Meaning of Life

It's been long time since am writing another blog on Life and its dynamics. Its almost 15months now living in North America and believe me life in western countries can be really depressing and sad. Here life is very independent, people want to live alone, have their space which is good in a sense that you are not dependent on anyone. I  met a 75 year old lady who drives on her own, works in an hospital and was amazing to see that people at this age work. But after meeting her and spending time with her i realised that there is no way out. People here in North america have become so self centred that if one depends upon someone , its not appreciated. The thing which i saw here is that humans have become so formal in relationships. People think twice to help their friends. There is so much formality between friends and blood relations too, people like me who are born and brought up in India also change here in Western civilizations and this process starts from the day we land here. The whole thought process changes , it begins from trying to have that ascent, we desperately want to have that Canadian or american ascent. We change our names so the westerners don't have any problem  to pronounce it. We want to appease them , so we have pseudo names to suit the culture and environment, i came across this south Indian Guy in my class who pissed me off on first day itself. I asked hey , How u doin? and whats ur name? he says its Viiiiiiiiijaay. I said Vijay rite ? .. he says no , its Viiiiiiiijay... this time more emphasis on Viiiii... i said oh gosh .. this is our first day in Toronto and people have adapted to  ascent. I was really laughing at what had happened a minute ago. I met many Indians who were barely 2 weeks old in Canada and were faking an ascent as if they were Canadians, we all have become so wannabes.   Abhay becomes Aby, Jaspreet becomes Jazz so on and so forth. These all name changes actually does not matter until we all change our thoughts and values in order to fit in the system. We then argue that Change is inevitable and its the only thing which is permanent, correct but Change for what. I don't know how many of you will agree but being western does not mean being Modern. Many people feel that having modern names, listening to latest music , having the latest fashion at your doorstep is being modern and progressive. What i have realised and believe is that we can be traditional in our names, clothes and culture. But our thoughts should be progressive.
My Canadian journey was rather smooth then expected, but i had some rude shocks too. One thing I realised and will always keep in mind is that never help someone by going out of the way.This may sound  rude to all of you. I feel bad when i write this down, but that's what i have experienced and learnt in my life. The same people will question your intent of helping them. We as humans have a bad memory and at the same time I came across of this incredible video on Youtube about this African Lion who was brought up in London and then moved to Savannah The incredible Lion still remembered his days as a cub and just could not stop himself from loving his human friends who brought him up..This video moved me so much that i realised that intelligence and ability to think is the quality which hampers our relationships with different people and I realised that life is really strange and weird. This incident reminded me of the old Indian saying that don't expect anything in return and you will be happy always.  One more thing i realised here in canada is that people have become so mechanical. No matter how our country is but relations are far better simple and loving over there.Situations in life force people to do things which under normal conditions they wont do, so you can blame people too. But what i believe is people who don't give upto to temptations and situations in life are real people. They will go long way. The matter of fact is even i have changed to an extent. When i speak to people who know me since long, they can make out changes in me. My loved ones say that Maulik you have changed a lot. change for good or bad that's a secondary issue. The matter of fact is Life can be simple if we communicate with our loved ones and keep the good work on because we have just one life to live in. Who knows what's store in Life. We would live or die, we don't control that.
On this Note I would like to quote what my good friend wrote about Life "Ud ja Panchi ud ja, kitna ud payega, jab suraj dhale ga , apna hi ghar yaad aayega" . Connect to people whom you have lost .. tell them how much you miss them. tell them how much you love them . Coz we just live once ...