Why every millennial should watch Naruto.

2014 Hyderabad

I was back from college. Stressful day. Two hours transit in this busy traffic really exhausts one’s body and mind. Lectures whole day. Jeez!

I sat down on my couch trying to plan my evening. Maybe I will just take my evening off and watch an anime my friend begged me to see.

2020 Karlsruhe

The world is on fire. Pandemic. Racism. Murder. Corruption. Pollution. Abuse.

I sat on my couch. It was a tiring day. Pull requests, approvals, coffee, daily, jour fixe, design. I had achieved so much in a day but there was a feeling of emptiness. I closed my eyes for a bit. Although there was no physical stress, I was way more exhausted than I was 6 years back. Maybe it’s my age or maybe its my poor mental health management.

“The longer you live… The more you realize that reality is just made of pain, suffering and emptiness.”

This quote flashed in front of my eyes. Maybe Madara was right. There is no point in all this. We grow, we learn, we die.

Madara is an antagonist in Naruto Shippuden (2nd iteration of Naruto series) whose aim was to bring peace to the world by simulating everyone’s minds to their own ideal world. This way everyone will have experienced the life they wanted but in truth, their bodies will be decaying in the real world.

And then there is Naruto, who lost his parents when he was too young to even realise that. He has a monster inside his belly which made everyone treat him like a monster. People are afraid of him and no one tries to interact with him. He tries to seek their attention with naughty antics but this just annoys people (he was just 5). He eats dinner alone and in order to not feel alone, he plays cards with his own clones.

The plot of the entire series follows his journey of discovering his potential and making friends but I was quite impressed with his ability to not deter from his goal. He had a goal which gave him a purpose. He may be lonely, sad, happy, depressed, broke or hungry, he always made sure these temporary feelings never corrupt his purpose.

His famous quote being,

“While you’re alive, you need a reason for your existence. Being unable to find one is the same as being dead.”

I realised maybe that's why I was feeling fulfilled 6 years back when I was a student. I had goals back then, immediate and long term. These ranged from developing an app to planning abroad studies. They kept me excited. I had a purpose and I was stressed for my own purpose.

The Naruto in me knocked sense into the Madara in me. We are all collectively living in the survival mode. Its high time to get back to the purpose mode.

“I never give up because that's my Ninja way.”

What’s yours?