Identity Crisis

Suppose you are standing in the cafeteria in your office. Now, suppose someone spilled some coffee on you. How you react to this will depend on a multitude of factors:

• How much coffee was spilled;
• whether the person meant to spill it on you deliberately or was it a genuine mistake;
• who is this said person – male or female; friend, acquaintance or stranger; boss, co worker or junior;
• what your prior mood was – excited, dull or angry;
• how that person responds to this situation – is he apologizing, or playing it cool, or just walking away; etc

What happened till now was not in your hands. Well, sort of. If you had stood 1 foot to your right, or if you had come 5 seconds later, or if you were on a fast that day, then this wouldn’t have happened. But those factors are way out of your league to control.

But what happens next is in your hands. You can accept an apology; you can say “It’s all right” and go on with your life; you can show a constipated feeling on your face and snort at the apologies he’s making; you can go all “Gaali Baaz” and start abusing your antagonist’s family; you can lift the coffee machine with you right hand and the guy on the left, and start banging them together till he is drenched in coffee (remember that you are still imagining this scenario and hence anything is possible :P ).

Now let’s do a recap on our glorious history as a country. We have had kings like Buddha, who gave up everything he had – all the riches, all the glories and material festivities – to start living the life of a monk, a saint – living on alms, sleeping on rags and practicing penance. We have also had kings like Ashoka, who utilized everything available to him to expand his empire, till he could see blood no more.

Let’s move on to a more recent example. We have had people fighting the colonists for our freedom (which we now gladly misuse). The father of our nation was an exemplary pacifist, requesting us to show our other cheek if someone slaps us on one. Then there is Shaheed Bhagat Singh, an influential revolutionary, who was, to put it mildly, not entirely opposed to the idea of using force to get things done.

If we look at the effect the two people in the two eras have had on our history – Buddha and Ashoka ultimately led the society to unite and leave in peace (in their own ways), Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh were heavily instrumental in their own manner to help us gain our independence.

So, if we assume history repeats itself, let me ask you, based on the examples above, where the end result is the same irrespective of the path chosen, how would you like to live your life??

At one end of a spectrum, or at the other end?

Or would you like to be somewhere in between?

I know where I would be.....