AN INCOMPLETE LIFE

AN INCOMPLETE LIFE Be Realistic T HE world of advertising and marketing is strange indeed. How far removed is this world from the real world is strikingly shown in a recent interview published in the Times of India website on November 17, 2021. Mr Vijaypat Singhania is a former chairman emeritus of the Raymond Group and a former Sheriff of Mumbai (19 December 2005 to 18 December 2006). He is 83-years-old. Raymond Group is an Indian branded fabric and fashion retailer, incorporated in 1925. It produces suiting fabric, with a capacity of producing 31 million meters of wool and wool-blended fabrics. Mr Singhania recently published his new memoir titled ‘An Incomplete Life’. Interestingly, Raymond’s tagline is ‘A Complete Man’. The fabric produced by Raymond makes one ‘A Complete Man’, while the person who headed the company for a decade feels his life to be incomplete. When asked about this, he said, “My title ‘An Incomplete Life’ had much to convey about my life. I have written that every person, to complete his life, needs an association with his grandkids, which has been denied to me. My grandkids have been forbidden to see me which I think, I’m sorry to use the word, is criminal.” It appears in the interview that he has had some very strong disagreements with his son and his son has denied him to see his grandkids. While taking a sympathetic view of this unfortunate turn of events, there are many important lessons one can learn from this sorry affair. One should never forget that there is a great difference between appearance and reality. One should strive to pierce the veil of appearance that lies on reality. This is so important that the Prophet Muhammad used to pray: O God! Show me things as they are in their reality. The reality of this world is that it functions according to the creation plan of God. According to this creation plan, human beings are undergoing a period of test on this earth. Based on how human beings performed in this test, they will be granted everlasting bliss or eternal damnation in the Hereafter. Everything that a person gets in this world is part of the test. The Quran says: