01 June, 2014

LIFE IS LIKE TEMPLE RUN




Q1. Life is like Temple Run. Explain.                                                                      ? Marks

            Looks like a Question doesn’t it? What if you are writing an exam and you get this question? Well for an engineering student especially VTU student wouldn’t freak out looking at such questions!! We are used to such kind of totally unexpected questions. Aren’t we? Well that’s VTU!!

            Oh! Wait a minute. Did I mention how many marks does this question carry? Hmm if its typical VTU question I guess it should carry 20 marks right? I think it’s better if I decide it at the end of this article. I have to know how many line and sentences I have written. (That’s how we decide to write an answer in the exam. Don’t we?).

            Now coming to main objective of the game. Take the idol from the temple and run without getting caught by a demon monkey who is chasing you. If you are unfamiliar with Temple Run game you might be wondering “Why does a demon chase you if you are stealing idol from a Temple”. Actually even I have the same doubt. Anyways we all know that the Game works in a mysterious way.

            Don’t you think this is what our life is? Consider the player being the body of a human (That’s you!). The idol being your soul and the Demon is Death chasing you. Life is a game. Life is like Temple Run. Isn’t it?

            Did I just conclude my answer? No. I am damn sure that in VTU we won’t get marks if we write just this much. I gotta write more.

            Do we know why we are running? Where are we supposed to go? Life does not come with a manual right? Unlike a car racing game Temple Run doesn’t have a road map. Life always goes ahead. We never have an undo option. Ctrl+z don’t work here. So does our game. Life takes turns. We have to take them. Sometimes we do have choices. Either left or right. But the irony is that we don’t have time to stop and think. All we have to do is keep running or else we will be caught by the demon. (Now don’t tell me there is a pause button!!).

            Money is important. It buys almost everything but not happiness. Hey! Wait a minute. If we get more coins we do feel happy right? But everyone knows it is just for the moment. It is not ever-lasting. Am I talking too much philosophy? Let’s come back to our game. We do have coins here too. Since the moment I thought life is like Temple Run I keep wondering what these coins represent. Just coins or your achievements? Punya? Well you can buy things from these coins but you cannot use them in current game. Whereas we spend our money in current life itself. So I think it would be more appropriate if I said that it is like Punya whose results we see in our next life (Actually we don’t see because we don’t remember. Do we?). But if we collect coins, the power meter fills up and we can spend it in the same game. Our deeds do result in same birth also. 

            Are you thinking about the gem? No I am not talking about the Gems chocolate. The green colour Gem in out game which gives you another chance to continue with the same game when the player dies. Life gives us a second chance sometimes third also. But how much we pay? Maybe 1 gem, 2 4… so on.

            We always have obstacles in life. We should try to avoid them by jumping over them, crouching under them and sometimes just tilting. Obstacles may sometimes lead to death or just remind you that death is still chasing you. So does Temple Run. Some obstacles, if you don’t jump, crouch or tilt, and then it’s Game Over. Or it just reminds you that the demon monkey is right behind you.

            Sometimes it so happens that we become so lucky and everything good happens. As an old hindi song says Denewaala jabbi deta, deta chappad phadke. If you think I am referring to coin magnet and the yellow colour one (I forgot what it’s called) which fills the power meter, you are absolutely right. There are situations in life where you feel super strong and no obstacle does anything to you. That’s what shield does. Sometimes we feel as if our life is going on a fast track. We don’t even know what’s happening. We don’t have time to think whether to go left or right, take the coins or not. So does the Boost. Here and then life has surprises. It comes in the form of treasure boxes. What’s in there? Well you will know it only after the game.

            Last but not the least every game has something called score. Different games have different criteria for scoring. In Temple Run the score or points is just a counter which goes on increasing as you run. It never comes down. That is just like our age and our time in this world. It never comes down. It just goes on and on.

            So as I said before Life is like Temple Run. You have to keep running to live. So we can conclude that Life is like Temple Run. (This is how we end our answers. Writing conclusions more than once so as to increase the number of sentences. Don’t we?).

            Hey! Wait a minute. Don’t close the window. I said that I will tell how many marks do this question carry in the end right? It would have been fantastic if we had a choice to give marks for our own answers. But we all know it doesn’t work like that. Now tell me. If you are the valuator, how many marks would you give???

P.S: No negative marking!!!