How Much Land Does a Man Need?

The joy of getting your hands on a book, which you enjoyed as a kid, after all these years is invaluable; re-read Leo Tolstoy’s short story — How Much Land Does a Man Need? I was touched when I read it while I was in school, I still found it relevant with what all is happening around us (I won't take the pains to list all that out, you already have news channels doing it for you 24*7!)

Coming back to the book, it is a very simple story about a greedy Russian peasant called Pahóm who wishes to amass land. He receives a very tempting offer from the landowners, the Bashkirs. For 1000 roubles, Pahóm could walk around as large an area as was possible, starting at daybreak. The deal was that if he reaches the starting point by sunset the entire land covered by him would be his. Pahóm overdid it.  By the evening Pahóm realised that he has come very far and frantically ran as fast as he could to get back to his starting point in time. When he got there he was so exhausted that he dropped dead. The Bashkirs buried him in a 6ft x 3ft plot — an ironic answer to the title question!

I don’t know if I would even bother about answering questions like - what are we here for, does life really signify anything and is there any purpose to our existence? I don’t know if anyone knows the answer. Philosophers and thinkers have described ‘life’ in different ways: some call it a journey, some call it a mystery, for some life is totally meaningless. For me life is a gift and we should live it fully to our heart's content and enjoy the journey :)