Jump

It started when he was reasonably fed (with food, elementary education and pressure) to tone his tiny steps strong enough to embark the uphill expedition.

He didn't know nothing more than the fact that like everyone else, he is supposed to walk, to climb. It was funny - There was no finish line, there was no prize to finish first, there was no shortest path, there was no punishment to finish late, there was no speed limit, there were no pit stops, there was everybody. It was possibly the most crowded game. He started. While climbing - He made friends with ones climbing at his pace - till they climbed at his pace, fought with the pushy ones, fell in love with the pretty ones, cried when it was steep, smiled when he ambled, laughed when he rolled, ate and drank, smoked and flew, sometimes more, sometimes slow. Well it was quite some time, when he forgot he was climbing. It became way of life. It was meant to be there - sun or no sun, heat or shower. It slipped his mind and he continued. He continued. He continued till after some more time, when probably he got bored of not thinking - something struck him. It was surely serendipity. He saw everyone was trotting the most crowded path. He flew in his imagination and when he saw underneath, he found various different multitude of climbers spilled over here and there. He could not find anyone walking alone. Either there were none or they took some other path or they walked fast as they would walk at their pace. It was so claustrophobic to see everyone getting drawn in towards themselves. There was an unseen cohesive force pulling everyone - he immediately saw it as the unquestioned force blinding everyone of direction, path, pace and purpose. He suddenly remembered it was a climb. There should be a purpose. He got scared. Scared of losing out on time, of losing the purpose, of getting lost in the crowd. He revolted in his mind. That day, he knew nothing else than the fact that now, he will walk away from the blinding crowd. He didn't know what path to take but he knew what path not to take. He tried and tried and finally freed himself from that crowd. A whiff of fresh air, a relief, because it was different.

He loved walking away from that crowd and of course had more time to himself. He liked the openness and felt more space. It wasn't too late that yet another observation struck his mind like lightening. Why was no body coming back? Where was everyone going? How long it was? The fear and chill he experienced that day was like none that he had felt or heard of. He was alone and he was scared. He knew the only thing that could put him on rest was finding answers to these trivia which never struck him. On one hand, he was angry of not realizing the importance of these questions till now - on the other he was happy of at least discovering them now. He could sense entropy in his gait. He was surely concerned. He was faster. He was looking "up" now. Man! that day till yesterday - many days expired in between - the rush didn't go down, the concern only increased. He asked all those few that he overtook. He also detoured to ask others whose speed was renowned. Damn, entropy just increased. But there was something so fucking unique that happened yesterday.

He reached the top. Yes. He reached the top. He felt so accomplished. He closed his eyes and the crazy movie started. The title was "Life" and The protagonist was "He". Fuck - what was happening? All the scenes were heedfully placed in chronologically reverse order. Damn - it was the backward story of the climb from yesterday till the day he embarked the climb. It was insane. It was a summary at its best. It showed him so much. It started from oblivion - He trying to seek answers to the obvious questions. Zipppp! The movie finished- Again at the oblivion - He taking his first step without knowing nothing more than the fact that he was supposed to climb. His eyes were open now. There was no chill, no freaky reflex erection of hair on his body, no fear, no entropy. There was peace, there was summary, there was a complete picture. He was today cool - As cool as stoned on hashish from Malana. This was it. It was life and it is still life. It was learning and it is still a learning. It was the journey and it is still a journey. All he accomplished through his life till today through the sun and shower, with the crowd and himself, while uphill and downhill, when he fought and while he loved, through the peace and with entropy was right in front of him. It was all the preparation. It was absolutely needed to take him to the top. And today was the day to decide the real life. Today was the day to decide what next! He could see each and every fucking possible option right in front of him. There was a 360 degrees view. Each degree full of options. Today he could either again take a life to evaluate and decide what to do next, which degree will be longest fall, will be wealthiest fall, will be the "best" fall; and keep rotating on the top; or else, he could today JUMP. Jump like a free falling "man", in the direction where his heart is - without any fear and randomness of the length and wealth of fall. Today, he could now live.

"As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters" - Seneca

Choices...

What does it take to know if we know a thing or not? Allow me to call it the art of knowing the known! If I ask the worth of a pink colored Gandhi printed Indian currency leaf or the geometrical shape of a birthday cap, I am sure it doesn’t take another falling apple to answer. I KNOW that it is a 1000 rupees note and that the cap is a cone. It is so simple. It is. To me also, it is. Then why do I name the act of knowing the known as an “art”?

