The Last Lap !!!!!

"Come On, You're almost there........
Don't let go of it now........
You've worked so hard for this........
There is no one else who can do it.......
. You are meant for this.......
. Just push a little harder and the victory is yours........"

Welcome to the Last Lap!! After every possible endeavor has been done, after every stone has been turned, after every drop of sweat has been profusely spent and after a roller coaster ride of a big adrenaline rush- comes the last lap. There are so many sports where this last stage differentiates between "WHO IS" and WHO COULD'VE BEEN" .This difference, which is decided in split seconds at times, marks a clear distinction between the champion who takes it all and the runner up whose dead heat loss would haunt as a nightmare in the future. It is the stage that defines a gamut of traits for the road map of success immaterial of the goal one has chosen to pursue. This stage demands gruelling physical balnce and tremendous mental calmness, it demands proactive motivation and the optimism to be a finisher and not a choker. It demands self belief that can bog down the weight of expectations carried on the shoulders and it demands the mental toughness to still focus on the target inspite of all these things running in one's head to accomplish VICTORY. After all, who wont want to end up being the one to open the champagne's cork as a sign of pride and a symbol of supremacy? The winner gets the gold, everyone else simply live with the consolation.

The likes of Michael Schumacher, Lance Armstrong, Usain Bolt, Mohammad Ali, Sachin Tendulkar, Zinedine Zidane have been the legends who've faced the music of this gruelling stage for many years and they not only learnt to live with it, they made it dance to their own tunes. All these consummate legends share the trait of speed, agility, focus, diligence, power, toughness and dogged determination to make it through the last lap of their battle and emerge as victorious Spartans. Their examples reflect that one needs to be equipped with these essential traits to be the last man standing. But what if you don't have any of these traits and you're suffering from many ailments- mentally and physically and are left with no purpose in life. Even the other end of the victory post looks nebulous and you aren't even sure whether the destination is a sign of victory or defeat.

Welcome to the Last Lap!! Forget speed, forget proactive motivation, forget optimism, forget toughness and forget focus. Here you're now in the last lap of the circle of life. The last lap of a person's life is the absolute opposite of what a sport's last lap represents. After embarking a very long journey with myriad ups and downs,content or discontent, fulfillment or regret, laurels or ignominies, comfort or struggle, a person is left with the memories that provide him/her a window of retrospect to look back at the time spent. Its not that anything would be changed on looking back at the road travelled so far, but maybe it is the platform to move away from what might have been the cause of all problems- DENIAL!! Guilt and redemption are positive traits because they make a person move a step away from DENIAL and towards ACCEPTANCE.









Life is a great leveller and the best testimony to this facet comes in the dusk of life. Be it a hedonist who relished the cornucopian luxuries or a mendicant who always lived in a hand to mouth state in life, the last lap is a struggle for both.Just put yourself in the shoes of an 80 year old person who has lived a satisfactory life and has performed all the responsibilities expected by the society and commands the respect of the people who know him. But that was in the past, what next? Is comfort a sufficient substitute for purpose? Is existence good enough to make us forget about life? Imagine the struggle each day presents where one really has little to contribute or convey. What exacerbates the situation is the prevalence of various ailments. The lack of pupose is worsened by the prevalence of various problems such as vision or hearing impairment, dementia and a big list that i really dont want to get into. Picking only the normal vision and hearing impairments, imagine how difficult can life get when communication becomes difficult. Imagine the jolt to a person whose opinion has been sought after all through the life and now the person can't even be part of a normal conversation. Imagine looking around all day but getting nothing more than a hazy picture of what is around. Immobility, dependence and growing altercation with the family(just to fight with one's own frustration) are repercussions whose thought itself is pretty depressing. A person's prowess rises and sets like the sun and the dusk is really a difficult time to deal with even though the twilight may give sporadic reasons to celebrate.



This is the stage of life when a person transforms from a reader of spirituality to its aficionado. Maybe the process is a bit late in the day, but the little drops of tranquility that thinking about God, morals and virtues give them is the perfect way to sprinkle purpose. This is the stage where the grandchildren become their best friends and a small session of talk or a little laugh with them becomes the purpose to spend the remaining days. They look forward to these sessions and it is the time that makes them forget everything else.








This is the time when the mind transcends and there is an uncanny trance in their minds which is inscrutable for others. This last lap is diametrically opposite to the last lap we talked about earlier as here even the definition of victory isn't known. It might be a silent death for some without being any trouble to anyone, it may be trying to fulfill that one last wish that has been impending for long- the bucket list that was long forgotten. What lies beyond the final line is still an enigma for everyone, but maybe unraveling this mystery is what provides the long missing purpose in their lives.

Now I'm not here to question or empathize or educate anyone to work for ameliorating their plight. I'm no pedant. It is a rambling that came to my mind and I decided to put it in words. I don't expect anything out of others and I wont ask anyone to do anything. A sense has been gifted to everyone which works and if listened to properly, it directs in the right path. The last lap is an inevitable process of life and has to be dealt with. Change is a nature of life and one generation has to make way for the next one and if this is the way chosen for it, then let it be. Maybe a smile next time you see an old person might be the trick. After all, even this small gesture can give them a purpose to move on.

But there is one common aspect in both the last laps i mentioned- there is a persistent struggle and at the end of the day everyone does cross the finishing line. There is a similar perseverance and there is a similar patience. The victory doesn't matter in the latter case. A feeling of ACCEPTANCE is the perfect denouement to the scheme of things.


Anyhow is there still a last man standing????