Backup plans and backup pals !

In this age, almost all of us find ourselves running a rat race. The age factor is not relevant anymore. Young children and youth are prodded to become competitive in their spirit, young couples are scrambling to put their lives together and the aged are preparing their nest for retirement. We know that we are fallible and that our plans are not perfect, so we find alternatives - if not this, then that or maybe that other one?  Back up plans have become a staple in our regular way of thinking and operating. Sure we can all live with that.

But how about when you realize some people warm upto you (these ones would normally look through you like you were never there !!) and you wonder if they have started to like you after all?

It takes a couple of incidents until you become sure of what is really going on. These people need an audience, need to find a way to kill boredom, a way to cope with loneliness, a way to restore their confidence. So they go in search of lesser mortals, when their regulars are not available. And some of us end up playing those roles.

Yes some of us have been assigned to the group "backup pals", in what I imagine to be a growing list !

There is consolation somewhere that we have been able to fill their void somehow and is sort of gratifying to know that our existence is not meaningless after all.

So yeah, we can live with that too....can't we?