“So, why are you doing this?”
Someone asks me. I take a deep breath. My eyes scan around for some visual clues and get hooked on a giant LED screen with bold blue letters “Welcome to Facebook!”
It is a hot day. I am rolling a motorcycle tyre in the street of Layyah. A slap hits my face, and my bicycle crashes into a rickshaw. “Remember, you are the son of a labourer!” As I bury my head in books, someone drags me by the hair in the office. I kiss her on the cheek, but a storm fills my mouth with the sand. I collapse on the ground coughing and vomiting all my dreams one by one.
The ringing of a bicycle bell brings me back to the world. While sitting among young programmers from the world’s top tech companies, I try hard to come up with a profound answer. My mind is shovelling desperately for gold, but instead of striking gold, the shovel is hitting hard rocks and creating sparks.
Why did I do my previous trip from Germany to Pakistan and the ones before? Why did I begin cycling at all? Why was I born, and why is there a planet Earth, or even a universe? Eventually, I run out of an explanation and leave this question up to God. The why becomes God!
Asking someone about their motivation for passion is like examining the purpose of their life. The answer to this question lies so deep within us that we cannot observe it yet involuntary respond to it. Many people refer to it as listening to the inner voice. Don’t ask a moth why it flies into the flame? It is pure love.
It also precisely why I left behind two Master degrees and a PhD in computer science along with a professional career and haven’t looked back since 2015. My passion for cycling endless roads is indeed selfish, but the purpose of my photo stories is not. It is about selflessly serving others with lessons from the road.
Coming back to “why are you doing this?” if you are true to yourself, you have no choice but find a way to fulfil your destiny. The key is to discover your passion that drives your purpose, for a life without a passion is dull, and a life without a purpose, meaningless.
Now, if I could direct the same question back to those tech professionals:
“so, why are you working?”
Read my full essay: http://kamranonbike.com/on-why/
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