Life is a ....

How many times have you come across the term "Life is a Journey" ? I guess it's a term use by people at every given opportunity. In Sri Lankan social context, I think "Life is a bus ride" compared to a journey. When you think along this line, you'll realize "life is a bus ride" is more fitting to our society than the latter.

When you board a bus, you have some sense about your final destination. However, some people might get into the bus without knowing where to go or where to get down but nonetheless  they are going on a journey without much sense. Most of us will know where to get off the bus. Sometimes, a bus ride could be joyous, tolerable, or an utter misery.

Whatever opinion you have on bus rides, you have to accept the fact that it could be an exciting one. You will acknowledge diverse set of people we come across in a bus ride. Some will smile; some will form life long friendships or become your "Bus Buddy"; some will give you a seat; some will take you bag (or luggage) will help you out; some will frown; some will hate you for stepping on their feet. Then there's some less fortunate ask for your help, various street sellers, and occasional 'Virudu' guy where you'll give if you have any spare change. Also if you really unlucky someone will come and rob you broad daylight. Now do you start to see some similarities between our life and a bus ride.

Out of all those distractions what fascinates me most are the colorful people that one will come across. The sad part is you can't screen those people before you bump into them. Some people will make you happy, some people will make sad, some people will hurt you, some people will add mystery; some people will make you wonder. Whoever you meet, there are primarily three types of people. They are bad, good and affectionate. The bad people we meet will rob our  dignity, love, affection or maybe even life. The good people will only steal our sorrows and pains. And the affectionate ones will steal our  feelings and heart.

Like a bus.. These people will get in and get out of your life as they wish. It's hard to control and you can't influence the people that come to your life. Sometimes affectionate people could turn out to be bad people. They'll decide to get out of your life abruptly as they came in. You might beg, cry, threaten, get down on your knees, but if they want to get down, they will get down. They might surprise you by re-boarding from another bus stop..

Once you reached your stop, you have to get down whether you like it or not. At the end, you have to leave those people who came along on your bus ride. It's hard to let them go but eventually you have to, and that's why it's call 'Life'. So just enjoy the ride and try not to make attachments that hard to let go.