We as children are born dependent. Dependent on our parents! Gradually our parents teach us to be independent. Our Walk, behavior, talk, actions, all carries the independence we have absorbed from our surroundings. Our youths are trained to be independent; stand on their own feet (may be hands too). The race to become independent is growing and so is the individual ego.
But the point to ponder is, are we really INDEPENDENT? Were we ever? And will we be ever? Or is it our perception due to our ego that we are independent?
Can we stitch our own clothes? K, we can clean our own toilets, but can we build one? May be we can cook our food, but can we grow our own food? Can we make love to ourselves?
Your classmate in class II gave you a pencil to write in between the notes session when you broke one, remember and then you became good friends (till your independent egos clashed).
As we grow up & get matured we realize that, beyond the level of being independent, there is something called inter-dependence. We all are INTER-DEPENDENT! We have been subtly taught this in school, at home, with friends, the importance of Sharing, but we lost it as we became more and more independent. We have lost the ability to look beyond our ego and ask for things to share. We all want to be self-equipped, self -sustaining units to go on a long run and as a solution we accumulate wealth and keep on doing it failing to understand that money is not the solution for all our needs.
Our perception towards independence is so strongly synonymous to collection of wealth that we have started overlooking the small but simple phenomenon of asking things. Asking is perceived equivalent to begging due to our inflated egos. But we never fail to say that “I didn’t give cos he didn’t ask”. So we have stopped giving too.Doesn’t the same apply in our daily relations? We don’t ask for love neither give it back, gradually leading to creating a drift in our relations. Nuclear families, divorced families, Micro-nuclear families (consist only of a single person with spouse staying 2 blocks ahead but not together meeting only at night) are the gifts of our independence.
Inter-dependence come only when we truly believe that our need is sourced by someone else and the vice-versa. Our ancestors were never independent. Their barter system was and is a sheer good example of inter-dependence. Weren’t they happy being inter-dependent than we are being independent?
One way to adapt & inculcate inter-dependence in us is to follow the TATA SKY ad, “POOCHNE MEIN KYA JAATA HAI”! The only way we can evolve to be good human being is to realize that we are inter-dependent.
