'If you were given a chance to live up to 100 would you take it?' I asked Babboo.

'Why not! It’ll be great — so many extra years, a bonus!'

'That means you don’t want your troubles to be over,' I said.

Perhaps he didn’t get my point, because he said: 'That’s the beauty of life!'

'What’s the beauty of life?' I asked.

'The triumph and tribulations, the ups and downs, the good and the bad… in life, I mean.'

'Let’s talk of the tribulations, the downs and the bad only; leave the triumph, the ups and the good for the moment. Billions of souls inhabiting this planet are faced with deprivation, nothing that could be called ‘beauty of life’ as you said.'

'I suppose they are themselves responsible for their plight. Those who have worked hard have changed their destiny,' said Babboo.

'Who are they?'

'Don’t be a dunce! Haven’t you read the success stories of the British, the Americans, the French, the Germans and others — how they took their countries to lofty heights.'

'Oh, I know those success stories — how these ‘great nations’ achieved prosperity at the cost of other entirely peaceful and homogenous nations. But, tell me, since when did you begin to carry a brief for these saamraaji taaqatein.'

'Yaar, I am tired of hearing these words — saamraaji taaqatein, istehsali nizam. You’re going to come up next with teesri dunya ke mazloom awam — the impoverished, illiterate and suffering humanity in Asia, Africa… even the now almost extinct Red Indians!'

'I sure stand for the suffering humanity. The saamraaji qoowatein cannot be role models for me. Their record is not very clean. Not only did they exploit the people of the Third World but also invaded, looted and killed peaceful men, women and children.'

'Jo barh kar khud uthalay haath mein meena usi ka hai! Shaad Azimabadi again, for your information!' Babboo smiled his mischievous smile.

'Preposterous! Shaad Azimabadi never wrote this verse to incite the Americans to kill Red Indians or the British to plunder India. As usual you have drifted in another direction. We were talking about the possibility of living up to 100.'

'Oh, yes. The beauty of kajj bahsi is that you can take your discussion in any direction and cover a 360-degree spectrum.'

'You said you would grab the opportunity to live up to 100.' I reminded Babboo.

'Yes, of course!'

'How will you look walking alongside your 80-year-old son? Who’d believe you were the father? And don’t forget you’ll be putting up with a 95-year-old better half as well!'

'If you think in 100 years I’ll settle for just one you are mistaken. Even today, they have the permission to have four — despite life expectancy being so low!'

'What about the population explosion? The longer you live the more you will multiply. Already the world is overcrowded and running out of food.'

'Wrong. There is still a lot of room as well as possibilities for growing more food. More than 90 per cent of the planet’s surface is uninhabited and available to man — the poles, tropical forests, deserts, savannahs and oceans. After the Agricultural Revolution science and human ingenuity have enabled man to bring vast areas of once underdeveloped land into cultivation.'

'There is lack of water for irrigation,' I said.

'Who is stopping you to set up desalination plants to utilise sea water for agriculture? And don’t forget, there is the whole wide universe to explore. I am sure there are other planets similar to our Earth among the trillions of stars that man may take over and make habitable. Allama Iqbal has said: sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain.”

'Simply informing you that life beyond the stars was not enough; Allama should have also told you how to first put your own house in order. Charity begins at home. Look, how you have made a mess of everything on this planet! It seems you were sent here without any work plan, so you started a series of experiments on your own and lived your life on a trial and error basis!'

'Experiments? Trial and error? What are you talking about?'

'Yes, experimenting with various faiths, different kinds of constitutions, economic orders, codes of conduct, rules and regulations. No uniformity, consistency and concord; only research, experiments and trail and error se kaam chal raha hai! If you can cause so much confusion and chaos by staying just 60 or 70 years on this planet, imagine what’ll happen if you were to live for a 100 years! It’s in the interest of the human race that you and I call it a day at the right time.

Don’t let yourself be fooled by the scientists. They are hand in gloves with the multinationals that are only out to make money. It is very alarming that they’re now set to make drugs that’ll prolong human life, in other words not only protract our grinding but also give us the excuse to create more chaos and turmoil.

You and I should be thankful to God for keeping us guessing how long we will live — and it’s a blessing that our ‘sad demise’ will come without prior notice. That’s the only way to go — for, otherwise, we’ll never go!”

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