VANITY

Few college students are sitting in a group discussing some idiotic topics. One girl gets offended with something and shouts at her friends. One close friend tries to calm her, but she reprimanded him as well. She says what you know about being rich, look at you how poor you are. The boy joked “I know I am poor. In fact, I am so much poor that I put airplane mode even while traveling through trains.” Everyone laughs and the girl gets more offended, she again attempts to show the boy down with the fact that she has traveled to more countries than he has been to villages. The boy congratulates her for this feat as “It is always wonderful to travel the world, not just to see the places but to live their stories.”

The girl could not understand what the reference is for, but she asks the boy “what he has done to be proud of?” The boy replies “You may have seen many countries, but I for sure have many true friends. Even if I do not talk or meet them daily, they can count on me and so can I on them.” The girl mocks “Your friends are the only thing you are proud of?” The boy says “Yes, including you. Despite you being mean to me, I know you love me and will be there for me whenever I need you.”

This changes the girl’s mood, she apologizes to him. She asks the boy, how could he kept his calm in spite of her talking with him so badly. The boy replies “I know that there isn’t any problem with me, probably you are being mean to me just to give a boost to your own vanity. It is normally the insecurities of a person which makes them irritable and mean.” The girl says “I just apologized to you, you again want to get reprimanded. Do you really think I am vain?” The boy says “vanity is unavoidable, even the fact that we are afraid of dying gives proof of our vanity.” The girl says “I am no dumb, but still I have no clue what you want to say.”

Boy: Why are you afraid of dying?

Girl: I have not achieved anything.

Boy: But why do you want to achieve anything?

Girl: I would like to be praised for my work.

Boy: And you wanted to scold me for pointing out your vanity, where you yourself believe it to be the direct reason for your work. Further, do you think Einstein or Newton after having achieved almost everything was not afraid of dying? If you think they were why would you think so?

Girl: They wanted to achieve more or they have families to take care of. Tell me how would thinking about family and being afraid of dying is not altruistic but vain.

Boy: The mere thought that I am necessary to take care of family is because of vanity, maybe you are the reason why your family is not required to do anything wonderful and necessity never arises to bring the best out of them.

The class break is over and all students return to their respective classrooms.