Wondering while wandering.. or sitting still !!

10 Mar 2014

I am somehow just willing myself to stop this long not-so-self inflicted sojourn or hiatus from penning my thoughts to reality. Wonder, as usual what to pen down… Again wonder why this problem has a predilection to hunt me out time after time. I do wonder whether I am the front runner amongst the most confused or then directionless citizens around.

My experiences with the Sick and Needy.

Should be as good an abstract topic as one can hope not to be assigned. But then, was not it my deep rooted commitment to take the path less travelled. That single adage, is enough to will unforeseen or unknown obstacles and as the common man would label it simply, ‘problems’ onto oneself, for no rhyme or reason. But then who ever doubted that the road most and frequently travelled would yield any less of its share. That, has its own and more than its share of obstacles and problems. Only probably, they are easier to choose from amongst the ‘whole set’ of options available, with most, if not all, being “the Short Term maturity policy or investment”, named after its twin-named financial ventures with its equivalent virtues, hereinafter referred to as Choice ‘A’ vis-à-vis the Long Term aim of slower benefits against more efforts, time, patience and uncertain, unsure future, hereinafter referred to as Choice ‘B’.

         It’s now been frequently in the past few years that I have started feeling emotions far more than I have grown up to face or accept. The varied emotions, other than anger or sorrow are something that have not occupied my faculties as much, as they seem to be doing in the recent past and present too. Getting emotional was not the Super-Man that I had conjectured growing up, and always aspired to be. Perhaps too much of emotion is still not a Man’s cuppa, according to me, even today. I still aspire to be Superman. Whether I do or not is beyond the capabilities God and Nature have bestowed on me, especially the toll the many vagaries and exertions of an overly active and outdoor life have had on my constitution.

        But coming back to the point on experiencing emotions.. it is something of a new phenomenon which I have been blessed with, of late in the past few years. It may probably be my empathizing with the people around me and being able to understand their present and even visualizing what the future they will be undergoing, looks like. Or then is it just me imparting color to the rather stark realities that we all undergo, in a very severe and drab life most of us lead and face. I do have to state that a rather disquieting fact I have been silently noticing, is that God has blessed me with a fairly strong sense of premonition, which has more often than not proved to be correct ‘assessment’ on hind sight. This is a rare insight which I feel has to be accompanied by sound wisdom, which again is a rarer quality. The combination of the two is very essential for a satisfactory response to any given situation affecting an individual or a group. I by no means lay any claims to possessing the requisite Wisdom.

This ability accompanied by the willingness to assess and contribute to the betterment of the people around us, is a pre-requisite for any change to take place, for the better. Genuineness is another rare quality in today’s world. Rare, I believe because it is suppressed by mist of us.

All of the above qualities are considered Rare, primarily because of the masses of this country, India, overwhelmingly albeit myopically choosing to exercise Choice ‘A’ for the Short Term, even when it is not in the interests of that individual, in the Long Term. The Wisdom to differentiate, between the two Choices, even when Long Term personal interests matter, is lacking, out of a sheer sense of laziness and indifference by the vast majority. Qualities inherited genetically, propounded brainlessly and vainly and passed on through the gene pool, unabashedly to the next generation to further strengthen the ‘strain’. This nation has become a cesspool of such individuals and their accompanying qualities, that the discerning few are fighting an almost impossible battle for basic ethics, rights and entitlements. Energies which could easily have been utilized for higher growth, gets wasted due to such mass mindsets.

Hope. This is one of the fundamental bastions holding out against such mass mindsets. Hope is tenacious. Hope is unrelenting. Hope is brave, tough, resolute, unflinching and insurmountable. Hope clings onto the smallest of cracks on the stiffest of precipices. It is on hope alone that the Rear guard action of higher values, aims and goals for the betterment of individuals, groups and society is fought.

Empathy, is again one of the pre-requisites for understanding our environment. Understanding the environment is one step towards the betterment of mankind and our surroundings.

Our environment and the constituents of such environment have many sick and needy populaces, in heavy numbers. Most are recipients of adverse destiny while the rest are self created architects of their chaos, ably aided and abetted by adverse circumstances which smell out such decisions to further add fuel to the brightly burning fire. This then invites the oft repeated adage, “kismat hee kharab hai” or my destiny is adversely inclined or words to that effect.