I am about to talk about something I have no major experience with (I will qualify major later) but will share observations on what I have encountered in general. I might add that this post comes after month (or more) long break – filled with birthdays (mine) , weddings (not mine) and a difficult goodbye to my sister who has skipped the country, I guess with the internet it is never really bye and no she is not a fugitive or anything!
The thing I have chosen to discuss today is this illusion of freedom that anywhere we go – barring your own home if you are as lucky as me – you are made to believe you have. Companies, schools, colleges, relationships even… all share that common goal – give prospect (sucker) the illusion of this shiny beautiful thing called freedom. This may be freedom to wear what you want, work how you would like, speak how you would like… I think you catch my drift here. Now the reason I say I have no major experience here is because I have never ‘struggled’ FOR my freedom. I am just enjoying (or not) the convoluted version of freedom someone else fought for. SO… what I am getting at is this. In order to have you become a part of this aforementioned company, school or couple.. you will be told very many things. Trust me, you have heard it all before – ‘it does not matter how many hours you work, its only how much you get done…you have to pick projects to enable your growth’..’in 6 months you will see a promotion’…’This college encourages students to experiment and undertake ANY research project’..’you can choose any elective you want..’... ummm yeah.. sure.
Two months later, you are wondering what happened to all those glossy freedoms and whom you should secretly plot to overthrow or kill for having deprived you the freedoms you were so convincingly promised. It makes me sick actually. I mean when did we have to start lying about stuff like this. And when did it become okay to have to sucker someone into stuff like this? At the risk of sounding a tiny bit offensive, is this an Indian thing? It’s funny that I sit here and ask these questions – I am a marketing professional, it’s sort of the name of my game. Making something seem better than it is, so tons of people will buy/subscribe to it..making my bosses very happy and rich! But wait..today I stand on the other side of the fence..offended.
I am sick and offended…yes. Though I can’t quite figure out which I would prefer. Would I rather have someone lie to me to convince me to do something I probably would not, and then realize later I am disappointed and angry? or pick between some not-so-great realities and know up front that this is as good as it gets? I am inclined to say I’d prefer the latter. Okay so maybe I won’t be as kicked as I would be if someone had promised awesome things I’d later never get, but at least if anything ‘good’ happens it’s a bonus, and not charity.. you know?
As a second observation to this, I also have to say how these ‘liars’ appear to be following some sort of established code. The code is yes you can have all this stuff, what they won’t tell you is ‘conditions apply/policy dictates’…otherwise. It’s nothing short of amazing how these policies/conditions will be applied swiftly, as though created by the universe itself somehow being completely outside of the control or manipulation of the enforcer…wow. I am really not sure about the success freedom, I mean real freedom, has had in all these spheres I have mentioned. But if people have to lie about giving it to you, it must be pretty attractive no? considering how much it would ‘cost’ to really give it to you . I think if it stopped, we may be walking around in a world like in that movie ‘The Invention of lying’…or something like it anyway. I suppose I am generalizing quite a bit, but I am awfully tired of being told how cool something can be only to find out that I will never ever experience it!
In other news… I am closer than ever before to identifying what I will write about. By publicizing this I am now committing (with no lies) to a constant stream of writing (no guarantees on quality) in the near future, once existing commitments are done and dusted.. it will be a more mature story I hope. Till then I will be balancing swallowing such tough pills as spoken about earlier here and gaining the much required inspiration I need to go forward with plans for later in the year.
I am also planning to take a good long vacation (long by my standards) in December and when I do, I am mostly hoping to escape from this constant stream of lies I have been subject to this year. Its tiresome to pick yourself back up every time you are disappointed, and some good R&R is all I need to revive my faith in the world again..also so I can continue to lie to others to make a living :-) I am also beginning to notice.. I am complaining a lot on my blog.. hmmm gots to stop the madness! :-)
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