Life - My view of it as a game..

Hey there..

I know.. u have heard this before.. Life is a game.. I want to give this old saying, my own flavour after my experience at a cricket game this evening. I bowled my best in a long long time.. and lead the time to a winnable (dont know if this a word... but lets use it anyways!) situation.. 11 runs of 6 balls. And to some excellent hitting by the opponent batsman, we lost the game with 3 balls to spare. Tragic, Devastating and disappointing.... but something I cant help and yet am certain that I should be able to!

My project supervisor once said, "I look at failure case studies more seriously, 'coz they offer more scope for learning".. And I heard his words echo in my mind.. thinking (deeply frustrated over our loss..), I kind of tried to think hard.. what can I learn from this tragic ending to our cricket game.. So how is this related? And then it dawned on me.. again not very original, but its still my own personalized version.. its not really about winning or loosing.. and I would argue, its not about playing either... However, if the outcome- sparks a thought or leads you to one.. its the magical bit you are looking for.. which is the essence I realized is my conclusion.

Isnt life like a game, depending on how you see it.. whether you are playing against others or playing against your ownself.. an interesting question, one can ask oneself! And its about playing the game and yet we are so caught up in trying to win.. who are we trying to win against? If its against others.. then its really not worth it.. coz that pursuit is futile if not worthless.. and if we are trying to win against ourselves, it is increasingly elusive. And yet I am suggesting we play, not for winning - but to ignite the flame of the pursuit of self-discovery, self-realization and self-thought!!!

And my friend James, my due respect to him and his wisdom.. strongly feels that we are increasingly drawn into this web of living the life, the way the system wants us to.. trying to win and make others loose.. we still cant digest the idea of playing the game for the game.. and not only for winning! I take this theory, one step further.. instead of not playing at all,,,,,choose your game and play it with all your heart, and not only play the right game.. but play it right!! Although it feels great to be a winner.. you can loose and still be a winner, if you can derive your own meaning from the game.. like I felt I have today..

Actually, having said all that and to share that I am an ardent golf freak (more of a fan now.. with my infrequent visits to a golf course!).. My parents in the US gifted me a shirt on Christmas '98 which read something like this.."I've played golf most of my life.. rest of it, I've just wasted!". So my question to you is, what have you spent most of your life on? What have you wasted? and most importantly what are you playing in your life?

So much for this night.... Au revoir!