Friday, July 13, 2012

Individual Destiny

The world is full of wonder. There are endless opportunities. There is a lot more we can do if only we don't focus so much on financial safety (or is it mostly greed?) all the time. Parents & teachers must try hard not to narrow their child's vision and lead him/her to where *they* think the treasure is. There's so much yet to be discovered. There's so much yet to be done. There are so many new and unexplored ideas and paths. 


Why create an unnecessarily competitive world that focuses on what everybody else wants to focus on, loses track of true humanity, chases something blindly and knows not what meaning there is to life? Why can't we each choose our own niche areas and complement and collaborate with each other to build a rich, meaningful, creative, cooperative, happy and sustainable world? 


Enough of the 'mass production' of individuals who think and work alike and chase the same things without believing in it. We need to preserve the uniqueness in each of us and celebrate that for life. We need to seek what fits us as individuals and learn to ignore many of the things that the world, for some strange reason, thinks is essential to lead a good life. 


Is the urban man who eats exotic and exquisite food once a week and commutes in an expensive car necessarily happier than the rural man who eats a simple meal of rice and vegetable all through the year and spends time relaxing in the natural breeze from the magnificent trees he has planted? Aren't they both happy as long as they leverage on their skills and ideas, identify and pursue a cause and vision that is important and meaningful to them and continuously expand their capacity to think, learn and act?

2 comments:

Jaideep Sobti said...

Ask the Indian urban middle class these questions.

In a country such as ours, I know the outcome that eventually awaits an individual who is brought up like you feel he/she should.

I'll say the same thing to you that i've been telling my folks for quite some time now... "you're right. but contextually, you're wrong."

Oh and btw, our dear middle and upper class say something else and then do something entirely different. It's ingrained in their very DNA. What i mean to say is that all this stuff is just drawing room conversation. There are only a few folks who've actually walked the talk. And often, their children have had to suffer.. why? ...bcoz they're out of context.

Context rules, right?

Nimmy said...

Jay,

I believe the method to walk the talk is to actually pose these questions to oneself again and again and again...until the day when one gets annoyed with oneself and is jerked out of the 'conditioned' mind.

Re. context - yes, context rules. But will we die without regrets for having stuck to the context? I don't know.