PREFACE:

Everyone is born in this world as a child but undergoes a Metamorphosis by growing into a boy, from boy to a youth from youth to an old man passing through four totally different phases/stages in life. The four phases/stages are BRAHMACHARYAM, GRUHASTHAM, VANAPRASTHAM AND SANYASAM. This article is based upon this corollary and therefore, it will be very easy for everyone to contemplate what it implies. Now let us analyze this concept and peep in to the various aspects of the article. 
FACE TO FACE WITH THE PHASES OF LIFE:
When I was born as the first child, my parents enjoyed boundless joy or interminable happiness. They brought me up by showering galore incomparable love and affection as sweet as honey.  I was so cute, fair-complexioned and handsome that anybody would lift me up fondle and shower innumerable kisses on my cheeks. The stream of my life thus flowed uninterruptedly. I was inebriated with the thought of being the sole child in the whole house. My father mother and me in their midst as the darling child with no one in the vicinity and that was my whole world! Any one viewing this rare sight would certainly grow jealous!

ARRIVAL OF SIBLINGS:

When I was living like a despot, unexpectedly, a girl child stepped in to the family as my sister which turned up as an open menace to me. I was totally under some confusion and frustration as to how to react to this unexpected development. I was infuriated when I saw one more person trying to share and snatch away the boundless love I was enjoying.   I couldn’t understand at the time due to my selfishness that she deserved so much of love, care and attention at that infant stage. Many times, whenever I saw her my mother fondling her in her lap, I used to feel like dragging her out of my mother’s lap and occupying it instantly. Natural jealousy which every child nurtures! Though she stepped in to the family as my sister unexpectedly, I became her brother and I felt my importance practically diminished. I pulled on bottling up all my resentments with no one around ready to listen to my pathetic story. 

The wheels of time kept rolling uninterruptedly. As adding to my embarrassment, one more sister arrived and with this sudden development, we both felt our importance scaling down. Our parents were busy fondling and caressing the new born and we were watching the palpable partiality to us with their preferential treatment to our second sister always. The same feelings my siter also experienced in such a scenario. Our parents prioritized and diverted their whole attention to the third one only. Whenever something goes wrong, we were questioned and punished even for flimsy reasons. Somehow, we silently pulled on gulping down all our agonies and emotions. 
In the efflux of time, our parents added two brothers also to our family and then we became five siblings. Now, I have got a promotion as the eldest brother to my youngsters. When all started calling me as ANNA eldest brother, I felt more dignified with no bounds to my rejoice. When I realized it is a rare fortune which others get seldom, I experienced goosepimples all over my body.  Now, the element of selfishness has completely vanished from my mind. Moreover, I realized there are four siblings around to share all happiness and sorrows as well as to fool and make fun of each other. thanked God for this enviable lavish bonanza! 

When others see these gradual developments in my life, what they will think, that one who had remained a small baby has now grown into a big brother? Really, I didn’t like this elevation, instead wanted to continue to be their pet pampered baby always. But, will time compromise for this unreasonable desire? Will it spare me without effecting various appropriate changes in me? Are not all beings on earth undergoing these progressive changes in every respect? From a simple grass to a flower bud. Even a trivial stone undergoes gradual wear and tear in course of time. I understood very late that transition is an integral part of nature and subjects both living and nonliving objects alike.

AMAZING METAMORPHOSIS:

As things went on like this, nature’s sleight of hand converted the boy in me into a handsome youth in course of time. And made me a doble graduate and in course of time, a responsible official in a respectable public organization, a well-known nationalized bank. I never knew time had kept all these surprises concealed under its invisible wings very tactfully. At the right time, my parents arranged for my marriage also with a pretty working girl from a noble family. 

Now, I have become a husband. Before long, we were gifted with a baby girl who shed abundant rapture and brilliance in our family.  See, now I have been adorned with the outstanding designation of ‘Father’ of a pretty child. As time went on, God gifted us a cute and vivacious son also to add to our happiness. Now, I have become the father of two children, which I considered as the rare blessing of God Almighty! We restricted our children to two as it was beyond our capacity to foster more children like our parents particularly for want of finance time and patience. The national principle of ‘Small Family, Happy Family’ or’ We Two and Ours Two’ overweighed in our decision. Again, with the passage of time, they two grew and became well educated with higher qualifications and got well placed in reputed organizations. At the right time, they also got married with suitable life partners and are leading contented happy family life with two children each by the grace of God! 

Now we have become grandfather and grandmother to our grandchildren. When I look back, I feel so proud of these achievements witnessed over a period of time. My mind is filled with a composite mixture of feelings of sense of loss, pride, fear and surprise. Again, when I look at the grim face of time, the fear I am getting old is gaining momentum. 
When the chaste innocence of childhood and the agile charming spirits of youth everything faded or withered away, stage by stage systematically over a few years, the grave sense of such an eternal loss, silences and aggrieves me too much. Now as I am embarking on the third stage life being VANAPRASTHAM, I am waiting before the Almighty God, the Chief Justice of the Universal Court of Law, with a clemency petition in hand for granting me sound health and longevity, my heart is pulsating with the anxiety whether He will consider my fervent appeal or turn down? Within the casket of my grievances, there are only a few desires:

My Dharmapathni {virtuous wife} should always be a Deerkha Sumangali and my children should enjoy my presence as long as possible. These requests are not due to my extreme selfishness for life, but due to my boundless love and attachment to them. Again, I want to be beside my aged mother to be a consolation to her and serve her at her old age. Desires are beyond any limit and difficult for even God to grant I know.

If all desires are accomplished instantly, what will be the condition of this world?  Later, I learned that attachment beyond a limit is undesirable. One should remain attached, but also learn to remain detached and be ready to leave it like a drop of water on an Arum leaf. [CHEMBILA or Arbi ka patha] We should therefore, put a limit to our desires as over desires gradually pave the way for disappointment later on. Does anyone ponder over these vital issues?

CONCLUSION:

Today when I look back at my eventful life, I am benumbed with amazement. 
First, I came as a child to my parents and then became a brother to my siblings, then became a double graduate, then a bank official, then a husband, then a father to my children and finally a grandfather to my grandchildren.
Similarly, my wife has also become a proud grandmother now. 
These are the different but vivid colorful costumes I wore from my birth till date in each stage and the amazing natural roles I played in the entire gamut of my life. 
One thing is sure and certain, I am fully contented in my life with what all the benign Almighty God has granted to me and there is no element of greed for anything in my life. So too my wife and children. We have never groaned or grumbled about what we did not get. We know God gives according to what one deserves. Not got, no disappointment!
Dear ones, this is not singularly my story alone, but the story of each and every one born into this world, no matter he is a sung hero or unsung hero par excellence. 
                                            ----------------------------------
11-4-2025 
         
{This article is the true translation of my article in Malayalam, NJANANINJA VESHANGAL published sometime{ago}