Free ka Gyan #1: Think Above the Races
If I ask Who are you what will your answer be? And if you ask this question to yourself what is the difference, stop reading and think about it. You should write your answer and then you can read the story.
So, if you don't know, let me tell you that I am a physics student at the University of Delhi. It means that I am studying Physics. One year ago I was not sure what I want to do? I had a lot of options to continue with Physics or prepare for government exams or learn data science and get a job in any private company. I wanted to do Physics, but I was not sure about it. I thought I had lost interest in Physics.
So One day a person visits my home and he asks me "what do you want to do?". He is a teacher in a Government school, so I respected him, and because I was confused about my career so I thought It would be great if he can help me with it.
I said- 'I don't know maybe I want to do Physics. But I want to do something that I would enjoy, I don't want to do something I regret.'
So this person didn't ask me what I enjoyed doing or what is my passion or anything else. He just started giving me 'free ka gyan.' He said, - "You should prepare for UPSC." I thought that was it but he started motivating me without I asked.
"You have the potential to crack the UPSC exam. You got ninety percent in the 10th board exams. You can do anything. Being an IAS officer has a different reputation, people will salute you..." And whatever he kept talking for about an hour. I was listening to him very carefully. I was not like my father. I have no interest in winning arguments I just like to listen to people more than asking them a counter question. But he said one thing that made me write this post.
"Our cast has done slavery for years. We are backward people, (I know it, that's why we are in Other backward casts). The people of our cast never come ahead in power. They don't run for elections, even if they run for it, they are not going to win it." Then he started comparing Kumawat samaj with jaats. I thought he was jealous. "Jaat people are always ahead of us. They have got good positions in bureaucracy. When a person of our cast goes to any official work they don't give it a minute. But when their people go they can win it by the power of casts. In a way, they are oppressing us. We need to change this we need to change it. we need to work for our cast to bring it forward."
That seemed fair to me, our cast has done slavery for years all right, we are backward, are we? There is a line in one of Amrit Maan's song Jatt Fattey Chak. Casts or areas are not backward, thinking is. We are backward because we think we are backward. This word, 'backward' has made a special place in our head and we are not willing to leave it. When I filled form for St. Stephen's College. They asked me my category and they didn't give me an option for OBC, I had to check general and I made it. Then I learned something, If you think you are strong, you don't need the stimulant of reservation. After that I never tick OBC in my forms I always check General and Congratulations I am not backward anymore. So this is the answer I prepared for this situation.
Our definition depends on our frame of reference ie How do we introduce ourselves to other people depends on where we are. The question is 'Who are you?' that has a different answer depending on the place if When I am in Punjab, I define myself as the son of Vimla but if I am in Rajasthan, I define myself as the son of Madan. There is one question 'Where are you from?' that has different answers in different rest frames. like If I am in Delhi, I say I am from Rajasthan, and If I am in Rajasthan, I say I am from Hanumangarh and if I am in Hanumangarh, I would say I am from Rawatsar. So the answer clearly depends on the frame of reference.
But what about the answer to the question of identity in your own rest frame. Like how do you define yourself to yourself? The answer to this question is the natural scale for your thinking. Like the length of a rod may vary in different frames but the length in his own rest frame is constant and that is its natural length scale.
When you talk to yourself you might say I am Jaat or I am a Hindu. That's big thinking. But you can also say I am an Indian, that's patriotic that's huge. The person who says I am a Hindu wants to do something for his religion that is good but the person who says I am an Indian, keep his nation ahead of his religion and that's the best. For those people Indian Hindu and Indian Muslim are the same, they are Indian. Isn't that a great thing?
But what I define myself as is that 'I am a human!'. I want to do something that is good for humanity, I want to do something that can bring humanity forward. For me Indian, African, Hindu, Muslim, Kumhar, Jaat, all are the same, they are humans. If an alien civilization attacks on earth, it is not going to ask you if you are a Hindu or Muslim before destroying you. For them, all are the same and for us, we all should be the same.
But I didn't give this answer. I had to courage, I gave this answer instead.
"For the last two years, I am enjoying Physics and I think I like it, I want to do this my whole life."
And you know what did he answer?
"They have filled this in your mind, the whole Physics thing. You are going to waste half of your life in studies and the rest half searching for the job."
I didn't say anything and this ends here... I want to end this first episode of this
The funda is that: If you want to do something big in your life, you have to think big. You have to leave this feeling behind that you are weak. And if you want to remember for a long time on earth you have to do something big for the earth not for your cast.
I want to end this episode with a poem by Jems Kirkup
No men are Foreign
Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.
They, too, aware of sun and air and water,
Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d.
Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read
A labour not different from our own.
Remember they have eyes like ours that wake
Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.
Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other
It is the human earth that we defile.
Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence
Of air that is everywhere our own,
Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.
And this photo as the message:
Throughly enjoyed it 😅 ☀️
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