"It's a funny thing that when man has nothing to worry about, he goes off and gets married", said Robert Frost. Yes it's funny and it's a fact too. Thinking of which, being single is/was the most precious time of life that is seriously "wasted". Well I am not talking about those who remain single by choice, or those who turned single again, but those singular years before you "get settled" as whatever way that is meant in our social context. The days when you are alone even while being "at home" or in a crowd, no matter how many girlfriends you have been dating.
Bachelor days are mostly aimless, definitely shameless, and also nameless. There is an unabashedness and an unassumingness about it which no other point of time in life can replicate or allow you to be perpetually into such a state, when you are stripped (literally) of everything and yet you feel so cool "hanging around", walking, yapping, sleeping, eating or boozing all together at the same time, or in no time, or all the time. You are not "expected to conform" which in a way is a big let off for most boys, as they are most comfortable if left alone like that. Yet there is a nagging vacuum or a sense of deprivation or unsettlement which keeps working in the back of the mind, that eventually gets "spent" on playboy magazines or porn videos.
For those who are preparing for CAT or GMAT or some other big thing in their lives, that sets their agenda going for a couple of years or more if they indeed get through, so that is a different story altogether. For the less ambitious or dare I say the more "grounded" ones (grounded simply because of the daily grind and nothing else!) who have to settle with some job somewhere to keep earning to pay off the debts or support their families, the challenges are of a different kind.
The disillusionment that sets in some months after the initial euphoria of getting the job, specially when you get to know someone close enough or staying with you has made it big somewhere else or got an admission in a University abroad or a US visa, can be quite sapping. A pall of gloom suddenly descends and one gets a feeling of being rounded up in a rathole while getting up to go back to the same workplace the next Monday morning when the hangover of the weekend settles down, and the midnight flight carrying the friend had already crossed most of the Arabian sea in its pursuit of a promised land, far away.
The future is, in reality, not as bleak as it would seem then. In fact the bachelor days offer you some of the very best times for you to go back to yourself and regroup to take stock of where you are and what all you would want to do in your life. You don't need to make a Bucket List for instance only when more than three-fourths of your legs are kicking the bucket! It can very well be made while carrying the bucket and standing in the line for the toilet in the mornings during your dorm days.
Even if it appears to be a silly dream, don't ignore it. Write it down. Toy with it. Stretch it to a wider canvas. Let some of those creative juices that flow in while fantasising on the bed with a Playboy playmate, help you develop those wild imaginations. It could be as simple a thing as learning a new foreign language, or writing a novel never to be published, or acquiring a different skill in an unknown area or chasing an odd passion hidden in the bottom of the heart which may apparently seem to be of no use at that time. Never mind, but deal with it. Invest in it with your time and energy, even if you may not have the money for it, for there is no dearth of both at that point of time in life which you may find it increasingly difficult to get as the years go by even when the bank balances swell and overflow!
It does not matter if the current reality is far far away from this conceptual framework you are trying to create in mind, for the future is not a grim ridge of impossibility from where you just fall off into a never ending gorge of despair, but always offers a great range of possibilities which is limited only by the scale of your imagination and the scope of your talent to realise it. So use this time to build those - imagination and talent and you never know when they will merge with a beautiful opportunity coming in your way to celebrate yet another victory, a new unknown territory of expertise, for in just the curiosity to know more and explore wider man has surpassed every barrier known to his previous generations while setting new standards in evolution.
Remember the one thing other than your bachelor friend that does not hesitate to come in breaking the doors, even if you don't want or invite, is entropy. Sadly it does not leave even after the friend leaves. So it is entirely upto you on how to deal with it. Booze does not necessarily wash it down through your system that you can piss yourself off with it. Instead it may turn around and piss you off even worse when you wake up! The only way to confuse the shit out of entropy is by bombarding it with a truckload of choices that you would want to pursue and challenge it to accompany you! Just let your imagination run wild to create those choices - for there is no tax levied (yet) for imagining.
Men try to get back to their bachelor days when they grow older. Just throw in a few cans of beer and old mates from college or workplace, and you will see them monkeying around again. It is sheer fun. But only for a few hours. Then we get back to our business. But for those who are indeed bachelors and spending their time in bachelorhood, life can't be just monkeying around as there are lot more things to do as well - without anyone else breathing down your neck. And for the bachelor fun, there are always Friday evenings, as this one today.
Have fun, drink big, and dream even bigger!
