In life, there’s always 3 distinguished types of experiences – The Princess version, The street rat version and The combo version. You would have seen the same portrayed in the animation movie – Aladdin. I would say, the portrayal in the movie is a little romantic, dramatic and all other tic’s for storyline and presentation purposes. However, what I want to talk today is the reality without any touch-ups.
In the princess version of the life, (Call it good luck, call it good karma. I am not here to dissect the cause because I am at a loss when it comes to all this tangles of life.) right from birth to death everything is handed to you in a platter. Everything you wish for is heeded to. Everything you dream of becomes the reality. You can sketch the life in a typical pattern and live your life according to that. You need not take any risks in any of your decisions. Sounds heavenly right? 😛 Yes, it is heavenly unless you are a bit of a daredevil who gets bored easily with everything given to you.
In the street rat version of life (Again, attribute to anything you want), your life is a struggle. It’s not so bad that you are down in the drain like the literal street rat, but you need to risk your neck for everything. You need to push yourself to get your dreams to come true. There are a lot of stuff that could go wrong. Some do too. You somehow pick yourself up and move on. Even if something comes along easily, you’d have a pretty hard time holding on to it. You fight, you haggle, you do everything that will keep you ahead in the race. 😯
To give a picturesque description, let’s take Aladdin and Jasmine and paint a real picture in today’s life. Aladdin is a normal person with no inheritance from his parents and works in a job which helps him pay his bills and save a little. He has dreams of buying a house, a car and leading a comfortable life. Those are the least of his dreams which he wants to reach in his life’s journey. He also has other impractical dreams of becoming a millionaire over-night, making more money than he and his next 10 generations would need, but he is okay with passing on all that. So to achieve this a car-a house- a happy family- comfortable life, he has to save penny by penny, haggle with every penny he spends, apply a loan if he buys a house, scrap all his savings now and then to make a big buy and start saving again… You catch my drift right? But one thing Aladdin can say for sure by the end of his life is that he did everything he wanted to, on his own. He will know what to and what not to do out there in the world. If at all by some miracle, his life gets upgraded to the prince(ss) experience, he will chill out and enjoy but he will always know the other side of the coin and will have no trouble living that too. (Not talking about people who take it to their head and get inflated and forget all about the other side)
And what about Princess Jasmine? She does not have to do any of these mad-cat running. No risks, no haggle, no issues. She does everything at the right time and lives life happily enough. The catch here is if at all life is cruel and gives a hard downgrade, the street rat life would be real tough for Jasmine. She does not know anything about this world. It’s kind of not her fault too. Since childhood, life gave her everything and so she never had a chance to know.
The combo version I mentioned happens when you get this upgrade or downgrade and end up in a mix. You might even be wondering what is the point behind this whole post. I am getting to it. Here’s my question. If you had a choice, which version would you choose? Would you want to live comfortably because there’s a very good chance that life wont give you a hard time? Or would you rather be a street rat, so that if life decides to generous on you, you will know what it is like to be on the other side? Now that’s something to think about right? 😉 Think twice before you answer 😛 It’s christmas time and Santa might be listening. 🙂 Merry Christmas!
Until later 🙂
As simple as it sounds I don’t think there is a clear cut boundary between these versions. Atleast for most people. That said I would definitely want the combo version. Or may be I’m already living it. 😛
True, it’s hard to find a clear cut boundary but those living the life will know. 🙂
I’ve been through both the phases and I think that its not a choice that we would make. Its just handed to us. One day its a princess in the mirror and the other day it reflects a rat.
Either way you need to get past that day. That’s how I learnt to sail my boat. Being a street rat teaches you to get past obstacles and then live on like a princess. Forever.
Do I still have to tell what I’d choose? 🙂
Yeah, the bottom line is to keep going, one step at a time.
Living like a street rat helps a lot, you will always know what to do when life strikes. Once we learn that, probably we will be bored with the easy version, if blessed with it for too long.