Us Indians have been conditioned to listen,not listened to ,all through our formative years.From parents to teachers to elders to peers, we constantly learned what we were supposed to do in what ultimately turned out to be an eternal quest for “what’s best for you” and we were only too happy to oblige too.In fact most of us are thankful for all that.There’s no telling where we would have ended up if it wasn’t for that timely rap on the knuckles.You did not choose the school you went to, you never got to pick the subjects that you were taught and there were occasions even where we were told who to be friends with.
We took this conditioning with us beyond our years of growth physically, when we set out on our own into the big bad world.Even when it comes to decisions like marriages a total stranger doing the kind of calculations on a wooden board that would have left George Boole perplexed, tells us if its a make or a break.Basically you have the whole system telling you what’s best for you,round the clock.Even better, by now you know what’s best for your family and your friends too.Yes you’re already passing around the mantle that was passed on to you recently.
This is why i fail to understand why some of us shift uncomfortably in our chairs when we are told that we are required to stand up when the national anthem is played in the movie halls.You are only being asked to do what you’ve done all throughout your life, doing as you’re told that is.Yes ,you’re absolutely obliged to prove your love for the country to every other person who’s in there with you.Its not up to you to ask if the anthem is played every time a cabinet of ministers or a court of law is in session.All you need to be is that brick in the wall.Thats your sole purpose in life.So quit acting as if you just got off a Volkswagen Type 2 on you way back home from Woodstock and just go ahead and stand up wherever you are asked to, already.
gopakumarpurushothaman 