(The following is something i wrote last year in the month of April. A year has passed and I can say another thing or two about it but this would still be the base. Also this was my first attempt.)
"Who are you?", a question differently answered by individuals at different times. We were asked by our Professor in the first lecture, an introductory class rather.
"And you have two years to figure it out, that's the time you will spend with us.", he added.
And then after a pause, "And the rest of your life". That smile on his face though.
That's when my journey began. I listed down all i could think of. Following was the order:
My cast
My name
Gender
Religion
My parents (Father mainly, as in my sense of belonging with them)
Country
A human.
"But all this is so common", I thought. Everybody has an origin and humankind is, well obviously, all humans. So what was special about me? Where was i different? Not that i wanted to be different but where does any of these details describe me as me?
I began to think about my identity, and my originality.
This journey on the self knowledge has been a year long as i keep analyzing the same things about myself over and over again. And i have been changing my answer every now and then. But it has been a month or two that i feel 'settled' about where i have landed.
It was hard not to notice how everyone was almost everything that i was. And i started feeling insignificant. I felt so unimportant in one phase. There was nothing i could wear as my "identity". Nothing I could refer to as "me". Was I nobody? Of course, I was. Technically, I WAS somebody. But did anyone care? Did it make any difference?
Whether I was the youngest, the eldest or the middle child, what was my contribution in that? My name, my features, or in anything that could be referred to as 'me', I saw none of my contribution in it.
More like suddenly, all the badges fell down and all the labels flew away. And I started to look around me. I started identifying myself with everyone in my house, students i would see outside, people at my university, people waiting for the bus on the stops. Not everything would be relative but sometimes this other times that. I began to see bits of myself in such bits of almost everyone.
An infant now appeared equal and equally important to me as any adult including myself. Mistakes of everyone started reminding me of my own. And I rarely felt any anger (that i abundantly practiced before). The only thing that would provoke rage in me would be when people would overlook one's need and rights for someone else. Even if they would overlook themselves, i'd feel disturbed and react.
But that (reaction) too has changed now. I guess I started to understand why they'd do so. I do know that one thing we as humans need the most, and that we lack the most in knowledge. Knowledge about ourselves, awareness rather. We need awareness. And with that might come our tendencies to accept others, other cultures, other religions and others' identities.
This realization changed me in some ways. I now accept, for example, a religiously devoted person of any religion as much as i accept a not-so-devoted person of any origin. By accepting them i mean recognizing them as they are and respecting them (i.e. not resisting or threatening or fearing them) and theirs', however it is.
They are as right as I am, as important as I am and as precious as I am. They are as original as i am. They exist, like I do. So none of us is significant if he/she tries to separate himself/herself from the rest of us. Together, as an entity, we are all significant, important and special. And each one of us is equally significant too, equally worthy.
So I'm either nobody or I am what my fellow beings are, in my own way, but still the same. The labels attached to me, the appearances i carry, the way of life, the faith system and the ideas I have may be different but not better or worse than anyone else's. Rather, they are equally important to be concerned, as any other person's.
'But who is the enemy then?', was next in my head. Am I my own enemy? I thought. If i don't condemn destruction and violence of any/all kinds on any/all levels, then i am my own enemy. Self destruction is still destruction.
If I am OK with suppression of one of us or a group of us by some others among us, the yes i am my own enemy. If i don't allow the rights to others, those rights that i demand for myself, then i am what's wrong with the world.
...
"Who are you?", a question differently answered by individuals at different times. We were asked by our Professor in the first lecture, an introductory class rather.
"And you have two years to figure it out, that's the time you will spend with us.", he added.
And then after a pause, "And the rest of your life". That smile on his face though.
That's when my journey began. I listed down all i could think of. Following was the order:
My cast
My name
Gender
Religion
My parents (Father mainly, as in my sense of belonging with them)
Country
A human.
"But all this is so common", I thought. Everybody has an origin and humankind is, well obviously, all humans. So what was special about me? Where was i different? Not that i wanted to be different but where does any of these details describe me as me?
I began to think about my identity, and my originality.
This journey on the self knowledge has been a year long as i keep analyzing the same things about myself over and over again. And i have been changing my answer every now and then. But it has been a month or two that i feel 'settled' about where i have landed.
It was hard not to notice how everyone was almost everything that i was. And i started feeling insignificant. I felt so unimportant in one phase. There was nothing i could wear as my "identity". Nothing I could refer to as "me". Was I nobody? Of course, I was. Technically, I WAS somebody. But did anyone care? Did it make any difference?
Whether I was the youngest, the eldest or the middle child, what was my contribution in that? My name, my features, or in anything that could be referred to as 'me', I saw none of my contribution in it.
More like suddenly, all the badges fell down and all the labels flew away. And I started to look around me. I started identifying myself with everyone in my house, students i would see outside, people at my university, people waiting for the bus on the stops. Not everything would be relative but sometimes this other times that. I began to see bits of myself in such bits of almost everyone.
An infant now appeared equal and equally important to me as any adult including myself. Mistakes of everyone started reminding me of my own. And I rarely felt any anger (that i abundantly practiced before). The only thing that would provoke rage in me would be when people would overlook one's need and rights for someone else. Even if they would overlook themselves, i'd feel disturbed and react.
But that (reaction) too has changed now. I guess I started to understand why they'd do so. I do know that one thing we as humans need the most, and that we lack the most in knowledge. Knowledge about ourselves, awareness rather. We need awareness. And with that might come our tendencies to accept others, other cultures, other religions and others' identities.
This realization changed me in some ways. I now accept, for example, a religiously devoted person of any religion as much as i accept a not-so-devoted person of any origin. By accepting them i mean recognizing them as they are and respecting them (i.e. not resisting or threatening or fearing them) and theirs', however it is.
They are as right as I am, as important as I am and as precious as I am. They are as original as i am. They exist, like I do. So none of us is significant if he/she tries to separate himself/herself from the rest of us. Together, as an entity, we are all significant, important and special. And each one of us is equally significant too, equally worthy.
So I'm either nobody or I am what my fellow beings are, in my own way, but still the same. The labels attached to me, the appearances i carry, the way of life, the faith system and the ideas I have may be different but not better or worse than anyone else's. Rather, they are equally important to be concerned, as any other person's.
'But who is the enemy then?', was next in my head. Am I my own enemy? I thought. If i don't condemn destruction and violence of any/all kinds on any/all levels, then i am my own enemy. Self destruction is still destruction.
If I am OK with suppression of one of us or a group of us by some others among us, the yes i am my own enemy. If i don't allow the rights to others, those rights that i demand for myself, then i am what's wrong with the world.
You have no rights to copy, or plagiarize. Thank you.
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