Man is a social animal. So I’ve heard…
“I” am social… Oh! Yes I am…Know the number of friends I
have and bet you’ll agree…. And ah! Yes, try messing with me and you’ll know
the truth about the animal part too….So well I guess its true… “I” am a social
animal….
If you know me closely at all, you will also know that I
have a head that is exploding with thoughts and opinions… I don’t care if you
didn’t ask me what I thought…. The point is I thought! So you need to hear it…
Oh! I love to talk about myself… but today… I stopped for a moment and asked
myself a question… Who am I?
This might strike you as bizarre! You might think I’m a
lunatic… Its ok… I’m open to interpretation…..What the hell do I mean? Be
patient….
When we’re brought
into this world… we’re all the same… Crying little monsters , someone’s bundle
of joy… we’re not born with opinions, or
habits … we’re all the same…”You” and
“Me” …. Yet as we grow up, we develop perceptions and point of views……. And it
would be totally ok… if these perceptions were forever, but we move forward in
life , meet people, see the world and
these too are subject to change......
As kids when I or my friends were mischievous at school… our
teachers would often say “Is this what your parents teach you?” When a little child speaks foul language it
is assumed that he picked it up from his parents. We would often feel bad and
wonder why the teacher would go to the extent of ridiculing our parents .
So who am I? Do “I” even exist?…. The ideas that I am proud
of aren’t even mine… they’re just something I picked up along the way…. Grew up
hearing…. From elders , teachers,
friends and the media…. I feel nothing
but shallowness today… Ordinarily I am extremely proud of myself… but today I realise
that I haven’t done anything to be proud of! If I was born in a different city,
in a different atmosphere I would have been different! There would have been a
different set of people who would have influenced me and today I would have
been writing about something else…. Maybe I wouldn’t even be writing in the first place!...
Often when we are in a conversation with people, they
suddenly turn to us and say ,”So what do you think?” Every time you start to
open your mouth remember, you’re probably just summarising the opinions of
everyone around you…. And then reproducing them…
I know it’s a crazy thought to have… but it is true….
Yet, if my totally awesome theory was indeed true, each pair
of twins would be identical in the way they thought and the things they did…
this of course isn’t the case… So there has to be something that makes me “Me”
and you “You”…. Something that isn’t just about the societies we live in… but
is truly only about us…
That something is called a “choice” …. We are but the
choices that we make… Its true that everything that I know I have essentially
picked up from my surroundings- people, books, etc…. yet I had a choice… I had
to decide on the things that I wanted to be a part of myself… the opinions I
wished to support…. The road called life is not straight…. It never was…. And the turns here and there do not bear
signs saying “Right” or “Wrong”…. I decide where I want to go…I decide who I
want to be walking with….. I decide where I want to be…. So yes, I am somebody….
I am “me”….
