Wednesday, January 18, 2012

CHOICE vs. REASON.

"Tadbeer se bigdi huyi taqdeer bana le,
Apne pe bharosa hai to ye daanw laga le..."


A popular song of the black and white era stands completely justified in the era that I live in. Bedazzling, colorful and Blinding, Confusing....
The song symbolizes the spirit of risk taking..

A Poem that i read during school-

"If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss,
And lose and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss........
....
And which is more- you'll be a man my son...."


Amazingly similar words by Rudyard Kipling.


RISK is a risky word. If you risk all your earnings in one gamble, the possibilities are just two, either you win to double all your winnings or you lose, to be standing alone with nothing left but your hope, your nerve, and your spirit to build up everything yet again.


But to my fears, it isn't as simple as written. The eulogy of Risk isn't everybody's genre. 


Is it easy to risk all you have, not necessarily monetary, but emotional, mental, spiritual or social?
To risk the ground underneath your feet to learn to spread your wings and fly, you may not cross the horizons on your first flight. The chances are as soon as you spread your wings and jump off a cliff you may fall into the unknown depths.... The ground you had beneath your feet, firm and strong would never be found again. Dire consequences waiting for you. Failure, standing with its arms wide open, the Gorgon Medusa, to engulf you, to devour you. 


Dare devils do not fear the consequences, they say. Well, I do agree. The fear of what may come should have only a limited influence on my decisions. 


But what if you need to risk your conviction?
or,
The belief of society, at large?
Just to find the answers of some rhetorical questions that arise contiguously  out of a bubbling, boiling mind, then the dare devilry in me or you gives up.

A man is not as afraid to lose his money, or a dear one, as he is to lose his belief. To be proved wrong, to be told that all principles you grew up with, were wrong, would it be easy?
This is a risk that no one is ready to take.

But I face the same question, each time I step into something new. Because, I never accept things as they are, I need a reason for everything said and done.
Questions like a swarm of bees keep buzzing in my mind. At each step, I need to choose. One out of the two paths. I have no leads, except  the arguing voices in my mind. One that stands for my whims and the other that seems to be the general right.
Philosophies state, "follow your heart till the end." (Though, I may not kill someone if my heart asks me to do so.;))
That is where logic has to play it's part. It is always CHOICE vs. REASON. 
It is in my hand whether to risk my choice for my reason, or to risk my reason for my choice.
All I have learned throughout my life is,
If you have to fly, you need to shun all support, because all you learn by holding hands, is to totter.


Sriti.