The way I have written the title of this blog... Doesn't it look complicated itself?
The question I have in my mind is that "Is human life really complicated, or humans make it complicated by their own deeds?"
I remember; my great-grandmother used to tell me stories of her childhood. She was born in 1910, passed away in 1993. I was 9 years old at that time, but I remember some of her stories. They had such a simple life! I admit, they were not given any freedom of thought or action at that time; societal rules and norms were very specific and strict. But they need not have thought about it. This system was made by God, and they would be benefitted if they obey the God. They were told to help poor, do good deeds for the benefit of others so that they attain Moksha at later stages of their lives. Men were supposed to go out and work, women were supposed to take care of home and children. They were happy living a simple life, where they worried the most about getting their sons good education so that they settle well in a convenient government job, and getting their daughters married to suitable groom from a well-educated family. I’m not saying that this system was idealistic, it had its shortcomings, but life was relatively simple then.
Even at my grandmother’s time and my mother’s youth, life was not as complicated as it is today. What with the effects of globalization showing in every nook and corner of the country, we have to think and take decisions at every stage in our lives. Where our traditional value system contradicts the norms of the new, modern world; a typical Indian youngster is always confused which one should he follow.
If you are not successful, you won’t get any recognition in the society. If you don’t have enough money to show off, you fear that people will look down upon you. If you don’t strive hard to achieve those upper positions in the corporate world, you’ll be criticized because you lack the ambition. You don’t have many choices for your own life. The system, the society, all your family, friends and well-wishers govern your life.
One fine day if you feel that I have earned sufficient money, now I want to stay at home and do nothing. Can you do that? The answer is: NO. The monster called society won’t let you live in peace. What if you want to quit living in this mundane everyday routine life, and do something radical or different? I agree that there are such different people in society, like Medha Patkar, or Dr. Abhay and Rani Bang, Baba Amte, Arvind Gupta etc. There are these revolutionaries who dared to do something different and were successful in it. Do you think, if they had failed, their ideas about improving society had not proven to be practical; would they be able to survive here? When we see one successful person, there are one million who have failed, and stamped ‘worthless’ by the society. Then why would anyone dare to think different?
Doesn’t this all make human life more complicated? First, create something called ‘society’, then create a set of unspoken norms that a human being needs to follow to stay in the group, then appreciate those who have tweaked these norms slightly to think something ‘radical’ and punish those who go beyond norms. I feel that we have created a vicious circle in which everybody has to enter, and there in no provision for exit.
Then there are some people like me, who have ample time to think about all these things and keep writing it all in a blog. We don’t do anything, but sit on the sidelines and let other people read and comment on it. For that purpose, after fire and wheel, we have complicated our lives further by inventing internet!!!
As aptly said by John Louis von Neumann, "If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is."
I believe that Homo Sepian was happier living in Jungle...
Let the complications continue…
