How are you? How have you been doing? How is work? How is
home?
What answers do you get most of the times. There are 3 sets
of people. Some say great, some say fine, some say ok yaar.
I have often thought when we give this answer do we actually
say the right answer. Or do we compare with one who is asking to give the right
answer. Or does our brain quickly compare with our contemporaries and then give
a statistical analysis of how you feel to give the right answer!
Long back I took a conscious decision of avoiding social
networking sites. There were lot of reasons for that. I felt this constant
pressure to be in the news. That can be quite daunting for a working mother who
handles 2 professions on any day, work and home. I felt the need for life to be
happening and slowly started hating the normalcy of a routine week. I felt the
need to buy like someone else. To potray like someone else. To vacation like
someone else. To cook, celebrate, dress, pose, pamper like someone else. I
started loosing focus to what I want to do and sometimes even before the task
was done had the drive to post online for the likes. The likes that we see as a
thumbs up sign start thumping opinions on whatever we do, say or write.
Also I
was getting too much information. Excessive news, excessive videos being
shared, 1001 opinions on things in the current news, negativity, positivity
just too much input which also was difficult to process for the brain. In the
multiple layers of information going in the brain started getting fatigued and
started forgetting the routine tasks.
In a normal life, the pressure of another world, of having
many likes, having many followers and being trending makes you loose focus on
your own journey. Suddenly you don’t like, follow or trend on what you want and
instead what others want.
There is a completely different world with almost
unknown faces liking and loving unchallantly what you are doing. I sometimes
feel it must be just as a schizophrenic person feels. In psychiatry we used to
study that they build a world of their own and relationships of their own and
have problem differentiating the real from the virtual. I feel this also
creates havoc with the existing relationships. We have past, present and future
for a reason. Each is a new learning opportunity. But when past school, college
mates, present friends, past teachers, present relations we try to stay in
touch with all and at the end we are in the real world sitting with none.
Connecting has become virtual more than real. Emoticons are making us
emotionless.
So when next time one asks me the question how am I? I pause
and think I am good. Am on a journey of my own.
My journey is mine, it is unique. My learning experiences
are unique. I have not come to become better than XYZ but have been sent to
become the best I can. To explore and explode your own given opportunities is
the journey of life. You do choose some situations but most of the situations
in life in hindsight are chosen and we have had little control on manipulating
them. So smile because you want to, sing because you want to, see a movie
because you want to, travel because you want to. Live for yourself and no one
else.
Because your journey will be travelled only by you.
