Our lives are like dew drops on a leaf

What is the meaning of life? A silly question to ask? And I have no answers to proffer. The one thing I do know is that life is uncertain and unpredictable. Yet, we're supposed to reap a harvest of happiness from a short, challenge-ridden, chaotic stint on this Earth.

- Vivek Atray

The saint even said that we are like dew drops on a leaf. So transient is our existence, so fleeting our sojourn, that we can be summoned to the heavens (and not hopefully the opposite end) at any moment.

The Ahmedabad dreamliner plane crash, which resulted in the cessation of many lives and doubtlessly many dreams, is a stark reminder of our utterly temporary status as living beings. Innocent, unsuspecting, even bubbling, human lives were lost in a flash.

The suddenness of a calamity such as this one, and many before it, compels the rest of us to think deeply about our own lives. Yet, we necessarily get busy very soon again and zoom off to resume our goalless journeys, until the next such tragedy occurs. Then, our quicksilver reflective pauses end up being forgotten along with the reasons for them, once the breakneck pace of life takes over once more.