Kartik Viswanath- What can I do?

Not all, but many of us sometimes get this feeling in our gut that we need to do something with our life, that change must come within us and around us and because of us. I don’t know if you can identify with this, but if you can then you must know how painful such a feeling is. It might come because of somebody you meet, something you see happening around you, or maybe even just a very powerful movie.

And when this happens, the question we ask ourselves is simple…what can I do?

It’s the answer to that question that’s a bit tough.

I thought my first entry should talk about these very questions, the need to think about social issues, the need to create awareness and a concern about the problems faced by society. It’s only when we take the first step that the rest of the path will unveil itself to us.

Most of us live an insulated life, insulated from the pains as well as the joys in the lives of so many around us. As long as things in our life are going well, good food, good house, good bed, good friends, it takes a bit of an effort to pull out of our cocoon and take a look around to see what the guy next door has to deal with. Such behaviour is perhaps our choice, albeit on a sub-conscious level. The reason being, if we do happen to notice the hardship of another, we’ll then have to worry about him, thus ruining our perfectly good life. All this might sound cynical, but if it is, then that would mean things aren’t as bad as they seem, which is great since that’s what we all want in the end anyway, don’t we?

I’m afraid I don’t have any answers to these questions, and I don’t think any of us really do. Further, I confess that I myself am sometimes one such person, a person who does not want to know about another’s suffering, primarily because I fear it will ruin my sleep. It’s so much easier to just block it all out.

The Mumbai terror attacks had me in confused state of mind. On one hand, I felt sad and angry, helpless yet responsible, but on the other hand I felt like I really didn’t want to hear about all that anymore, that I just wanted to laugh some with my friends, eat some good food and watch some stupid Govinda flicks. The latter sounded so much easier, so much more something I’d like to do.

Working out these two opposing forces will require some thought.

________________

The Author is a II yr college student and head of the Sri Venkateshwara College Website Team of DevelopmentChannel.org