The stairs

Two brothers lived on the 80th floor of a huge building. One day on coming back from their travel they found that there was a power failure. Although they carried with them many luggages, they had no alternative but to take the stairs to go back to their home.

When they reached the 20th floor, they were already exhausted. The elder brother said,"The bags are too heavy. I think we leave them here for the moment. When the current resumes, we come down by the lift and take them home." As such they left the luggages at the 20th floor and continued to climb the stairs light-heartedly.

When they reached the 40th floor, they were really tired. Considering that they had another 40 floors to climb, they started blaming each other for not taking heed of the announcement regarding the power cut.

They argued while continued to climb the stairs until they reached the 60th floor. Now they were so tired they had no more energy to quarrel.

The younger brother said,"Let's stop arguing and climb the stairs." So they continued climbing in silence. Finally they reached the 80th floor. Their happiness was shortlived as they found that they had left the keys inside the baggage at the 20th floor.

This story actually reflects our lives : when we are below 20 years of age, we have to live up to the expectation of our parents and teachers. We are under pressure and carry with us a heavy burden.

When we are above 20 years old, we leave behind our burden to pursue our dreams and goals in life. We spend the 20 years happily. But when we reach 40 years of age, we find that our youth has passed. We begin to feel regretful and thus we spend the next 20 years in remorse.

When coming to 60 years of age, we discover that there is not much left of our lives. So we tell ourselves that we stop grumbling and treasure the rest of the days. We spend the remaining years in silence.

When coming to the end of our lives, we realise that we have not achieved anything in life. We had our dreams left behind in the youthful years when we were 20 years old.