My name is Ozymandias

I’ve come down for a wedding and I’ve a few more hours to check out of the hotel. There were a few other weddings too happening in the hotel, but looks like I’m the last one remaining to leave, everyone else seems to have left. As my heart was wishing happiness to all those newly wedded souls, I went around, only to see all the structures that were so lively till a few hours back sport a deserted appearance. Old structures were getting dismantled and new ones were coming up in their places.

I went through this during my own wedding as I saw those sets getting dismantled the next day. And that was not the first time a "dismantling" had created this feeling in me. Is this weekend a culmination of all those past weekends spent thinking about attachment and detachment, about emotions and reason, about shallowness and depth, about enjoying life at the moment and enjoying living itself, about being useful to oneself and being useful to others?

As I was thinking of all this, my eyes fell on the lovely ashtray in my room. I can already imagine all that it would’ve seen in its years of existence. A happy couple loving each other? A routine family with its usual fights? A group of friends partying? A loner having a sad cup of coffee? A businessman with a drink? But what is it all about? All the decoration and all the proclamation, all the music and all the dance, all the happiness and all the excitement, all the people and all the life:

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

May be living for oneself is like breathing, but I think true living has to be about living for others. Sure, we didn’t carry anything when we were born and we won’t carry anything when we’re gone, but I think, we can die as someone who thought beyond himself, we can die as someone who was useful to this world, we can die as someone who made a difference to the lives of a few creatures around him. As we continue to breathe, let us not forget - we've to live too!