Don’t lose yourself…

This poem was inspired by an Indian movie I watched titled “Kho gaye hum kahan” (Where are we lost) that explores the story of 3 youngsters trying to find meaning in the digital age and eventually discovering that life is meant to be lived in person and not online.

(I think this blurry image captured from a moving car is apt for this poem)

You do not realize how far you have drifted

From who you were, how your priorities have shifted

Though your goals and dreams are the sane as they used to be

You’ve let yourself be pulled in different directions unknowingly

You are bedazzled by the highlights that you see

Of others’ lives, you compare them incessantly

With your behind-the-scenes life that a big mess appears

You are flailing while everyone is succeeding, you fear

*

Do you realize that less than two decades ago

There was no way for you to know

The business of most people around you unless

You interacted with them or they had achieved considerable success

But now every person behind an instagram reel

Appears successful, and makes you feel

You are not enough, that you need to be

Doing something that the world can see

And applaud you even if the story is fake

Think of the toll on your emotional state this can take..

*

Step away from the phantasmagoric universe

Of social media, do not make yourself feel worse

Remove the unreal comparisons and find

A way back to your sane, less conflicted mind

You’ve lost yourself in a world that is beyond your comprehension

Discover yourself in the real world, leave your device and pay attention