IS THE NEED FOR SECURITY THE GREATEST DRIVE IN LIFE?







Pic.: Nirmala Sundar

Is the need for security our greatest drive in life?

I have reasons to believe it is.

When I closely scrutinize almost all my activities – my work and relationships being the most important of them – I am able to trace the source of my drive rooted in this innate need to be secure!

A couple of nights ago, I was travelling in a friend’s car around the CST area. The illuminated buildings of CST – The British had baptized them as ‘Victoria Terminus’ - and BMC HQ made me comment, “What an enduring beauty!”

My friend looked at me and said with his wicked smile, “Did the British ever think, that they would have to leave behind this ‘beauty’ and go back, one day?”

The rest of the discussion centered around the subject: Why are we so obsessed to build our empires?

Well, like every other empire, the British, too, had thought, that the Sun would never set on their empire; that they were sent by God to rule the world for ever… But, in India, it took hardly two centuries for the Sun to go down on them!

Yes, they had to leave behind every ‘great’ monument they had raised here as a sweet-bitter memento… a reminder to the mankind: “Hey there, listen… Time will spare no man, no empire!”

They say, Time has spared the Pyramids!

But hast it?

The Pyramids are in a very bad state, today, there in the hot deserts… The wealth stored in them by the Pharaohs has been looted away by thieves… No man will ever love to live near them… The Pharaohs, who had built them, ruled Egypt for the longest time in history - three thousand years. But, then, their fall had to come… Their slaves had to be sent back to Israel… No one calls Egypt an ‘empire’ today!


Time hasn’t – and doesn’t – spare any man or any of his monuments or empires…

Then, why does he still build them? Yes, knowing well, that he has to leave them all behind, one day?

Why am I so busy and so restless raising mine?


Someone reminds me of that old story…

Curiously looking at his grandfather, who is busy planting a sapling, the little grandchild asks, “Grandpa, how many years will it take for this baby-tree to grow big and give fruits?

“At least ten,” says the grandpa gently.

“Will you be there to eat those fruits when they come?” the child asks innocently.

“My sweet-heart, I am planting this baby-tree not for me,” the grandpa tells the little-one with all the love and honesty in his heart, “I am planting it for you!”

Can I give the same reply to my own conscience – yes, with the same love and honesty – when I am asked: “Why are you so busy and so restless raising your empire?”

Is the need for security man’s greatest drive in life?


Yes, I have reasons to believe it is.



GERALD D’CUNHA

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