Freedom
Freedom can mean a multitude of things to different people. To a bubbling toddler freedom from the physical clutches of his ever protective wards, to a raging teenager it could mean relaxation on the much hated ‘time restrictions‘. Freedom is clearly a subjective word but there is a clear convergence in all the instances. Freedom is liberating and makes one feel unrestrained, a feeling parallel to none other.
To me, as an individual, freedom is the ability to chart my own destiny. It is an endowment to practice, without fear or compulsion, a religious ideology of my choice. It is the liberty to lodge democratic protests against the state on policies which I sense are inappropriate and the free will to work in institutions that I want to work for. Overall, freedom on an individual perspective means the ability to decide and implement what is best for oneself.
As a citizen, freedom has been a significant factor in nation building and a feeling of oneness. It refers to the ability of my nation, India, to hold her head high and assert herself in the comity of nations. Additionally, freedom has been a causative factor in the empowerment of the downtrodden and under privileged. Subservience, a by-product of lack of freedom, has proliferated access and opportunities denial in our nation for many centuries. Its absence, thankfully, is slowly but steadily creating inclusive growth.
Bertrand Russell quotes “Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires”. This probably captures the essence of freedom in its totality. Freedom is to humans what oxygen is to the lungs, a vital component for survival. To sum it up, freedom has been and will be a cornerstone of human development till humans exist on this planet.
Jai Hind!
P.S. I had submitted this write up for the ‘What Freedom means to me’ creative writing competition held for Wipro employees. The word limit was 300. So you can see that i was really constrained for words. The competition is over now and i didnt win…:( So thought that i might at least share it here…
3 comments:
Palaniappa, your blog's visual theme blew me away when I saw it. It's just super. "Overall, freedom on an individual perspective means the ability to decide and implement what is best for oneself." - I subscribe to this. I guess the challenge here is that the other people (parents, say) aren't at times convinced and hence confident enough to let the person (the child) chart his own route into life. Maybe the parents should put more energy into looking "into" the child to see if the child has enough material to let him run his race. How many parents do it is a question. I also think this can be vaguely connected to whether a community turns out to be one of extremes rather than averages (you either are top of your field or in the rock bottom versus hanging around the average mark. Average here means that the person has a well settled life and able to take care of himself and his family. Fly high here could be an uncommonly successful entrepreneur.)
"...freedom has been and will be a cornerstone of human development till humans exist on this planet." If we want positive human development, we need proper freedom. Some check on an individuals freedom could be useful if it serves to keep the raging thoughts on the proper track. Again, what that 'check' is and how much of it is necessary and what's 'proper' is according to one's own definitions, I guess. Interesting post, keep up.
@Sriram...thanks for dropping by...plucked this background from one of the many available from some template website...:)
good thoughts there..."Some check on an individuals freedom could be useful if it serves to keep the raging thoughts on the proper track"...ya true...but as u have mentioned..what will be reasonable amount of checks is very subjective and very controversial
"Freedom is to humans what oxygen is to the lungs, a vital component for survival." nice lines da :) good write up i am wondering what the winner of competition would have written
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