By Ranjeet Kumar:
“Give me some sunshine give me some rain. I wanna grow up once again”
In the contemporary world there are different problems that the youth faces. In the smart world where everything comes in a sophisticated techno driven package – the challenges and opportunities for the youth in particular need to be reevaluated. One such problem where conflicting thoughts haunt me is identity crisis. In the web world of social networking, we are so entangled in the virtual arena that we lose the sense of the actual niche around. The reality seems a little out of focus, fairly isolated in crowd of millions.
What I really mean is that every where there is competition and due to this the pressure to perform is high. This translates in to a crippled growth of personality. The inherent potential and creativity dies and a stereotyped person is born. The person becomes so mechanized that he stops enjoying the essence and beauty of the being component of life. The creativity dies in gestation and life, and instead of becoming a song – it becomes a pond of stagnant water. The situation is extremely bad for those who cannot survive the competitive race and the creativity is left to die. There is all possibility in such a case that one gets kicked out of the system and they get to be known as drop outs.
Recently, I happened to see Forest Gump, a 1994 comedy movie, that depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump, a simple Alabama man who travels across the world. The protagonist in the movie doesn’t have everything figured out and goes with the intuitive flow living a successful life, beautifully portrayed by Tom Hanks. The divine agenda is much richer if pursued in true essence and the fulfillment it bestows is even magnanimous. It’s not the way how the world sees you but how you see yourself. Reflection, introspection and contemplation on one’s own refinement as one walks through the streets of life reveals that every event was preparation for the next scene.
My point goes to all the creative souls who have been nurturing the same feeling. Life is like a seed with a great potential. The key to its manifestation as a giant tree lies in giving appropriate micro-environment to it. But are we really doing that? No, at least not with constant pressure from our parents, friends and peers to compete in the rat race. The essence is that even in a rat race if you win you are still a rat – not a lion.
Let us get out of the herd mentality. We are not sheep. If we become one we will get a jackal as our mentor. Let the eagle become our mentor so that we can fly high and have a bird’s eye view and fly freely in the sky with wings wide open. Let the windows be open that knowledge flows to us from all side. The pursuit of happiness is a story of dwelling on the enormous potential of thought process; let us follow the footsteps of Tagore which reflect in his poetic composition “where the mind is without fear and the head is held high”.