Me, myself and no-one else
Posted On Jan 10, 2004 at by Prakash G.R. Two weeks back, when I was talking to Sudhir, he was mentioning about a photograph, he has seen n a magazine. It was taken somewhere in North India. It was a photo of an STD booth and its poor owner in rugged clothes. In the background stands a big fort. I was wondering whats there, after all it should be just an another photo. But then he revealed that the owner was actually a descendant of the kings , who ruled that place and owned the fort two centuries back ! To keep his daily bread on his table, this fellow is running an STD booth and the major customers are the tourists, who come to see the fort. Time changes everything.
Today when I was reading Kumutham, I came across Vairamuthu's 'Konjam theaneer, niraya vaanam' column, he started the kavithai stating 'the woman selling buttermilk near the Kallannai dam, could have been the grand, grand daughter of the Karikalan, the king who built the dam'. I was immediately reminded of that photograph. The next few lines were few other examples like the above. I was thinking how he is going to end it. Quoting those examples, he says that no one can predict the future or can trace about all our fore-fathers. So dear parents don't force your child to be like yourself. Let them to be themselves. Teach them how to handle the troubles, let them go in their own ways to find their happiness. That was a nice point. Many a times, I could see that people forcing their children to get involved in things that they would like. Last week, I saw the nice animation movie 'Finding Nemo'. It was also putting forth a similar message. Let your child to be free and leave him to learn things on their own. I was wondering what would have happened, if I was allowed to go on my own decision? With most probability, I would have gone into my ever-time favourite profession - photography. By this time, I might have ended up being a photographer, or would have been a cameraman for some movie, or would have been working with National geographic and exploring places, or may be I would have been working with a newspaper and shooting pictures of those latthi charges against the mobs, etc, etc. I should have missed my 3 wonder years in UG and another 3 enjoyable years in PG; I would have missed working in a hi-tech environment; I might not have been earning as I do now, but still, I would have been myself. Myself, and no one else.