Yes We Can

Barack Obama’s campaign was about ‘Change-yes we can’. This blog is not about Obama or anything, but how the world sees change. Are we in a position where we can say ‘Yes we can accept change easily’?

This is a story about an average engineering student. About a person who hardly has done anything significant in the class for the first two years of college. One of those guys who come to college, sit through the class, sets for home. After two years, he decides this is not the way to go about things. More activeness in class is essential. He has no intention of being famous or something, but only the desire to enjoy the second half of college life more.

For this, he tries to impart a bit of humor in his daily activities. He tries to be friendly with everyone in class. Stays back in college till late involving himself in some activity or another. So far so good, but let’s see how his classmates interpret his changed behavior.

We say change is inevitable, change is the only constant in life and things like that. Let’s see how well we accept this change ourselves. Coming back to the guy in the story, everyone now tells him “Tu bahut badal gaya hai yaar” constantly. His actions are suddenly seen in a different way. Even if he makes a simple joke or a prank in front of a girl, he’s labeled a tag that of a ‘flirt’. Big time flirts in the class do lot crazier activities than this, but nothing will be talked about them. We think that is anyway expected from regular flirts. This is something new to talk about.

Now, for this changed guy’s increased cheerfulness in class, another theory is put forward. He’s so happy and merry. He must be in love with someone. This has changed him maybe. This is what love can do. Crazy little thing called love, isn’t it? I believe this logic is crap. People who put forward this theory also do know that. But everything is fine if it adds up to form ‘masala’, right na?

Why does every action this poor guy does be accounted only as one which he’s doing to gain popularity or fame. Can’t anything be done purely for the sake of pure joy or unselfish happiness? About some things done with no real plan or motive in mind. But naah, you are the ‘Changed guy’ and new bakra, and everything you do can be twisted and told in a manner which raises a few eyebrows. Some people know exactly what I mean here.

Moral, once you’ve formed an image of a studious person or of that of a cool dude, society paints a picture of you that way in their minds. Anything that changes in the picture is suspicious. That adds to creative rumors and crazy stories about the person. Like if the cool dude suddenly starting to study all day long or the nerd playing football all day long, people will not accept that too easily. 'Kuch toh jaroor hua hai'.

The one thing that this guy now needs to do is to believe in himself. Believe that he has changed for the better; ignore what the world says for a while. Give time to people for digesting the change. Eventually all the pieces will fall into the right place. It’s just a matter of time. Matter of time before we are ready to say ‘Yes we can’ to accept the change rightly.