” in this world at all, or we happen to be permanent somehow. The latter appears more relevant when you are ready to consider the possibility of a life after life, a living universe, and the immortality of a spirit.

      What is freedom, then? I think I don’t know. The answer is something to be figured out by ourselves, and the answer might be unique for everyone. Some religious people will consider the idea of God as liberating and hence freeing, in the form of salvation, and others, who are spiritual without openly accepting the idea of a God, will talk of being one with the soul of universe as being free. The atheists will perhaps advocate for the former argument: that there is no absolute freedom, and everything is some degree of escape.

     Surprisingly, all of them might not realize, perhaps, that in some form they are already free: otherwise how would have the world allowed three different and contradictory belief systems to exist alongside? What is freedom, I ask again, because I do not understand!

      I realized we use a lot of metaphors and similes. We compare God to a tree and say that both give kindly and never demand anything in return. Sometimes we compare life to a race. Sometimes we say that words are like gunshots: once fired, they have got to hit somewhere. We even compare one man with other, sometimes. Simply put: we understand things better when we compare them with things we already understand well.

      I thought of this fun activity from these observations: Let’s try to compare LIFE to random things out there and see if things make sense. If it does, it can lead to various Conclusion:s: for example, the same thing can be compared to two different things to draw paradoxical results, which means even a comparison that fits perfectly and makes perfect sense may still be incorrect.

      Well, still it is fun, so let’s try this out. Here’s a list of 20 random and crazy things I tried to compare life with. Watch me as I make complete sense sometimes, and at other times, make nonsensical comparisons and still appear right.

      Feel free to jump across any item in the list if you feel like.

1. Life is a tomato
2. Life is a coconut
3. Life is a pen
4. Life is an earthworm
5. Life is a speck of dust
6. Life is a sandwich
7. Life is a fan
8. Life is a cat
9. Life is pajamas
10. Life is a guitar
11. Life is a spiral binding
12. Life is an N-95 mask
13. Life is a watch
14. Life is a Mathematics workbook
15. Life is Burj Khalifa
16. Life is a page of coding in a program
17. Life is a mosquito
18. Life is integration (as in Math)
19. Life is pink
20. Life is a cute-but-painful-because-wrongly-trimmed-because-you-were-not-careful-enough-while-using-the-nail-cutter toenail

1. Life is a tomato

Because from outside, it looks dry but there is that juice inside which is not too far away: all you need is to dig a little into the soft flesh and the juice will come out itself.

Conclusion:: Life is easy and juicy and you can easily pin its juice out of it.

2. Life is a coconut

Because both are hard outside but tasty and soft inside. Life is a bit of a challenge because cracking the outer shell is a thing. It takes a strong person to crack life to its soft core and enjoy its flavor.

Conclusion:: Life can be easy, if you work hard to make it one.

3. Life is a pen

Because like a pen, it has limited ink and what you want to write has to be written with that limited ink you have, because if you waste time scribbling stupid lines and shapes, you’ll have that ink dry up and then you won’t be able to refill.

Conclusion:: Life is easy but it is limited and that’s why it is hard.

4. Life is an earthworm

Because we are buried deep down inside the earth and wait for showers to bring us out. The rain might be someone’s blessings, a near-death experience, or simply God’s intervention. Rain is anything that brings us out of the earth to enjoy the sky and the sunshine.

Conclusion:: Life is easy but you have to find a trigger to that, which is hard.

5. Life is a speck of dust

Because it is nothing and yet an essential part of the world, and essential yet a non-consequential cell in the body of a larger organism.

Conclusion:: Life is meaningless and important at the same time.

6. Life is a sandwich

Because it has many layers. Some stuff life with so many things that the sandwich becomes difficult to eat and digest. Others do stuff life but with limited but healthy and tasty things.

Conclusion:: Life is good it it is better in quality and is healthy.

7. Life is a fan

Because it has to rotate and madden its head up to satisfy other and give some contribution to the surroundings. Life is a fan also because to work you need electricity … energy.

Conclusion:: Life is hard but mildly worthwhile.

8. Life is a cat

Because life is always afraid of a devil – a dog – a death and hence needs to walk with caution, silently, and sometimes make high jumps. And yes … you are also offered milk sometimes.

Conclusion:: Life is hard because it lives in the fear of death.

9. Life is pajamas

Because it is not for oneself but for others, because pajamas worn by no one do not fulfil their purpose. But even when they are worn, pajamas have to do with – er – smells.

Conclusion:: Life is meant to be lived for others.

10. Life is a guitar

Because it is all about producing music, that’s it. It is about enjoying, about rocking, about singing a song, about finding a rhythm, learning to play and learning to match the notes being played.

Conclusion:: Life is awesome and fun, but only if lived in a certain way. You cannot play guitar life a flute, by breathing into it. A guitar has to be played like a guitar.

11. Life is a spiral binding

Because it is twisted, it is like a roller coaster’s track and it is all about keeping something tied up. Life has to find the right holes to fit in and then live for the rest of the time in those same holes. But that is very boring.

Conclusion:: Life is monotonous because it is about finding one’s purpose and then spending rest of the life with it.

12. Life is an N-95 mask

Because it is meant to stop the spread of a disease: hatred, violence, assaults, thefts etc. Once all the diseases are curbed, life, like mask, should be removed.

Conclusion:: When all the problems of the world have ended, human beings should jump off from a cliff and die together.

13. Life is a watch

Because watches and life both tend to tick away. Since watches have a maker, life must have one too.

Conclusion:: Life is meaningful. It is about meeting the maker before meeting the maker.

