Who are we? In quest of paradoxical existence

WHO ARE we? Eight billion pesky insects crawling on this spinning Blue Ball, trying desperately to answer the question, who are we? Live, work, play and die. Is that all we amount to? So it seems, till we can figure out who we are?

Yesterday, I came across this quote “I was born. I lived. I died. The End.” Isn’t this the very formula of our existence? Who has ever been able to add an epilogue or sequel? Alright, some people invent life-changing machines, some make revolutionary discoveries, and some transform the world with their teachings. But at the end of the day, why are they doing it? The answer is “to make our lives better.” Then we ask ourselves, why do we have those lives at all? And we return... to the same question, who are we?

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking perhaps got closer to this answer than any of us. “We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star.”

To think of it that way, we are insignificant. We may be wiped off by a massive meteor, and the universe wouldn’t really care.

We are the only ones who worry about tomorrow. We strive to get ahead of everyone, but aren’t we forgetting that at the end of the day, we’re all going to die?!

We are back to the same paradox. Live, die, live, die, and the same thing all over again! Can’t we see that this goes on and on, without any reason?!

Why is then this eternal race for power?

Why do we want to get ahead, to tower over others and in the end make no change whatsoever to the vast fabric of events in the universe?

Why can’t we be content with what we have?

And hope to find a reason for our existence, and to settle that ever present question hanging over our heads from the dawn of man — who are we?

HRITUPORNA BHATTACHARJEE, Class 10, GD Goenka Public School, Paschim Vihar