All I Need Is To Be Free

“A Little Sweet, A Little Sour
A Little Close Not Too Far
All I Need, All I Need
All I Need Is To Be Free”*

An incomprehensible concept...I am yet to grasp the true nature of the word Freedom....why is it so important to us all? Why do we keep reminding ourselves of this concept every now and then?

I don’t know...whenever I think , I feel that Freedom means different things to different people...and it is often a more overhyped word than it should be...but then that’s my opinion....

Sample this- during this year's Independence Day, I was in a village called Tirpad in Ambegaon Block of Pune. Usual village obsequiousness resulted in me being requested to deliver a speech at the local primary+ high school compound during the flag hoisting ceremony…

For those who know me well enough, you know I hate public speaking…so having little idea what to say (as is usual with me all the time) to those huge number of expectant faces I started with the question “what is the significance of 15^th August? And what does it mean to you?”

Though someone was kind enough to translate it to Marathi, not a single kid from the crowd responded… not a single one???????????? infact they were possibly looking disappointed that I dint take out my Harry Potter like wand and tell them some of the dark conspiring secrets of sorcery, or whether SRK was indeed having an affair with Priyanka Chopra…shucks…

I realized that all that we had been taught about country, independence etc mean little to us really… as in we love our country on a more broader and academic sense….but we never really understand what freedom means… atleast I never did… neither did any amongst the crowd of 350-400 people who had gathered in the village school compound that day… does it really matter?

Today evening, I was on Google chatting away with one of my friends who happened to mention that she is contemplating applying for higher studies, that too outside Kolkata as it will provide her the much needed incentive called freedom (from her over protective Bong parents in this case)..which lead me to think all this...

I guess freedom is a more panoptic notion than we care to understand… simply put- I guess the way each of us will describe the word is “ability to do what we want to do…” “Not having any restraints”etc… but if we allow such a scenario in the world then wouldn’t that lead to total chaos, anarchy and arbitrary behavior? So what is the solution then? I guess it is to behave in a way which is fitting enough for the society…ensuring everyone has equal rights etc etc… 

but WTH…isn’t this against the very idea of the word Freedom? The concept of doing what I feel like? I don’t know…seems contradictory to me…..and makes me think that Freedom as we know ,exists in a more mild or moderated version of the original word… a subjective principle; which we are so fond of believing that, we tend to believe in its totality… Absolute freedom seems to be an impossible concept..I may be wrong over here…but does it matter?

Anyways….i wasn’t lecturing… I usually do that with a live audience and when I have had a few shots… so incase you wish I hadn’t bored you and that I need to end this essay better …just hear this song- one of my a favorites of all time…

*Source: Song Mera Jahan from movie Taare Zameen Par