Skip to main content

What Independence means to me


Freedom without responsibility is anarchy (not said by me). I have always treated my independence as my birth right, a privilege accorded to me without any effort from my side. It’s as natural as breathing, walking, talking, sleeping etc. Every year we celebrate this day with a lot of pageantry and show of emotions anywhere and everywhere. 

However this is perhaps the first year when I really got down to thinking as to what independence really means to me as an individual. Is it just a date, a journey, a holiday, an emotion, a privilege, right et al? All these words have importance in context to Independence Day but they don’t resonate with my being. Am I really free? I am afraid of helping an accident victim on road, I am afraid to report abuse if I come across one, I am afraid to step out of the house at night, I am afraid of refusing a bribe for getting work done, I am afraid to help a stranger in need, I am afraid of saying no to things which have social importance attached to them, I am afraid to yearn for things beyond my means, I am afraid to walk out of discussions which are hollow but obligatory. The list is unending. With so many fears in my heart and mind, how can I claim to be independent? Then what does independence mean to me? I am still struggling to come up with answers that would enthuse me to celebrate this feeling as a person.

So what does independence mean to you? Start thinking now before its too late.

 Ma

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Day

It’s a new day but how is it different from what it was yesterday or tomorrow? May be not. It’s only change in date and nothing else. But I am amazed at the power of any new day. It’s the same day…same 24 hours….same morning and night…yet for every person the value it holds is so different. The same day means achievement for some; despair for others; new beginning for some and ending of an era for some. …it is happiness and togetherness for many and separation and hurt for others. The beauty of each day however is the hope that it brings. It turns the tides for all of us. It gives all of us the power to make it different from what it was yesterday. But I wonder how many of us realize this power to change within themselves. This supremacy that has been bestowed on us by nature to shape our today is something that needs to be realized by us. There are so many living things on this earth but we humans are the only ones who can exercise this power. I was reading in an article yesterday
5 comments
Read more

I have a dream....

I often wonder would Wordsworth have written a “Daffodils” or Frost a “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” or Tagore his numerous works if they were living in our times. Armed with gadgets, latest apps and technology would they have felt bored enough to actually step out to experience what they did and more so over physically written it down? I have my doubts, serious ones.  Where is the time to be just aimless and still? We are so busy filling up that unforgiving one minute with myriad activities that we most of the times forget living? Perhaps until and unless dreaming shows some extraordinary gains to make it into our daily ‘to do’ list we would never have time for that. It needs to be added as a subject in the school curriculum for parents to wake up to its importance. The stillness of a cat; flowing of the river; random growing of the wild flowers along the road less taken; sudden showers in midst of nowhere; a smile from a total stranger walking on the road etc. are
6 comments
Read more

Invictus

If you want to enjoy what you have, never look at people above you, look at people below. If you want to count your blessings look at the under-privileged and not the privileged. If you want to succeed look at your own failures to learn from them and not at successes achieved by others. If you want to be loved never look for people who could love you, look for people whom you can love. If you want to be happy never look at what you don't have, cherish what you have. If you want to spread peace and joy, just go ahead and do it. You will be at peace and full of joy. Invictus " is a short Victorian Poem by the English  poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). At the age of 12, Henley fell victim to tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated when he was 17. Stoicism inspired him to write this poem. Despite his disabilit
7 comments
Read more