“T”ROJAN

Have you heard of the Greek story (I’m not sure if it’s a myth or legend) of the Trojan Horse?

After futile attempts to breach the city for ten long years, they played a real sordid trick if I may say. The warriors pretended to accept defeat and leave but left behind a wooden horse as an offering to Goddess Athena. The poor unsuspecting citizens of Troy made merry and took it inside the city gates. They were not aware of the hollow interiors of the horse; they were not aware of the horse being a perfect hideout for around 30 warriors (I’m not sure if they truly deserve the title) who were waiting for the nightfall to open up the city gates and unleash unspeakable horror.

Our technological industry, with the extremely smart malware segment always vying hard to be on the top of its game to outsmart the poor programmers and coders. I feel they took a fancy to the name and called the silent killer computer viruses “Trojans” as they are supposed to sneak into our systems generally through emails and henceforth, kill the background system processes, delete data, corrupt files and undertake the worst possible tasks of giving access to a remote user or download more malware into the system.

Courtesy: Google Images

But I think we are past all that! Can you tell me what is “the Trojan” of the century?

Ransomware? No!

Looming fear of war? No my friend! This century is more devoted to erecting walls, be it physical or of an environment of fear and hatred for reasons that cannot be explained even with an ounce of logic.

What I am talking about is the “Trojan of Stress’ that is slowly creeping into our lives.

The only difference being that instead of being a horse hollow from the inside, stress tries to make our brains hollow from the inside and our actions and thoughts shallow sometimes, even to ourselves.

Just like the soldiers hidden inside the horse who opened the city gates for the “warriors” to conquer what had been a dream for the last ten years, stress unleashes a flurry of negative emotions that all hell breaks loose!

Sometimes, it’s a constant fight between the conscience and the right.

Sometimes, it’s a constant fight between being the victim and stepping up against the might.

The deadlines, the fast paced life has put everything at the backend.

But when the weekend arrives, I wonder why people try to drink it out in exorbitant bars and cafes or lose it all in the loud noise that is loud enough to make it difficult to discern their own voice amidst the chaos where everybody I trying to get lost, to get rid of some baggage or the other while trying to make some statement.

I’ve started losing so many friends to smoking, drinking and what not. Friends whose memory fades away as soon as they get sober! My itchy fingers wonder what is the point of having “deep conversations” when you are at a different high altogether that none of the ground realites actually makes a mark on you.

You know what’s the biggest misfortune (of course from the point of view of my itchy fingers)?

Instead of warning me to stay away from the “elixir” that has become a “poison” for life, I’m met with statements, “Let me see what you do when you are stressed enough!”

I mean it’s not a contest and I would like to earn the bottom position with pride if I’m forced to be a part of it.

But you know what it takes a few firewalls, periodic diagnostic scans, regular updates and a little caution about what to download and which websites to visit to keep the Trojan at bay.

It’s not foolproof but it’s not completely out of hand either.

Maybe putting filters as to what reaches the mental system with periodic breaks from the hectic schedules with a dash of optimism and smiles can keep the Stress Trojan out of lives as well.

It’s not foolproof still but it’s worth a try.

Don’t you think so?

Seeing you pondering, my itchy fingers would like to take your leave as they have to get ready for office where numerous never ending deadlines await them.

This is the 20th post in the series #AtoZChallenge.

This post is also for #BlogchatterA2Z ------> 'T'.