If I Was Given a Second Chance to Visit This World

Birth and death are neither under our control nor a matter of choice People are born without much effort on their part and die without any choice of their own. I look upon life as a game and, when I have finished it, I will leave the field without any hesitation and complaint. The life on this earth is quite enough for any reasonable man. But there is no harm in getting a new base of life, if one can have all the good things of life.

Every child during early years of school read stories and fancy many of the characters portrayed in them. I once read a Chinese story illustrating this point of view. There was a man who was in hell and about to be reincarnated, and said to the King of Reincarnation, “If you want me to return to the earth as a human being, I will only go on my own conditions. ” “And what are they? ” asked the King. The man replied, “I must be born the son of a cabinet minister and father of a future cabinet minister.

I must have ten thousand acres of land surrounding my home and fish ponds and fruits of every kind and a beautiful wife, good and loving to me, and rooms stocked full of grain and trunks full to the top with money, and I myself must be a Grand Councilor or Duke of the First Rank and enjoy honor and prosperity and live until I am hundred years old. ” And the King of Reincarnation replied, “If I were such a lot on earth, I would go and be incarnated myself, and not give it to you.

This is a very reasonable answer to any man who wants to have all the good things of life. Life is to be accepted with all its joys and sorrows, with its sunny days and cloudy nights. The world in which we live is necessarily an imperfect world, and man is, as it were, sandwiched between. Therefore, I do not seek at any moment in my life a world which is perfect in all respects. If I am given the chance (I wonder, if it ever happen) to be born again, I will not lay down any unreasonable conditions unlike the man in the Chinese story which may embarrass my Creator.

I shall be glad if I am delivered upon this beautiful earth as its transient guest and asked to leave after seventy five years (I ask only for this much concession) of rough and tumble life. After I have seen two generations of children and grand children I should be perfectly satisfied to rise from my seat and go away saying: It was a good game and I have really played well and enjoyed my innings to the full. But before my second earthly life comes to an end, I must make amends for the mistakes that I had committed in the first life.

This time I will choose a country where people enjoy greater peace and facilities of life like United Kingdom or United States of America, or Switzerland or Norway; any will do provided they do not object to my skin color. I will not go to a school where teachers take students as pitchers and try to pour into what they deem necessary. Unfortunately, some time teachers take a conscious pleasure in insulting students with their sly remarks. It does a little good to the mental advancement of back benchers and average students.

I will go to a school where is considered more important that literature or physics. I had enough of literature and physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics in my first life. All these subjects are good in their own way, but for myself, I am content to be less studious and more practical. After I have finished my education, I should like to become a business executive. I do know that the life of business executive in America or any European country is not easy. I have examples of lives of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

But what makes me comfortable is that a business executive is always too busy to think of higher things such as poetry, art and contemplation on scientific notes. But I do not care for art and science if I have obvious things like the enjoyment of food, a laughing party of friends, my children ramping about on my grassy lawn or playing on merry go round. After all life is not spirit but matter. Some of us who are spiritually inclined towards life, may not like this picture of life, but they can have their own type of life when they are born again.

A business executive, as you know, makes a good deal of money, by many clever tricks. When I have made a few millions I will charter a plane and go round the world. Singapore and Siam, Honolulu and Tokyo, Geneva and New Jersey will offer all their enchantments to me. I may even go to Africa and do a bit of big hunting. But I am terribly afraid of lions and rhinos. I will ask somebody to kill them for me and then get myself photographed while sitting on a big lion! I know the reader would be laughing at my cowardice, but this is how we big business executives do lion hunting.

Now comes the sad part of the story. When I come back from my travels around the world, I go for a medical checkup. My doctor, who has specialized in all types of cancers, tells me that I am “ripe” for a cancer. It may be a ‘tropic of cancer’ but nobody can laugh at his own indisposition. I take his word for granted and apply for a bed in one of the most modern hospital. The doctors kill me in order to find out the cancer which never existed. I die without a word of protest, because I had enough of life. I have no regrets or remorse leaving this world.