A piece inspired by a few conversations with bhai, ammi and abu.
The problem with this world is, we are raised believing that it is completely okay to follow our immediately felt natural instincts. We grow up believing, following and subconsciously being attracted to the super facial beauty of things and materialistic attractions. A good degree. A great job. A wonderful career. A luxurious car. A beautiful couple. In situations like this, intellect takes a back seat. Its need and void is only felt after a mature adult has grown tired of running after satisfying just the apparent.
This all starts when we leave the comforts of our mothers' womb and enter this world.
Somehow, in the early stages of child development, we focus on making our children smarter than the rest. In the race of proving their intelligence, we teach them numbers, colours and shapes even before they are four. We extensively google, hungrily read up all books, take up every possible suggestion from existing young parents in an effort to push our children in the combat of smartness. In those two foundation years of their lives, we somehow ignore their personality development, while focusing narrowly on the cognitive expansion.
The situation worsens with our use of I-ness.
We fight with each other to prove that our ways of imparting knowledge, our methods of teaching kids and our paradigms are unconventional and better than the rest. It inevitably leads to an excessive usage of a word "I". We are so busy proving our ways as the right ways, that, we ignore the brains and hearts of a little kid picking up the words. We focus on teaching them beautiful words, avoiding bad language, yet we surprisingly continue our usage of "I-ness" in our daily life. We give them toys, We bring them the best of the world. We let them experience the joys of their short lived obsessions, we let them feel the obsessions till they themselves get tired of it and move on to the next. Rather than breaking their favourite toys in front of them, rather than instilling a taste of giving by making them give away their favourite toys, we make them give away their old obsessions and past toys. We make them protect their favourite toys.
Our every action tells them that is absolutely okay to run after colourful cars. In front of them we discuss materialistic accomplishments. In front of them we compare cars, packages, jobs.
We do not give them the vision to see beyond what we see. We sway to the confident voice that sings twinkle twinkle, but we don't pause to give them the fables and magical stories of character, value, ethics and intellect. We love when they present numbers and words to the world. We don't stop to tell them what they mean. We never open the Real World of Intellect to them. We never make them think. We just teach. They see just what we see. They judge what we judge. And then, they also run after what we have been running after.
Just like giving them a reason to believe and run after materialistic beauty, we also hand them over a dictionary. A dictionary with a fanciful collection of intellectual words to be thrown and tossed around in front of guests earning complements and appreciation.
And then they grow up. We grow up. From children to adults. As adults, we run from obsession to obsession, we choose beauty over intellect, but the void remains. Something just doesn't feel right. We fail at being complete humans. We feel surprised. We blame the system. The humanity. Our parents. Our society. The ugliness behind just the materialist.
But never for once, do we stop repeating the cycle ourselves. We realize the significance of intellect and brains, but never for once, do we dig in deep to pause our animal instinct while paving way for our intellectual satisfaction. We never for once, stop our "I-ness" for the sake of humanity's future.
If men and women on this planet can't pause and grow above living just the animal/inherent nature of themselves, then, how on earth, do they expect the world around to change?
But we don't think. We don't stop the cycle. Because, we had been taught. But not taught to think.
The problem with this world is, we are raised believing that it is completely okay to follow our immediately felt natural instincts. We grow up believing, following and subconsciously being attracted to the super facial beauty of things and materialistic attractions. A good degree. A great job. A wonderful career. A luxurious car. A beautiful couple. In situations like this, intellect takes a back seat. Its need and void is only felt after a mature adult has grown tired of running after satisfying just the apparent.
This all starts when we leave the comforts of our mothers' womb and enter this world.
Somehow, in the early stages of child development, we focus on making our children smarter than the rest. In the race of proving their intelligence, we teach them numbers, colours and shapes even before they are four. We extensively google, hungrily read up all books, take up every possible suggestion from existing young parents in an effort to push our children in the combat of smartness. In those two foundation years of their lives, we somehow ignore their personality development, while focusing narrowly on the cognitive expansion.
The situation worsens with our use of I-ness.
We fight with each other to prove that our ways of imparting knowledge, our methods of teaching kids and our paradigms are unconventional and better than the rest. It inevitably leads to an excessive usage of a word "I". We are so busy proving our ways as the right ways, that, we ignore the brains and hearts of a little kid picking up the words. We focus on teaching them beautiful words, avoiding bad language, yet we surprisingly continue our usage of "I-ness" in our daily life. We give them toys, We bring them the best of the world. We let them experience the joys of their short lived obsessions, we let them feel the obsessions till they themselves get tired of it and move on to the next. Rather than breaking their favourite toys in front of them, rather than instilling a taste of giving by making them give away their favourite toys, we make them give away their old obsessions and past toys. We make them protect their favourite toys.
Our every action tells them that is absolutely okay to run after colourful cars. In front of them we discuss materialistic accomplishments. In front of them we compare cars, packages, jobs.
We do not give them the vision to see beyond what we see. We sway to the confident voice that sings twinkle twinkle, but we don't pause to give them the fables and magical stories of character, value, ethics and intellect. We love when they present numbers and words to the world. We don't stop to tell them what they mean. We never open the Real World of Intellect to them. We never make them think. We just teach. They see just what we see. They judge what we judge. And then, they also run after what we have been running after.
Just like giving them a reason to believe and run after materialistic beauty, we also hand them over a dictionary. A dictionary with a fanciful collection of intellectual words to be thrown and tossed around in front of guests earning complements and appreciation.
And then they grow up. We grow up. From children to adults. As adults, we run from obsession to obsession, we choose beauty over intellect, but the void remains. Something just doesn't feel right. We fail at being complete humans. We feel surprised. We blame the system. The humanity. Our parents. Our society. The ugliness behind just the materialist.
But never for once, do we stop repeating the cycle ourselves. We realize the significance of intellect and brains, but never for once, do we dig in deep to pause our animal instinct while paving way for our intellectual satisfaction. We never for once, stop our "I-ness" for the sake of humanity's future.
If men and women on this planet can't pause and grow above living just the animal/inherent nature of themselves, then, how on earth, do they expect the world around to change?
But we don't think. We don't stop the cycle. Because, we had been taught. But not taught to think.
No comments:
Post a Comment