Dear son,
We are going to celebrate our nation’s 69th Independence day tomorrow. The Indian flag will be hoisted all over the country, followed by various cultural events. Lots of offices, colleges, and schools might be closed as well. Life will be back to usual the day after.
While you may continue to participate in all the activities in your school or neighbourhood to celebrate Independence day every year, please keep asking yourself from time to time if you are really independent.
The questions you may have to ask yourself are:
Am I independent enough to make my personal choices?
Am I independent enough to pursue arts vs science?
Am I independent enough to choose what I want to pursue in sports?
Am I independent enough to choose to pursue in greater depth the subjects I like the most?
Am I independent enough to express my opinion in my house?
Am I Independent enough to behave myself responsibly in the society?
Am I independent enough to change at least one thing in the world to make it a better place?
To exercise freedom, you have to be fearless and stand up for the causes you believe in. But remember, every decision in your life should be toward your own development and should not cost anybody their peace or freedom in turn.
If I am interfering with your likes and dislikes, you have to stop and remind me, and I will respect that. For, if your own choices are respected, you will be able to respect other people for their choices and be more adaptable as an individual in the society.
I promise you I will be there as your guide and angel, but I will not make choices for you. Similarly, your father, grandparents, teachers and seniors may be your guides, but you will stop being independent the day you start living other people’s lives and pursuing their dreams. You will have to search for your own path and be responsible for your own future because at one point we will be there no more; at that time, the choices you will have been making will become your guiding principles. Of course, we will give you the education to deal with the ways of the world but the ultimate choice will be yours.
Always, combine your instinct with the reasoning you inculcate over a period of time and execute accordingly. Religion or no religion, spirituality or no spirituality, vegetarianism or non-vegetarianism, choices of marriage and career - you will not make them to please the people around you. You will follow your mind and make yourself free and happy. For, every happy individual contributes toward a happy state.
Independence, after all, doesn’t limit you to singing the national anthem, performing in a school event, going in a certain perfect costume to that event, having snacks at the end, coming back home, and going out with friends in the evening. It is rather a state of mind, that is fearless, responsible, and aimed toward the larger causes of the nation. As beautifully worded by Rabindranath Tagore:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Your loving,
Mother
This article was published on mycity4kids.com on August 14, 2015
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