Live And Let Live!

Independence! Heard of it? Yeah, sure, we are reminded of it every 15^th Aug of every single year. We holler on top of our voice, ride bikes and drive cars with flags held up high, we sing patriotic songs and watch parades. But the question is do we have the independence yet? Do we understand what independence is? Or should I ask, Are we really independent?

We see Independence as an object; something that we managed to snitched from British some 60 odd years back. We celebrate the same thing over and over and over again, without being able to comprehend what exactly does that mean. We fail to fathom the fact that independence is served in phases. We live in an Independent nation (debatable, but that’s another topic), but we are yet to be independent as an individual (for sure). Why would I say that? What do I mean by that? Well…

Prior to 1947 Brits used to decide upon what we should and should not do. They were the rule makers. They ruled by law, and for obvious reasons. The Empire as it once was no longer exists, but it’s the society that has been passed upon the baton now. Every single decision that we make is influenced by our surroundings. Everything that we do is done in a way that is being approved by society.

If I may say, in a way we have become indecisive. Ironic enough; we like it! We like the idea that most important decisions of our life are taken by someone else. We like the idea of being remotely controlled by outside authority. We like the whole ‘you do it for me’ concept. We are afraid to make our own decision, fearing the possibility of being wrong or thwarted. We are raised that way; being inculcated with this thought since a fetus we once were. And to top it all off, we are expected to pass on this truncheon downhill.

Paradoxical enough as it is; we are expected to vote at 18 and are forced to marry someone our “society” deemed compatible for us. The society decides upon whom shall we fall in love with, whom shall we take as our partner for life and whom shall we celebrate our joys with and share our sorrows with. We are too scared to make that decision on our own being afraid that others would think less of us (who, more often than not, does not mean a squirt of piss). Call it dignity or loss of opportunity, but the truth prevails. And it’s rubbish!

We have set of protocols that we are obligated to follow; it does not matter how grim, irrational, boisterous, preposterous piece of crap they are. We are bound to walk the road our care takers have carved. We are riding the same old bullock-cart that our great great grandfathers rode with very little or absolute no change-over. ‘Aren’t we breeding pissants in human body?’ The moment we see the wind is not helping to sail our life boat, we drop on our knees and beg for help. Keep on doing this and the concept of backbones would be a myth in no time.

We have to understand that we are yet to achieve individual independence. And until we do that we are just mocking ourselves in our so called great nation. We must apprehend the fact that our freedom ends where the tip of our nose begins. We are not authorized to sculpture someone else’s life when we failed to do that for our own self. We are raised in a society where we are taught to be respectful to elders. And with this cute looking thought comes in some ugly stuff which says: if you don’t want ass whipping, better let us make decisions for you.

We call this nation of ours an epitome of democracy. I have better word to describe it: Hypocrisy! We are a nation full of hypocrites. We say that we are a secular nation; we throw big words: freedom of speech, democracy, diversity. But when someone tries to put forth his/her thoughts we smother them, strangle them, and choke them to death, rather brutally! We would not flinch to make someone go on an exile (self imposed or otherwise) who tries to hurt our sentiments. Why do we fail to understand that everyone is free to speak out their minds, free to express their feelings, their thoughts, free to live their lives as they reckon good for them? Let alone appreciating someone else’s work; can’t we cut them a little slack if we don’t like what we see of them? Is it too harsh of a concept to practice? Or are we so self centered, pampered, egoist, eccentric, bunch of hypocrites that we would not want our coziness to get hampered at any cost?

Living life on own terms! Sounds so simple, but seems a colossal task to live out. Life is not meant to be complicated; thanks to our “skills” we make it complicated. If we peep into ourselves we would know that we are so tangled from within that the idea of sorting out someone else sounds absurdly amusing. If you feel that you are independent, would you be so kind enough to let others feel the same way? All I want to say is… Live and let live!

My Luck! Or is it?

I happened to stumble upon something a little while back which read – ‘Luck has a particular habit of favoring those who don’t depend on it’. This got me wondering; what is this luck? What is its significance? Has this four letters word got such a huge potential to make someone’s life flip 180? Why is it that we always blame our luck for our failure and seldom give a credit of our success to it? What is that thin line that segregates something tangible from intangible?

I believe we, the human race, are nurtured in a different way than other living species by the virtue of reasoning power we enjoy. We have evolved and came a long way because of the curiosity trait that we posses and the ability to reason; to reason our existence, to reason our beliefs, to reason the whole purpose of life. To be human is to reason. Interestingly, we even have a word for the day we stop beating up our minds: Armageddon!

Every genome has a different structure. And that is what makes us unique. That’s what differentiates me from Einstein. Brains are something which is to be given a credit for our exclusivity. If we hold this fact dear to us, can we afford to say that the reasoning power that we posses stand at varied levels? These levels could be demarcated by individual’s thinking capacity, speed, the level of depth that one achieves or aspires, ability to untangle thoughts, etc. If you want to know where you stand on this mental ladder, just ask yourself how often you use the word luck! Or say – ‘Meh! He was lucky enough to pull that off’.

We try to be rational every time we think about something, try to find a solution. The moment in time our reasoning power gives up we hand over the situation to our all time favorite - luck. Needless to say; we GIVE UP! Even when stated matter-of-factly, it’s a mean thing to say to anyone. It’s a kind of an anathema, if I may say so. So let me restructure the “give up” phrase to mellow it down a little. We may say: That’s the point in time we think that the question in hand is not worthy enough to ponder upon. We pick that situation up from our Area of Concern and place it in our Area of Influence so that it does not bother us any further. And we resume enjoying the bliss in ignorance.

If we believed in Newton when he said: Every action has equal and opposite reaction; shouldn’t we declare this phenomenon called luck obsolete taking into consideration the popular belief that luck has nothing to do with your actions? Had Newton termed the Apple falling on his head incident his bad luck and moved on, we would have been deprived of - what is being referred to as one of the most hated figure in the area of physics – Gravity = 9.8.

There are only limited resources in this universe. Remember Einstein when he said: Energy can neither be created, nor be destroyed! Better known as E=mc2. If you are not the one to posses the thing you wanted, someone else deserves it more than you do. It’s not something your luck should be blamed for. It’s what you do that makes you or breaks you. That’s simply timid of us if we blame our failure on something not even remotely related. Every situation that we find ourselves in is the aftermath of our actions. It is just that we fail to see the relation, we fail to connect the dots, and we fail to get our brain cells ticking the right way to perceive the obvious.

The moment we give up reasoning is the moment we stop living. We are as good as other four legged living creatures around if not for our brains. So the next time when you say – ‘Luck hi kharaab hai yaar!’ - ask yourself this same question: Am I doing justice to myself?

I am going to leave you with a thought by a protagonist of a movie called Matrix.

Neo: I do not believe in fate, because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.

Keep thinking, Be Alive. Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.

My Love!

Why have you left me? Bereft me of all that glow,

Push has come to shove,

What is the matter my love?

Have I made a mistake? Have I made you cry?

Give me something to work upon,

This torn relationship; you left me high and dry.

It was bliss the day we kissed,

Never did I diss, the closeness is what I miss.

Can’t live without you now,

Resuscitate me and hold me tight now,

Caress me with your love, I beg you not to rove.

I am deprived of you, fill me up to the brim,

I miss you to the death, Oh my Sleep! Oh my dream!

You are the one, you make my heart go bleep,

You are my love, Oh my Sleep!