Closed Indian mind - does it let you live for yourself? - Part II

...continued from Part I

Finally my point: What’s factor X!?! Initially I thought it was an allusion to the kind of compulsion and pressure that our immediate society exerts on us, limiting the choices WE can exercise on OUR own lives. However, on deeper thought, Iam strongly convinced factor X is NOT that! It IS, on the other hand, a lack of self-confidence, a lack of mental strength of today’s Indian youth, to live life on their own terms, to decide for themselves and stick to it despite all odds. On one hand, the supposed hallmark of the Indian value system imbibed in most Indian youth right from their birth, screams out to them: “Don’t be selfish with your life. Live your life for the sake of others and not just for your own sake”. So they are tempted to let their immediate society pull the strings – moms dictate careers, dads dictate love-lives, friends dictate lifestyles, mothers in law dictate religious beliefs and even clothing! On the other hand, the influential breeze of western culture to which the youth are exposed through mass media and their friends’ circles, places a heavy accent on individualism and whispers to them “It’s YOUR life, the only one you’ve got. Live it the way YOU want it, not the way someone else wants you to live it”. Thanks to the two influences, a lot of directionless confused behaviour results and even passes off unnoticed, in the guise of the cleverly camouflaged term 'balanced individualism'. Balanced Individualism, as we may like to trumpet it, is by no means a positive sign. It is just a eunuch outcasted from the coterie of both class A people and class B people. Class A people are the highly individualistic class of people who want to make their own decisions, live their lives the way they want to, hold the reigns of their lives completely in their own hands and realize that just because parents, friends and relatives have showered them with love, it doesn’t mean that they can exercise undue influence in one's major decisions in life. Class B people on the other hand, are the ones for whom, keeping their near and dear ones satisfied, living by the society’s norms, swaying to the trends of the day in order to gain social acceptance, matter more than their own terms in life. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the former class let their heart rule over their head, while the latter class of people do just the opposite. None of these classes, however, can be categorically stated to be superior to the other.

It is NOT wrong to be class A, it is NOT wrong to be class B either. After all, it is just about making a choice of which type one wants to be and being at peace with oneself about the choice one has made. However, the whole problem with most Indian youth is that they are so insecure, want so much of everything, need the eunuch called Balanced Individualism so much, that they neither firmly choose class A, nor firmly choose class B. If they ever do, they end up cribbing about losing out on either the social circle or on self-satisfaction as the case may be. The trend in India regarding the 2 classes, has been an interesting one too. The fairly orthodox Indians of the yester generations, were mostly of class B and the contemporary generation is of neither classes – it is in a transition phase, uncomfortably stuck between the two classes. It won’t be long before there is a huge shift and most of the Indian youth will be Class As. This latter transition will definitely be a welcome change and will be far more euphoric, not because class A is better but because there will atleast be a much-needed certainty in this critical decision of who controls one’s life to what extent.

I, for one, am surely interested in following the trend and checking out what difference it makes to the great Indian psyche.Maybe when it's finally a society filled with class A youth, a college student won't think twice about dropping out of a course he doesn't like and starting off a new enterprise...and maybe, there won't be anymore Vidya's and Meena's cribbing about we know what...and maybe,a die-hard travelling fan, much like today's foreign tourist, will just pack his bag and leave home one fine morning when he feels like travelling, with a few hundred bucks, a few pairs of clothes and nothing else - not even an idea of where his travel's gonna take him, return after a good travel and sit back n smile satisfactorily "Aah!THAT's what I wanted to do with my life" :)

Quote for the day:Ultimately, it isn't what choice you make that determines how happy you are.It's just how much you can be at peace with the consequences of your choice that really matters.