Saturday, July 17, 2010

Conformity

I knew a twenty one year old girl who had leukemia, who threw anything she could lay her hands on, screamed hell but was also intelligent and in a weird way, with bones sticking out of her, and going completely bald, was still very beautiful.

I knew a seventy year old couple, fourty five years married and still in love.

I knew a brilliant guy, the ninety eight percent one, who threw away his life in alcohol and drugs.

I knew a guy, who supplied illegal firearms, uncrowned king of a small town underworld, who called me brother.

I knew people who had more shit surrounding them than the sewage line of Mumbai, and still came out smelling of roses.

I knew a psychology student who used to think I was Freud reincarnated.

I knew a girl, who made an ISD call to her ex to ask him to never speak to her again.

I knew a friend, who would only see good in people.

I knew a woman, who would criticise her best friends continuously to each other and still had more than her share of friends.

I knew a guy once, who believed in supernatural and claimed experiences continuously.

I knew a guy once who would cut off his arm and give it to anybody he has met twice.

I knew a girl once, who would never be satisfied no matter how much people did for her.

I knew a girl once, who was breathtaking gorgeous, intelligent like anything, and yet with a heart of gold.

I knew a girl who was 21 and a mother of a year and half old child.

I knew a guy once, who would jump off any cliff, claiming you will never know until you try.

Yes, I knew all of them...

I talk often enough about conformity. I talk about chances, I talk about fear, and I talk about hope. But today is different. Today I will make a request.

The reason I wrote a line about all these people was because there are a million ways to live your life. There are million ways to react to a particular situations. There are million ways of judging right from wrong. There are a million ways to win, another million to loose.

But the one thing anyone (except of course the authors of self help books) will admit, they have no fucking clue as to the winning certainty of a way in a situation. You can always see the best course of action in retrospect, but knowing it as you confront the situation is not quite possible.

The point I am trying to make is, when we dont know, why do we interfere and advise. Why do we force our friends and family in conformity? Why cant we just let them live out their life in their own way. Everyone needs a bit of support. More so, when they go on and try new things, march in to unchartered territories. Why do we stop them. Why not, whisper a word of encouragement. Why not put our trust in them.

Why else do you think we have so many arguments with our parents?

Sometimes or rather always, you must let people do things their own way. And not, unwillingly or because it leads to an argument. You understand them. You put yourself in their shoes, and be there for them. Not show resentment towards not following your advise. And should they fail, for whatever reason, be there. Support them, without saying "told you so".

A world where everybody does it the same way is a boring world. A world where you dont understand your friends and family, is a sad world. And there is no solution, but understanding.

The world is interesting. From the things to see, things you hear, things you smell, things you feel and of course the people you meet. The chief reason behind it, as I see it, is the variety you get, from ugly to beautiful. Some that makes sense to some that dont. Some that is fair, some that is unfair. Some natural, some artificial. But it is all there. And that is what makes world interesting.

So, I humbly rquest you, please dont ruin it...

As always, with love I remain,

Yours Truly
Void

6 comments:

deep said...

Yes.. life is to be loved for its variesty..amidst attachments and detachments, amidst love and despise, amidst leisure laughs and tense moments!!
..thats how it goes, and only resort is 'understanding'!!
PS: nice writeup :-)

Quaintzy Patchez said...

Heart-wrenching, sentimental and beautiful. In other words, a total waste of all my evil ideas i kept feeding you. Alas, all my efforts go unre[g/w]arded! can't imagine you can still write corny things like that. I know where I figure: oh the girl that was never satisfied!

:(

Void said...

Thank you deep.

@Prachi, hope must drive you... you still have many years to influence me **bows**

Quaintzy Patchez said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Quaintzy Patchez said...

you once knew a girl who spent all her evil teachings on you. read that? KNEW. No longer X(

hmph!

Quaintzy Patchez said...

I was going to write a full post as my thoughts on this so called non-conformity, but then, i thought a comment here was better in stead.

i'm **not** talking about all the people in your post. Just a few of them who caught my attention. As i see it, the long and short of the post is: you allow people to follow heir dreams, you allow them their eccentricities, no matter what they are and should they fail, some day, you be there for them. In fact, i agree with most of the post coz it sounds like the sort of thing you should do as someone's best friend. But how far would you go with it?

How far would you just sit and watch as someone smokes their life away? Will you never stop them, shake them by the shoulder and show them that the right way to live isn't throwing your life away in drugs and booze? What would you do when you friend (metaphorically) jumped off a (metaphorical) steep cliff and (metaphorically) died or worse paralysed themselves? Would you be there for them? Would it matter any more as you hold their (metaphorically) limp body and lament? If only you hadn't held back, then? If only they had heard? I hope i made my point clear. You have to give conformity a chance.

Now the other thing. In spite of realizing our loved ones need us, in spite of knowing that they don't just need a second chance but a third and a fourth and as many chances as they need, how many do we give them? How many times don't we just give up? Can you really be there for them always? Would you be able to say at the end of the day that you were around for a someone who failed miserably and just needed a hug to go to sleep? Would you? How often did you give non-conformity a chance? As in, how often were you able to? Didn't prudence and common sense just make its way into the brain?

But then, urgh, you're just evil, you'll never listen to me :/