By Varsha Sinha
Well, can you tell me if you think in pictures or in colours? Or do you simply delve into your dungeon of endless thoughts? There are certain situations in our lives that we go through, which feel like poetry — some make sense, some don’t, and some, even if they do make sense, we simply cannot fathom the intensity of it. Now that’s the beauty of it all. There’s something in the chaos that we all live in.
Most of us, without even knowing, seem to lose ourselves in this chaos. The cacophony sure does make you believe that you are working hard while we are actually sustaining — our love, family, friends and everything else that comes with it. I was watching a talk show lately where I heard the celebrity say, “Winning is an old habit of mine.” And since then, I started wondering what ‘old habits’ are.
Speaking of ‘winning’, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Well, for me, I was like, “Aaah, she must have sacrificed and compromised so much in order to be what she is today.”
Here, I would like to emphasise upon the words ‘sacrifice’ and ‘compromise’. They have always seemed to be narrow and overrated concepts for me. Why not use the word ‘adjust’ instead? Balance also is a good option. Because in order to get somewhere you need to begin somewhere through massive adjustments in case of your time, your deeds, thoughts, temperament and the baggage that comes with these.
Winning is not always sweet and monotonous. It cannot be monotonous. It is not like you achieve something great this Friday and then to keep up with your ‘success’ and your ‘habit’ of winning, you wreck your brains, lose all your hair to win something in the upcoming week too. This is not called winning. It is called chasing a mirage. Winning is consistency. We need to know how to proceed softly, yet hard enough to guard what we love and want to win.
People don’t change, they evolve. It is basically upon us how we let this evolution guide us — do we want it to take us to ‘only’ places, or do we want it to take us to a hell lot of places? This evolution, my friend, is a weird thing. It makes us question ourselves, sometimes, and everything that goes on with us. Change is inevitable but in terms of evolution, we can actually limit and aggravate the rate of it. And that’s where our power lies — to not chase a mirage, to not be blinded by excessive joy or miseries.
Now I’ve seen, through this whole, never-ending process of evolution, we are taught self-sustenance — to be whole within oneself, not to be in a relationship, just for survival. To not constantly want somebody to cling onto. And that’s a huge deal in this current age. We tend to succumb absolutely to this hormone called dopamine. ‘Instant gratification’ is the new cool where we don’t need to go on looking for things that we need. All we need to do is take out our debit card from our wallets and just scroll through! So what will you call this? A change or an evolution?
While pondering over this, I also thought about where in this world, surrounded by utter cacophonies, can you fetch yourself love, happiness and peace at the same time? Sounds like utopia? Come on. Be a bit more optimistic! It’s home. Home, always. Now, it sure does depend on where and in whom you find your ‘home’. I apologise for the sheer webbing of my words and meanings! To be precise, home is actually where and from whom you need no validation, yet you’ve got the freedom to be your most vulnerable self. That’s probably you’ll find your peace, love and happiness.
So now, why not take some time to think what change and evolution, particularly, have managed to do to us?
Is change a narrower idea than evolution? Or is it simply a twist of thoughts? Or, is it basically a game of ups and downs to make our introspection better? What do you think?
(The author is pursuing master’s degree in Sociology at NEHU)