That is how I wanted to wish my friends this I-day. But I didn’t.
The other day I overheard a conversation between two friends. One of them was telling her friend that she had a chance to travel abroad, but had to say no to the offer because there was no one to take care of her baby son. Her friend wanted to ask if her in-laws would not take care of him, but she herself stopped midway with the realization that they were too old to handle the naughty toddler. There was an understanding nod only to show that both were sailing on the same boat. ‘Who is stopping you?’
My friend had a skill that not many possessed. His fingers play on any surface, music that will make even the surface proud. We urged to take up playing drums more seriously. He always cribbed about his job in a BPO and cringes with even the thought of stepping into his office everyday morning. He was last to go to office, and all that he did during the day (yes, even at work) was to drum his own heart’s music. ‘Who is stopping you?’
A close pal of mine had this eternal desire to study in a top foreign B-school. He looked at pictures of students in the brochures of foreign universities and saw himself amongst them. He would see the mirror and would think, ‘Do I have in me?’ His friends including myself believe that he can do it. He has been studying for several years, not for his MBA, but for the admissions to do one. Ask him and he will say he is planning to study still. And he has been saying this (not a word otherwise) for several years now. Hmm….8 years to be precise!! This elusive MBA is only moving farther from him, even as he most gleefully says ‘Next year I am planning to my MBA’. ‘Who is stopping you?’
A group of friends coming out of a ‘city pub’ were taking their motorcycles out of the make-do parking lot. A middle-aged man walked up to them asking for money, obviously to walk into the wine shop the next second he finds that generous someone. One of them wanted to ask the already sagging-in-booze creature to stop drinking and not to beg for money. But he stopped himself. ‘Who is stopping you?’
Thanks to the growing number of vehicles on our city roads, we have frequent impromptu get-togethers. I am talking about the huddles formed around some injured or drowsy bikes or their pillions. Sometimes we see some, unconscious or bleeding profusely. We want to help. We want to call an ambulance. But we still think there are so many people around and help would come from one of them, who according to us, knows how to deal with such things (wonder, what trains them to qualify). In fact we can also hear people complaining why no one was doing anything. ‘Who is stopping you?’
Now, let me hasten the guilt trip. We see someone in the elevator who works in the same office. We want to smile, but all that we manage is too look at the ceiling or the floor. A beggar knocks at our car window. We want to dig into our wallet for some change, but something stops us. We cry of boredom, but when we get to something exciting we hold ourselves. We see someone being beaten up on the road. And all that we do is to give a sorry look at the pitiable. Now, in all these things, ‘Who is stopping you?’
These are some of my own realization. I am sure we all have several such instances when we have stopped ourselves. ‘Who is stopping us?’
We can certainly argue in our support in all the above instances. Yes, it is understandable that there would be no one to take care of a hyperactive toddler. And, it is certainly best for a trained person to handle an accident scene. So we do have justifications for all our actions. And we break all barriers to satiate our conscience that we are right and we could not have done much. Honestly, how many of us really go home with a satisfied heart after the reasons we give ourselves. Doesn’t it haunt us at least until with time it is forgotten?
Now, what is freedom? Wiki mentions ‘free will’ as a main ingredient for freedom. Freedom in our thoughts and actions, which lets us do what we really want to – free will. Freedom has its obstructers – economic, political, societal etc. But the worst of all is the barrier that grows and piles up from within - our mind block. This block stops us from giving a helping hand when it warrants, annihilates the stimulus to act or react.
This is an anecdote from the life of the great Tamil poet, Subramaniya Bharathi. As a small boy, Bharathi used to sneak into these cultural expositions like street plays, political satires, puppet shows etc. On one such escapade he went to a villu paattu exposition. The vidwan was singing on not being offered any luxuries, when Bharathi went up on stage and said that instead of thinking about such petty things we should be thinking about freedom for India. The best thing about this incidence is not only that Bharathi at that age could have such far-fledged thoughts but also that he was not hassled about the crowd or the vidwan. His thoughts were free and will unrestrained, even when India was under British occupation.
Freedom is all around us now. We can choose what we want to do. There is a wide range of activities to engage on and a world to explore. They say necessity is the mother of all innovation. But it is quite ironic isn’t it, that now we are at a point of time when our desires are running behind pleasantries around. We see something and want it at some point of time in our life. Innovation now comes with growing competition among the suppliers of those pleasantries. By doing this we have restricted our wants as well.
Our wants restricted and thoughts muted, what are we? And the worst part is that we teach the same to our kids. When we teach them to eat only our food; they learn to not share their food. We teach them to play with only a selected few; they learn to shun the others. We restrict them; they restrict the others. So there we sow seeds for discrimination, and from discrimination blooms haves and have-nots and eventually all the evils of the society.
Now what is the solution for this problem? How are we going to give ourselves this much-wanted freedom? When and how is our independence from this destructive mind block come? Every problem has a solution isn’t it!!!! While looking for a solution, I came across a news article a couple of days back. A Right to Information (RTI) activist, Ramdas, who reportedly exposed a PDS, foodgrain and fuel distribution corruption, was found dead in Nanded. The same article also mentioned the murder of Jethwa, who had just filed a PIL against illegal mining, in Gujarat a couple of months back. Now, who stopped them?
So as of now I think I will only wish my fellow Indians - ‘Happy Independence Day’. Long live our independent India.