14. Life is a Mathematics workbook

Because it has a lot of problems and it needs no one less than a mathematician to solve them.

Concluison: Life is damn hard and you need to be an expert to be able to solve it.

15. Life is Burj Khalifa

Because it is very high and still does not ouch the sky. Life is constructed over years of hard work and construction, only to sustain people living and working it in.

Conclusion:: Life is about working hard until the day you can give inside you a room to bacteria, fungi, worms and viruses, and on your head a lot of lice.

16. Life is a page of coding in a program

Because both start with “K” and are five-letter words and both can go insanely erratic sometimes.

Conclusion:: Life is difficult because once you miss some necessary stroke, you go wrong and spend rest of your time figuring out what went wrong.

17. Life is a mosquito

Because both are small and cannot survive without blood. And we know that a mosquito cannot live without an earthly atmosphere.

Conclusion:: Life on Mars is impossible.

18. Life is integration (as in Math)

Because when you start, you think is is just the inverse of differentiation and hence should be nominally easy, but as you go you realise it can draw you nuts as anything.

Conclusion:: Life is hard and should not be underestimated because an easy life is an illusion.

19. Life is pink

Because many-a-times it is very soothing. But if the pink colour gets too dark, it might be unpleasant to eyes. And yes, pink colour has many shades, and life is no different.

Conclusion:: Life is a pig.

20. Life is a cute-but-painful-because-wrongly-trimmed-because-you-were-not-careful-enough-while-using-the-nail-cutter toenail

Because … you know what I mean.

Conclusion:: Life is fun and cute but it can make you insane if you do not give it proper care.

Oh, and a bonus one, since you have made it this far:

21. Life is a blogpost

Because it is fun, because it is possible only when you’re online, because it easier with some knowledge of html, and we know that some blogposts can be quite interesting.

Conclusion:: Life is fun, but only if you have 60 minutes every other day to type in a post.

God -
Your creation leaves me flabbergasted
With an effect upon me, that's ever lasted.
How is it that on one Earth,
North and South poles both exist?
The feeling that there is some reason behind it all
A feeling that I can't resist.

How is it that the skies above,
Which are blue and orange, and full of love,
Are source of both sunlight and rain,
I wonder and wonder again and again.

How is it that your boys and girls,
Are both sharp spikes and lusty pearls,
I wonder so often how can,
Both black and white exist inside a man.

Therefore I wonder how did you craft it,
God, your creation leaves me flabbergasted,
God - your creation leaves me flabbergasted.

      Of late, I’m obsessed with poems. Well, why of late – oh, I’m obsessed with them ever since I opened my eyes. Language is no barrier – I can cherish poetry as much in English and Hindi as in Punjabi. One might ask why I write usually in Punjabi, then. There might be a reason unclear to me, but I like sticking to one clear explanation: something as pure as poetry comes more naturally and at its best when the medium is a mother tongue. That’s it and that’s all: no other explanation.

      Poems, like paintings, are beautiful. I like to think that a painting has an internal beauty, such that when you see it in color or when you see it in black and white, or even when you see it in some other tint, it’ll look just the same piece of beauty. Similar are poems: Language is just like the paper that carries the painting. The poem is independent, and in that independence lies an intrinsic magnificence.

       I remember that fine day when in a workshop, I heard an elder girl expressed her wonder about poets and poems. She said it was wonderful that one could express some beautiful idea in a fashion that it has some rhyme, some rhythm, which multiplies the beauty factor.

      The idea was new to me then, and now, years later, I still find it wonderful.

      But now I know that poems, like paintings, are but gifts of nature: it is like that apple which falls on your head of its own when you sit under an apple tree: and mind you, it does not always take a Newton to figure out what effect it is. Newton’s explanation was a poem of sorts: isn’t this beautiful that every big thing in the world pulls every small thing towards it? Except that Newton’s poem was in free verse, and it was loved best by scientists.

      I have some poets as my all-time favorites (like Bhai Veer Singh and Satinder Sartaaj) though I’ve discovered a newfound admiration in Robert Frost, John Keats and William Blake.

      I think I’m a “poemaholic”. To me, poems come almost daily, and sometimes I cannot stop them: sometimes I have to write when the idea – that world should not miss this poem – summons heavily. The journey of a poet, I think, is only to make himself more welcoming to beautiful poems.

      And finally, you realize life is a poem too. You try to make some sense of it, weave into it a good, delightful story, fit some rhyme here and there so that one can sing and dance, inscribe somewhere a lesson and before you put a full stop, you take a reread to see if things are good to go.

      Except, in case of life’s poem, you cannot change what is written.

PS: My Punjabi poems can be read here.

See! A light appears, from the sky above
And flies here and there, as though a bird;
And are we caught, oh by Jove!
Then do look above, as if some nerd.

Noses we sniff, ears we flutter,
Smell is smelled, sound some is heard,
We cannot speak, tongue caught in stutter,
Let alone a sentence, not even a word.

Eyes, see, are wide; hands, look, are ope;
Steps we prepare, and waists we gird,
As if is in, our hearts some hope,
As if some sight, saw eye a third.

But such the light, such and the wonder,
When – how – to act, to us not occurred,
Is this a lightning, devoid of a thunder?
Or of nature, miracle unheard?

No, couldn’t touch, too high, it was,
Were left gazing, that’s how we erred.
Gone ‘tis now, and oh alas!
All our questions, left unanswered.

    Article Written for Essay Writing Comepeition by Gujranwala Guru Nanak Insitute of Management and Technology (GNIMT), Ludhiana, in April 2020.