I've finally seen 3 Idiots. Finally! Loved the movie, as did millions of others. I guess it is something we all feel deep within our hearts? Give me some sunshine, give me some rain, give me another chance, i wanna grow up once again....
And our situation was probably far better than the kids who go through the rigors of the education system today. If someone weighs the backpack most kids carry to school today, it would outweigh their own weight! Seen the results of late? 99.7% 99% 98.8%.... Most teachers give marks to projects based on their liking towards certain students. Everyone has to be the best, come first and earn the most.
In effect, we are teaching ourselves and the Next Gen to always compare their standing with someone else's standing and evaluate their own self. Forget about individualistic thoughts, it has no space in today's web of confusion. About 10 years ago, everyone had to do a BE + secure job. Now, its a BE + MBA + high salary + posh lifestyle... And that's mostly because everyone else has it and it's easy to drift into the same state of mind.
Our lives our stereotyped, our minds are stereotyped, our values are stereotyped... we are stereotyped. We are mere xerox copies of each other with different faces.
3 months ago i took a decision which has changed my life, almost. 3 years of working in the way we do, i had lost myself. Apart from putting on enough weight to scare the the living daylights out of me, i had turned into someone i could not identify with. When i stopped and looked, i saw people who were afraid to speak their minds out and kick some assholes in their rear because they feared losing their jobs. I will never forget being stranded at 10PM in the office campus when virtually everyone had left on account of a transportation strike and the manager did not think it was important to alert me. He instead picked up his bag and walked out. Whats worse? Another manager who knew i was working there canceled his meeting and left early as well. And the same duo sniggered at me the next day. I cannot believe someone like me would continue working under these circumstances but i did. Thats where i had begun losing myself.
And i know, that those who read this will also have experienced the same. At least most of them. You gradually get sucked into this world where it's all about how much you earn, how secure your job is, how well equipped you are to build a house by the time you're 30, where you can put your kids to school. The sad part is, in our country these stupid things matter! How many of us chose IT as field worth pursuing because we knew what it was? We knew Infosys and Wipro, that's all we knew. :) Some in the army of high-salary hopefuls began enjoying it. But as far as i know, 99% do not enjoy it. They do it for their salary and lifestyle.
So exactly what is a child supposed to pursue in this complex world we have created? Literature? Chemistry? Law? Biology? Science? Music? Who cares? What one pursues is a plush job. That doesn't necessarily need to be defined by any vocation.
Or do we learn from our not-so-uplifting lives and refrain from making such mistakes going forward?
It's sad that we have built this vicious circle where we have to be in this damned rat race to be able to afford the most basic necessities. Or maybe it's all in our mind. Maybe we will achieve some semblance of peace when we begin listening to ourselves rather than what society tells us....
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Friday, 1 January 2010
Hang on!
Happy New Year...!
We were sitting have dessert a few mins back when my dad made this statement very casually, "See, already Jan 1st is over.". Do you have any idea what that does to someone whose life is gonna take a total flip in 2 months time? All this while, when it was still 2009, marriage was still 'next year. lotsa time!'. Now it's more like 'it's this year'. So essentially, casual statements like this make me panic.
I think i know exactly what plants and trees feel like when they are uprooted. It's the same you know. I've known one kinda life. My parents, my home, my room, living room, kitchen, the locality, the city... For a quarter of a century i've breathed it. And now overnight, literally, my ENTIRE existence is going to change. I remember asking a friend who got married last year, what it felt like to know that you'll be married in a week's time. I remember her saying that it's scary and weird. Back then i thought that i wont feel that way because i'll be with Sandeep and things will all be hunky dory. They definitely still will. But you know, when the most important things that have kept your life normal all these years aren't around? It's gonna be strange...
- Not waking up in my room.
- Not hearing the neighbors talk loud enough for me to lose sleep at 1AM
- Not getting up and groggily walking into the kitchen for some coffee
- Not seeing my parents early morning. This is gonna be difficult man. How? I mean, the two people on whom a child lays implicit trust in are far far away.
- Not seeing the garden every morning.
- Not cussing at people who get their dogs to poop right in front of people's gate
- Not seeing the flower thieves who go about plucking flowers from other people's gardens.
- Not falling asleep on the couch with my mom and dad patiently waking me up for tea. Dad eagerly waiting for me to get my butt off the couch so that we could all have some tea
- Not thinking about the menu for dinner before we even have breakfast
- Mom and I collapsing in a fit of laughter while dad loudly proclaims that we are insane!
These things, seemingly mundane make such a profound difference by their absence. I must admit that i did not usher in the new year with complete happiness. It's not all happy happy for me. I'm gonna be so far away so very soon from mom and dad - the backbone of my life. People should stop making technical analysis of 'how much time is left for what'. It's nice to be ignorant of it sometimes.
So now, instead of waking up and seeing them, i will see them on webcam. Listen to their voice on telephone only. Sad is the only word one would get to describe this.
But, as my dad says, one must always move on. No point being too attached to things.
So here's to a new year! It's gonna change my life, like crazy! But hey, am I looking forward to the adventure or what?! :)
We were sitting have dessert a few mins back when my dad made this statement very casually, "See, already Jan 1st is over.". Do you have any idea what that does to someone whose life is gonna take a total flip in 2 months time? All this while, when it was still 2009, marriage was still 'next year. lotsa time!'. Now it's more like 'it's this year'. So essentially, casual statements like this make me panic.
I think i know exactly what plants and trees feel like when they are uprooted. It's the same you know. I've known one kinda life. My parents, my home, my room, living room, kitchen, the locality, the city... For a quarter of a century i've breathed it. And now overnight, literally, my ENTIRE existence is going to change. I remember asking a friend who got married last year, what it felt like to know that you'll be married in a week's time. I remember her saying that it's scary and weird. Back then i thought that i wont feel that way because i'll be with Sandeep and things will all be hunky dory. They definitely still will. But you know, when the most important things that have kept your life normal all these years aren't around? It's gonna be strange...
- Not waking up in my room.
- Not hearing the neighbors talk loud enough for me to lose sleep at 1AM
- Not getting up and groggily walking into the kitchen for some coffee
- Not seeing my parents early morning. This is gonna be difficult man. How? I mean, the two people on whom a child lays implicit trust in are far far away.
- Not seeing the garden every morning.
- Not cussing at people who get their dogs to poop right in front of people's gate
- Not seeing the flower thieves who go about plucking flowers from other people's gardens.
- Not falling asleep on the couch with my mom and dad patiently waking me up for tea. Dad eagerly waiting for me to get my butt off the couch so that we could all have some tea
- Not thinking about the menu for dinner before we even have breakfast
- Mom and I collapsing in a fit of laughter while dad loudly proclaims that we are insane!
These things, seemingly mundane make such a profound difference by their absence. I must admit that i did not usher in the new year with complete happiness. It's not all happy happy for me. I'm gonna be so far away so very soon from mom and dad - the backbone of my life. People should stop making technical analysis of 'how much time is left for what'. It's nice to be ignorant of it sometimes.
So now, instead of waking up and seeing them, i will see them on webcam. Listen to their voice on telephone only. Sad is the only word one would get to describe this.
But, as my dad says, one must always move on. No point being too attached to things.
So here's to a new year! It's gonna change my life, like crazy! But hey, am I looking forward to the adventure or what?! :)
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