Saturday, March 01, 2008

Why cant we be a little different?

I see people who will bend backward all the way just to satisfy demands of people whom they are connected to. Indians have two habits, either to hate each other or to please everyone . It can be noted throught the history of India, that Indians have a desire to obey their masters mindlessly. In contemporary India, there are also many instances, where we have given up our individuality, our thinking to be a part of the herd. The whole Indian system is designed to stifle creativity and promote views of majority.

There is no problem with no independent thinking, just that it does not take you anywhere. To be a part of herd is to have a comfortable, safe and sound existence. There is no need to stretch outside your comfort zones, think differently or behave differently. At every stage, you are asked to conform. Conform, first to your parents, then to your teachers and then to your employers. Where is the chance to say something different. If you even wish to talk, you are shouted down or continually asked, when every one is like this why do you want to be different. This is one of the most serious plague that is affliciting the state of our nation.

For a country, that used to be a learning center of world, where different thoughts were not only listenend to but encouraged and where you could have mulitple opinions about God, we have come a long way. The lack of creativity makes people ordinary. There is no human element in our daily living and our life resembles more to a life of robot. I would like to take the example of Bollywood, which every Indian is proud of . It is making wonderful progress in world cinema. We have stars, superstars, big budget movies. But where is the creativity? We are either taking the same old gabbar formula, or we are giving the same soup in a different bowl. Can we even compare with the movies such as 'Life is beautiful' or 'lord of the rings'. Our superheroes look like inferior copies of American superheroes.

As people, we have forgotten how to think different. I wonder in last 50 years where have our thinkers and scholars gone. All we see around is rowdy crowd, bullying everyone who does not agree to their point of view. In absence of thinking, the life becomes a directionless wave of the ocean and we are like a boat without a fuel. We tend to follow the usual and perform the ordinary. Everything that is different and does not conform to the crowd's view is looked upon as being weird. Every different voice is crushed so that it cannot be heard . In absence of thinking, we become a victim of circumstances. We stop introspecting, learning, institutionalizing.

The Indian system both in public and private sector has been designed to make a slave out of an Indian. No doubt it all starts with schooling and parenting, where getting the good grade is what everyone care for. So to please your parents, teachers, you do everything possible. Then it contiues to your job, where your thinking is not more important than your boss's. In your family life, you please your wife, husband, children to the extent that you kill your own soul to make
everyone happy. You take huge loans to satisfy everyone's ever increasing desires to have nice home, nice cars and what not. In the end, no one has lost except yourself.

Do we need to unlearn? Yes, we need to stop being apologetic about ourselves. We were slaves because we could not carry a sword to fight. Today we are slaves because we are not able to resist. We simply give-in. We have to think different and think hard, even though it might hurt us and others. If we dont stand up, there will be no leaders, only followers. And that is not good for a country, that wishes to be on the top of the world. Let us look around and find things we could change and reform. I am sure, it will be beneficial to everyone.

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