So there are two perspectives – Why and What? Let us take the “why” aspects first, simply because I am more clear in my thoughts for this. A 1000 rupee note and cone cap was easy because I have been taught and trained through my NCERT books about the same. I know it. It is a fundamental fact. I don’t question and waste my grey cell’s activity in thinking why that shape is called a cone or why is it 1000 and why 1000 is bigger than 100 etc? My system is acquainted to these facts and zillions of other similar ones too. I have mastered the art of knowing the worth of such hygiene fundamentals without which survival is tough. It was a good training. My education foundation was good. So was yours.

But there is another side to it. While it nicely taught me to know the fundamentals, it quietly and in parallel was making my boundaries of thinking - rigid and smaller. It, over a period of time, made them so obvious and strong – like an iron curtain, that I and everyone of us started taking them as THE goal. Being educated is awesome; it is THE goal of a good student and of a good parent for their child. I wanted to get into a good school, a good college, a good B school – the better they are, the better it is! But as I see it today, leave aside the exceptions; we were striving to get stronger and higher walls in life. And mind it; these walls are not to be crossed. They limit the world. They limit the universe. They limit our existence. The point that I am trying to drive is not that education is a sin or a monster, but that the system of education that we have today and strive for needs a revamp. It has follies, like any other system of its size and importance, but there is no voice to express anything beyond its purview, because coincidentally, it is the one that builds that purview.

It taught us to differentiate, to think, to express, to act etc., but not to choose! And since, invariably, all of us (us implying to the close society in which we took birth and will die) went to the same system, choice is now at oblivion. Let me take a better example than a rupee or a cap. I can guarantee all women and some men must have loved painting or sketching (by default) during their school days. At the same time, all men and some women must have loved sports and bicycling in their budding years. How many of us are doing it today? Don’t tell me that India is not giving opportunities. The amount of effort you took to get into a good engineering college or a good B School (rewind while reading this) and add on to it the one you are making now or will be making in your career, just to get into the right place – I am sure you would have been a great artist or must have been riding at 60kph. Have you heard of a place called Shantiniketan? Art grows and spreads there. For those who don’t know about it, Rabindranath Tagore taught there and the abode is situated at Bolpur, WB. Or talk about Pushkar where art is abundant, or talk about remote villages in the mountains where precious stones are doing magic or talk about north east, where again music and art are middle names of everyone – how many of you will take these up as purpose of your life or “profession”, even after you now know about them? Don’t tell me society pressures, parental pressures etc. Don’t tell yourself that you are meant to do better. Who told us that those choices are not good enough? I am considering all of them as one, in this discussion. Remember – I said all went to the same system and all are flawed. Let me give you a much closer example – What was the only criterion for you in choosing electives at B School at large? (leave the exceptions again). I am talking about the same place where you came a year ago to learn, to choose. And most of us must be content, after all we chose! My answer is a smile.

My friend, we are not tuned and equipped to CHOOSE. This is my answer to the “why” part of the unknown art of knowing the known!

Coming to “what”? In this, I will try to take a little pleasant and a happier stand. After all, the world is not that bad a place! In attempting to write my thoughts about this – I will indirectly be contradicting the “unknown” part and hence all that I wrote above because I will emphasize that we have it within us, just need to embrace it. Still, writing the above unknown part was important as a) I wanted us to ponder about it – some of us might just choose. And b) it was a prerequisite to understand this “what” part. In this part, I will also indirectly imply on my thoughts of how can we make the situation better – only if I was successful in making us aware of the “situation”.

Coming to the first line of this text – “What” does it take to know if we know a thing or not? It takes a lot brother.. . because I am really not talking about a rupee or a cone here and unfortunately, I am not trained about other things. So let’s help each other. The most important aspect to make a wise choice is to be well informed. Thereafter, I feel important pointers are- Think long, think big, don’t compare with others, compare with the alternatives, take small steps and have balls. I don’t know any protocol to choose, neither is it there in any NCERT. But I wrote what I could gather from my thoughts. My contribution in your choice making process is that I am with you if you think it is not an easy task. It is not, at least as of today and especially for us, the argumentative Indians. Nonetheless, it is not a very difficult task. It is right there. Within us. See, at the end of the day, only I will make a choice for I. I will make it based on all that I know. Therefore, let’s know more and embrace it. It might go wrong. We will make another one! That’s how we will master it. Not by being tensed or avoiding or compromising or getting rusted. No – that is wrong! For sure.

The situation which I tried to portray in this text will not be a situation anymore (which I so wish for) when I and you will be trained to make decisions of life, to choose in life, to smile and smile more as easily as I and you today differentiate a 1000 from a 100 and a cone from a cube. It has to come from the extrinsic system (which includes education, society, family, everyone) and the intrinsic system (I and you) and as you already know it, intrinsic and extrinsic are mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive and always juxtaposed.

Amen!

Madan