Anupam- The Dreamer

Human beings are strange creatures in many ways. And in ghor Kalyuga, one tendency has increased in human beings- that everyone wants to reap benefits of things, but they are not ready to pay the price or make sacrifices for achieving that thing! (This is a general statement applicable to majority of population, so please refrain your urge to point out exceptions here).

Ask any common person- whether he wants to become an engineer/doctor/IAS/IPS/IRS officer? The answer will invariably be yes! Everyone wants power and position and status in the society! But, are they willing to undertake the troubles and pains to become one? Very few of them will be ready for that! But yes, if somehow you can get them a seat in the civil services/state services/engineering/medical etc., then they would be willing to pay the price! Not the price of their hardwork and determination, but the price of their money!

Again if you ask a common person- whether he wants good roads, good schools, good hospitals etc.? The answer will obviously be yes! But, if you ask them are they willing to contribute their fair share of taxes to build those, then many will back out! While it is but natural for people to demand good quality of goods and services from the government, how many are genuinely willing to contribute in the nation building is a big question! And when the government makes these available, then some crooked people want to destroy public property like trains by their reckless usage and poor civic sense. The reason is again the same- who wants to pay the price?

Then, if you ask a common person- whether you want to become rich? He/she will ask- are you crazy, who doesn’t want to be rich? Then, if you ask them- are you willing to pay the price of taking risk, working hard, learning constantly, and facing the competition in the market, taking the route of entrepreneurship etc.? Many of them will back out at this juncture. While all of them want a good job with benefits, but how many of them want to genuinely contribute to their work? The numbers are very few! Also, while most of them want secure jobs, how many are willing to take the path of entrepreneurship if they want to become a millionaire? Again, a miniscule proportion!

Going forward, if you ask a common person- do you want to be famous? The answer will obviously be yes! But again, are they willing to go through the grind to become something and achieve something that will make them famous? Most of them will back out!

By the above illustrations, it is clear that most of the people, just want to sit back and relax and want things for free, while doing nothing other than to criticize others who are atleast trying, working hard, making little progress everyday, questioning status quo, and striving hard to achieve their goals. The world is full of pessimists, we need to be wary of them. It is easy to “want” benefits, but very hard to pay the “price” to achieve them. People want to be the lion of the jungle, but they don’t understand that even the deer doesn’t come in the mouth of the sleeping lion in the den. The lion, despite being the king, has to go out and hunt in order to survive!

What if, we understand that nothing is free in this world? If you want to go get something, you have to go and work for it. This reminds me of the famous lines of Will Smith in the movie “The Pursuit of Happiness”, which goes like this:

“Don’t ever let someone tell you, you can’t do something. Not even me. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you, you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period.”

Till next time…. 🙂