Is it time yet?
mypajama.com is all about storytelling. Stories and essays are published at an alarmingly infrequent rate. Subscribe with RSS or via email.
Ever been called to lunch and refused it or postponed it because you had a late breakfast and were not hungry? Ever seen people cajoled into a marriage, even if they were not ready, because it was time for them? In short, have you ever, when told it was time, felt otherwise?
Some people choose the evening snack over the lunch. Many choose to remain unmarried if they realise they can’t do justice to the bond. What do you think separates these people, however moderately, from the great majority who live by the book?
It is the realisation that there are more tracks than one to choose from. Nobody’s life is predetermined. There are a thousand different ways to go in at any point in your life. And cliché as it may sound; you ARE in charge of your life.
Career paths are usually laid out in order of merit. The best on top and the less promising below. Sadly, this numbered list is so off the mark, even with the basics, that it serves no useful purpose whatsoever in the long run. The average clueless student (and I mean clueless in a good way) is asked to choose from a given number of careers. These inevitably, are the most popular ones.
The shortsighted ones will tell you that there is no hope beyond what lies before you now. They will also tell you how foolish you are to even consider the possibility that you can be different. You will find it difficult to resist their words, because they have, over time, convinced you that being stubborn is bad. That being different is just not done.
The math of it is simple actually. The world works like a machine. People are cogs. It is easy to be a cog. You move with the other cogs, which move with the others. There is very little you can decide, if you want to decide at all. The machine conditions the brains out of you and soon you are happy to be a cog, unable and unwilling to look beyond a cog’s existence. In time, you will even recommend a cog’s life to others.
I am not saying cogs are not important. I am saying you don’t have to be one just because everyone you know is one. Not if you can be something else. Something you will be happier as. Something you can do that no one else can.
You can start by assigning the list of careers to trash. Realise that there is only one list. And that list is inside you. It is made up of all the things you can do and want to do. Maybe you can do more than one thing. Maybe it’s something nobody would bother doing. Maybe it’s something nobody has ever done. It wouldn’t matter, because the answer, unlike the so many disembodied voices you grew up hearing, would come from within yourself.
It is time when you decide it is time. Not yet? That’s just fine. Hone yourself if you have to. Learn more, unlearn a few things. Get back that stubborn streak you were caned and conditioned out of. That’s the way!
With all due respect to the cogs, in time, you will run the machine.
This piece was my contribution to the journal of the Phoenix Resource Centre, Cuttack. It is aimed at students just out of school and confused about their future. Hence the tone. 
Posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 11:43 am and filed under learning, essays.
Do you believe in destiny? Click here to read a random post.
I publish new stories and essays with alarming infrequency. To stay updated, subscribe to the RSS feed or get email updates.
Anthony Robins couldn’t have said it better
I think you have arrived!!
Your comment made little sense initially. Then I looked up who Rob(b)ins was and was wiser. Thanks for that! And thanks too!
Hmm…but nobody is an absolute Cog or non-Cog. Everyone at some point of time displays significant cogginess.
Anyway, a true non-cog’s life is hard. The romanticism of discovering new ways and being true to self, if at-all you can first of all find your true self, also comes with a disproportionately very very high degree of casualty(failed lives) compared to a cog’s life. As a cog, I think it is still worth it. Or perhaps it is just the ‘grass-green-on-other-side-of-fence’.
Cogger: What is a ‘failed life’? What do you mean by ‘worth it’?
Ohh it is not all so serious. I meant, to me it seems non-cog life is really worth living. And by failed-life I meant people who were careless with their career and timing in life. But I think it doesn’t hold good for very thoughtful and pragmatic non-cogs. Just wanted to stress that trying to become a cog too late is scary in terms of security, stablity etc in life.
Cogger-err: Its ok. I understand.
I should have been a bit more careful but then what’s in a name really? My name has been spelled kashavi or keshavi or even kayshvy!!
In any case the article was very well written, as usual!
I know. I once emailed someone else when trying to email you.
a very thoughtful post…
very often we are so busy striving to become the best cog that we realize a little too late that we could’ve run the machine, if only we gave it a chance!
[…] you’re not going along with the herd? You’re human, not a sheep. Trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. It did for me, Steve Jobs and it will for […]
Very well written, but alas so many people wont realize this and just be happy with their clockwork-y lives.
People tend to settle in their comfort zones, if they’re pushed out of it, they feel scared, and hence most people dont get anywhere in life. Staying in your comfort zone is good enough - but its continuously trying to expand it to keep growing, that is important.