Be what you are

I entered the classroom and asked each of the seventy students present, to draw something in their notebooks. Questioning, suspicious glances fell over me. Their eyes enquiring, ‘Are you sane?’ Unperturbed by the weird looks on the faces around, I once again said, ‘Sketch anything you feel like.’ A sweet girl in the front row spoke, ‘But Mam what?’ I smiled and she stared at the blank page in front of her.
After five minutes, I looked around to find everyone engrossed in drawing something or other. Another ten minutes down the line, I asked everyone to stop and show me what they had drawn. There were roses, pansies, clock, people, sceneries, houses and yes, the typical inverted V shaped hills with sun rising and a river in the forefront. I posed a question, ‘Why haven’t any two students drawn similar things?’
‘Because you asked us to draw what we felt like...’,came a quick response. As asked them to follow their instinct, I came across such beautiful array of drawings. Had I asked everyone to draw a square or a triangle, all the pictures would have looked similar if not identical. This is just illustrating the point of our becoming stereotypes in our lives. It is hard to find examples of times when we did something simply because we felt like. Uniqueness is one of the most rare traits to find these days. Each one of us is trying to be a rat in the rat race. Being a conformist to the laid down rules and patterns seems the easiest option available. Being different definitely takes more energy, vigour and courage however the outcome is more rewarding and fulfilling, hence the means surely justify the end in this case. Look around and see why students are preparing for an MBA or why do want to cram the answer to ‘introduce yourself’ or ‘your strength’ or ‘your aim in life’ before entering an interview room. Actually we are all so uncomfortable to the thought of being ourselves. The process of doing things or saying words which are politically correct or generally accepted makes us alienate ourselves from the truth within.
When an interviewer sits examining a hundred candidates a day, with more or less similar qualification, he is searching for someone who is different from the rest. One after the other he is faced with prototypes and really has to keep his patience in listening to those oft repeated answers. The candidates sound like pre programmed robots with instructions fed in. Here, a candidate who just lets down that facade and reveals himself/herself succeeds to make a mark.
Imagine sitting with your group of friends and feeling that they all look the same, dress the same and speak the same things. Doesn’t that sound an uncanny experience? Similarly the poor interviewer faces one candidate after the other. Anyone who breaks the monotony, comes as fresh breathe, registers himself in the interviewer’s mind. At the end of the day, it is simple and easy to remember the person who discussed his love for Wordsworth or the one who wore a pink tie instead of the standard grey and blue tie or the girl who explained her motivation in life or the person who defined himself as God’s own son etc.
Let us just pause our busy hectic lives and stare at ourselves in the mirror. For a day, don’t do what others tell you or don’t try to be like your father or your elder brother or a senior from college...just be what you are. I don’t promise an easy ride but I do promise that the journey to self discovery would be worth it. Being unique is the surest way to get noticed in an interview, a group discussion or any walk of life and most importantly, it brings unfathomable, indefinable, unparalleled joy, within.

I looked around and searched for this thing called joy...after few futile attempts i gave up...reclined in the chair....sat in Sector 20...preetika's bedroom...while she beautifully exhibited her new collection of clothes...told her tit bits of my life's story and heard all the gossip about Mcm girls but somewhere my enthu was low....though it rain ( rain is my stress buster)...
I was waiting for something...wht??? didnt know...
just exiting from her gate...i found my omen....white...crystal white flowers from the overhead lemon tree strwen over the windscreen and bonnet of my black car.....
nothing else required ....nothing else to say....i beamed...it was my fairy tale world and those glistening flowers was wht i was waiting for :)