Centuries... Or is it seconds?

I was playing poker tonight, same as almost every night in the last three terms. Painstakingly, over many many games, I made a tidy little profit. Basically I multiplied my buy-in by about 4 times. And then I played one hand, a big hand, and lost all of it in one go. It took me a few minutes to lose all that advantage. I barely broke even.

So what is the point of this diatribe? Well it is simply this, it occurred to me that creation usually takes a lot of time and painstaking effort where as the destruction is often immediate. Now, I am not trying to get all existential here, but it is true, isn't it? I mean, how old is earth? And all it may take is one meteorite strike (albeit a giant one) to annihilate the planet, right? Maybe that is too theoretical. But lets just take any city. It often takes centuries for a city to reach its modern, bustling state. And a nuclear holocaust is all it will take to raze it to the ground.

Forget the big picture. Lets just look at small, everyday things. Last month I was attending a cousin's wedding in Puri. While there, my small nephew started building a sand castle by the beach. Now this boy is just above 4 years old and in true Dennis the Menace style, absolutely impossible to repress. So when he actually sat in one place for half an hour, it was a great relief for all of us. And just when he was putting the finishing touches to his master piece, his one and a half year old brother came and sat down plumb in the middle of the structure. It took a fraction of a second. From creation to destruction in no time at all.

Forget innocent kids, unaware of their actions. We do it everyday. Not too long ago I spent the better part of an afternoon writing a story. I actually considered this story quite good. Now this is when I still used to own a highly unreliable Compaq laptop (nothing wrong with the company, the fault lay entirely with my own technological expertise). Now these were the days when I didn't believe in/understood the importance of back up. Well, one thing led to another, my computer crashed, there was no back ups and no data could be retrieved, and I lost that story (along with many others) in a matter of one rebooting (equating a few minutes).

Not just physical things, this is true for relationships as well. It is strange how once too many times one argument or one issue can ruin long term friendships. Sometimes, a simple move to a different city can ruin something that was once supposed to be permanent. And sometimes, a simple change in the tag- the name of the relationship- can cause the relationship to crumble like a card castle. I am not being a pessimist here. Not all friendships or relationships have to go like that. But it happens more often that we would like to acknowledge.

So anyone who reaches this far will wonder whats the point of this piece. I guess its nothing. Or I guess its just realisation. But what should one learn from it? Do I stop making/creating/building just because it may come down in less than a minute? So I was watching this television show where as part of a competition this guy made a glass pyramid tower using 84 wine glasses. And just when he had completed making the task, the second part of the task required him to pour a bottle of champagne down the tower to create a champagne fountain. And just as he had almost completed pouring the bottle, one small shiver of his hand caused a change in the balance of the champagne being poured out. The entire tower tumbled and almost all glasses were broken. He shrugged his shoulder and moved on to an alternate challenge.That challenge he aced. One never knows, does one?