Sunday, November 10, 2013

Finding your 'ism' - A rethink

Few days back I was with these three acquaintances - Mr A, Mr B and Mr C in a railway station waiting room. All of us had hours to kill and as a way to break the ice and start a conversation I asked them all the same question. Which 'ism' you believe in ?

For Mr A it was a simple one to answer. He had a  definite 'ism' in each areas and his convictions were unquestionable and like written in a stone with a hand chisel. But for Mr B and Mr C it was a little difficult, but for different reasons. Mr B told he never even gave it a thought and he is not inclined to do it either. For Mr C the problem was directly opposite one. He actually gave it a lot of thought earlier and he still cannot completely stand behind any 'ism's with conviction


Almost all the troubles in the world can be linked to one 'ism' or the other. But in reality its not the 'ism', who is the trouble maker, rather the problem seems to lie in the way we embrace these 'isms'. There are 'ism's defined for for region, religion, caste, art and even science. Its more like a huge book store with different sections and you buy a book among them. What most of us does is to go in to this store and choose a book based on the reviews already fed in to our unknown, delicate brains.We keep reading and re-reading those books up to a point where we are incapable of seeing any thing beyond it.


But there is a better way of reading a book. First of all forget the reviews and change your route from a book store to a library. Instead of reading only one book, why can't one explore and inhale the flavour from all the books. Instead of being a follower what about being a master of your own 'ism'. Like Mr A having 'A'ism and Mr B having 'B'ism. Like a buffet where you select the items in your plate, like making a cocktail with your own measurements and experiments. In a world where there is room for one 'ism' to each one and every one, there will be no need to fight for your own 'ism'. One will rather focus on understanding all other 'ism's so as to improve their own


I later emailed this thought to our three old friends to get their feed back. Mr C gave it a thumps up. But Mr A and Mr B were a bit reluctant. They shared their concerns which surprisingly was very similar and read some thing like this "When reading one book itself is intricate enough and puzzling some times, the exposure of too'ism's will surely be more complex and we will end up as a generation of confused and lost"


All I have to reply them was "If every one stops when things gets confusing and complex then I won't be writing this and you won't be reading this either. When you were in the first grade even those alphabets were so damn confusing and complex, isn't it" ?


~by a Samist :)

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