The Reality of Life

THE REALITY OF LIFE this big hall was packed to capacity with a highly educated audience. According to the programme, the famous journalist Mr. Khushwant Singh (1915-2014) was given an award for his services. This award was given to him by the Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee. On this occasion Mr. Shinde said that Mr. Khushwant Singh’s ideology was ‘Enjoy the good things in life.’ I was invited along with ten members of the CPS to attend this programme. Our members distributed dawah literature in English to the people gathered there. This included the pamphlet, ‘The Reality of Life’ that explained that life is not for enjoying the good things of life in this world, but for preparing our personality so that we can be held deserving of gaining entry into eternal Paradise in the Hereafter, where we will be able to enjoy a good life for all eternity. The concept of life presented in this pamphlet was quite contrary to that of Mr. Khushwant Singh, which briefly put, was ‘Enjoy good things in life.’ Khushwant Singh was the chief guest of the programme. He is about 95 years old at the time. He was not able to walk straight. He needed the support of two men to walk on to the stage. He sat there with no sign of joy on his face. He was a picture of sadness. When he was introduced with that formula of life presented in his writings, ‘Enjoy the good things in life,’ he seemed mutely to convey that this formula of life was no longer applicable in this world for, ultimately, one became so weak that one was unable to enjoy anything at all.