Wednesday, March 7, 2007

The Path Less Trodden...


Have you ever wanted to break away – to break free from the moulds of convention and fly into the realms of the unknown…Have you ever called yourself a coward for believing in an alternate reality with you as its centre…Have you ever actually broken bonds that bind you and taken the path less trodden…If yes, what have you called yourself then – an escapist or a pioneer?

The world today seeks individuals, not institutions…that much is apparent enough. The truth is that everyone loves to see an individual rise from the depths of sorrow and agony…everyone loves to see that individual attain the heights of glory…and everyone loves it even more when that individual falls to the ground, encumbered by failed ventures and the burden of cataclysmic decisions. It’s like all other people in the world want to experience a pseudo life they could possibly never have got.

The world demands that you be different…it demands that you bring something new to the table, each and every time…That’s the only way you can possibly keep the world interested – by doing something new each and every time. (While writing this, I remember the scene from King Kong where Ann Darrow entertains Kong by performing calisthenics…It’s something new for the giant simian and that’s what keeps him so engrossed.)

This possibly goes against a previous post of mine where I say that people do not want to be unique…that they find it much easier to tread upon the path that others before them have taken rather than to discover new ones…and I still stand by that…But the truth is that this argument stands for the common man alone.

Great people are known for innovation, for their will to invent, for their thirst to discover and for their knack at improvisation. The competitive world of today basks in the glory of the limelight provided by such great men, and this glory (possibly undeserved) makes today’s world thirsty for more of the same. It is for this reason that the world demands and covets individuals who are different…it is for this reason that the world asks us to dare to be different from the ‘also-rans’…it is for this reason that the world coerces us to become great so that it may bask in greatness as well…and then as they say, this cycle simply goes on and on and on in an endless manner.

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