Cruel Paradise

Looking at the burning candle made me realise that everything fades away as it burns and becomes light for others. Though your names might stay behind. But at what cost? The cost of burning yourself? And still, if someone accidentally gets burned, all your struggles to light someone’s life would be in vain in their sight.

The paradise you created for someone turned out to be cruel for someone just because of the point of view they have... So what is it for you in the end...?

Paradise is what everyone longs for and runs to, to make their life a dream, one they keep looking at with open eyes. Dreams, wishes, likelihood, and success, everyone wants to have them. This is the sort of paradise everyone seeks. Exceptionals are those who think differently. These are the ones who want a simple and happy family life. But it doesn’t go the same way for them either.

We forget everything we own has a price. Every step we choose turns out to be a step backward for someone. This is why it is always said, “ Life is unpredictable."

Life is lovely when you have all or nothing. But misery lives in the middle, where there's much to gain and lose. Life doesn't play fair. It keeps on twisting in ways you can’t understand. Here is where a middle-class man suffers.

It’s either love, money, looks, or stability. A middle-class man always struggles. He has an urge to become better and more successful, but somehow, in his pursuit of success, he keeps losing himself. And when he reaches the pinnacle, he is lost.

Every relation bound to him is somehow related to the money or success he has. The paradise a man longs for his whole life turns out to be a mean and selfish world that doesn't care about feelings and struggles. All it cares about is the benefits it has.

This is the cruel paradise: a world that promises fulfillment but tests us with harsh realities and reveals its true cost.

Dignity, humanity, love, care, and affection have no price when someone is failing to meet the needs of those around them.

So, what are we really struggling for? Are we creating paradise only for ourselves or also for those around us? This question cuts to the heart of our actions.

If we are bound to repeat our actions endlessly, how do we justify running on this track? The repetition hints at a deeper struggle, tied to our pursuit of a personal paradise.

We speak of love, the concept ruined by the movies and the stories made to lure the children. However, it isn’t the same in real life. Here, love doesn’t act the same.

I still remember the day she said she couldn’t wait anymore.

She didn’t shout. She didn’t cry.

She just said she needed stability — and I wasn’t there yet.

That was the first time I understood that love, too, has deadlines.

This is the cruel paradise: an environment where love and ambition are often overruled by society's expectations and self-interest.

Suffering doesn’t go with acceptance alone. It goes with the money. We all understand that we live in a society where we are bound to money. Our worth is judged by money and how we look. Every relation suffers if you don't earn.

This is the cruel paradise: a place where worth and relationships hinge on material success, overshadowing our deeper needs.

Somehow, we are trying to be good, trying to show our humanity to the world. Trying to keep humanity alive. All the charities, good works, and deeds we are doing to save ourselves are just a nimble practice to stay alive.

Smiles on little things, telling ourselves that this is how life goes. We try to stay happy and enjoy the moments of our lives. But is it really true happiness? I wonder….

I used to think paradise meant stability — a house, a name, a position.

But I began to understand something else. Paradise wasn’t cruel. The conditions attached to it were.

We keep on struggling, but what we get is a paradise built by us, where we become the victims of the ideologies of people. We only have the scars left by the people on us.

Maybe paradise was never cruel.

Maybe we were — when we measured love in currency and worth in applause.