Fastfoward through life

I was reading an article in the newspaper yesterday on how couples are planning children in a way so that they are born between January and March/April of the year so that they do not lose a year in school.  In India, the academic year starts in June.  Children below the age of 6 as at June 1 do not get admitted to the 1st grade.  They will be put in an earlier grade.  Most parents sweat this. So, when I read this in the newspaper, I was not surprised.  To me, this just does not matter.  To a child going to Grade 1, it does not matter. Not sure why parents go to such great lengths just to ensure their child is not 6 to 8 months overaged in their class.  Frankly, does it make any difference in a life that spans close to 70 years?  I don't think so, but most parents do.  I must not be getting this right at all.

My friend was telling me the other day that he had retired and this happened a year earlier because his dad had given a wrong date of birth just to get him in to school a year earlier!!!  I told him to enjoy his well deserved retirement.

In India, we seem to rush through our lives.  Most kids in Europe and Australia go off on a 1 to 2 year travel after they are through with their Grade 12 or University.  They travel different countries, work whenever and wherever they want to and enjoy understanding the lives and cultures in these countries.  I believe that travel is one of the best teachers that we can get in life and in India we do not seem to attach too much of importance to this.  While most of these kids in Europe are travelling, our kids are going to colleges and then to tuitions from 9 am to 9pm every day in Grades 11 and 12.  Not sure what we are doing to them.

Is it worth fast forwarding ourselves through our lives?  I was asking myself this question.  So what if we start working at 26 and not at 22?  So what if we do an MBA program at 40 and not at 24?  We do not seem to pace ourselves through our life. We want everything to happen fast...fast food, quicker promotions, a fast buck...and the word "fast" follows us through our lives.

I was watching a movie that showed the life of a very small sect in India, the Aghoris.  These Aghoris are ascetics and they spend a lot of time meditating, living in crematoriums and try and understand the duality of life.  They do not have any attachments with people and try and believe that we must accept the perfectness of everything in nature.  They seem to be the other side of India where life is almost on a rewind mode and not the usual fast foward that most of us are used to.

When I look at this complete spectrum starting from the Aghoris who just move through life at their own pace to the city dwellers who are busy going at breakneck speed, I wonder where I fit in.  I wonder where should we be?  Both sides of the spectrum seem to have their advantages and disadvantages.  So, is it worthwhile being somewhere in between?  Like the great Gautam Buddha taught us - take the middle path!!!