In the good old days, people that I knew and grew up with did not have many choices in life. They just took what life gave them. When it came to buying a TV, my father had just one choice and later when he upgraded that TV after 15 years, he still did not have to fret about it. His first 2 wheeler was a choice between TVS 50 and Bajaj Chetak. I know he loved Chetak, his heart was on it but his mind vary of budget said TVS and he went with it. Not just things, when it came to schools, my home town in Pondicherry had one best school for boys and one for girls (private schools), no confusion whatsoever. For my father Music meant Ilayaraja and movies meant Visu. There is a saying “If you don’t choose then you have to be content with what life chooses for you” – and content they all were. I never heard anyone complain about their life since they often imagined it to be a water flowing in a pipe – only one path to take.
Fast forward 30 years and here we are filled, and in most cases overloaded with choices. The pipe has become a river with so many paths to take which could end up in a gutter or the amazing sea, the field or a chemical factory. Even as simple as choosing a cellphone, email client or social networking site definitely gives you more than one option. Don’t even get me started on electronics. You have to dig deep to find out exactly what you want and even when you get there you will have to sort out between 5 to 10 lookalike products.
Forget things, how has life opened up with choices. Women who earlier used to be born for the post of house-wives have evolved remarkably. They have the choice of going to work, the profession they wanted, the passion they are bound by. Girls tend to choose who their life partner is which though not unheard of, was something rare. Isn’t choice an wonderful thing. For me it definitely is. I was always ready to choose and stood by my choices.
But sometimes choice does become a bane from boon. One of my neighbors says that choices make his decision making tedious and cumbersome. May be there is a point. I see youngsters who have multiple choices fearing to take a decision, with their career or with their life. It puts them in dilemma, but why. The risk of choosing the wrong option and having to live with that knowledge cripples them. Let us assume boy X has to choose his life partner between Girl A and Girl B. He seems to like them equally well and they seem to equally reciprocate it. He is sure of going ahead with any of them and making it for lifetime. Now that is some confusion to deal with and that puts him in a soup. The thought that if he lets go of one of them only to realize that it was a blunder puts him in a no-action state which eventually robs him of both the girls.
So what is the solution you ask. It is simple. Life is not a balance sheet and treating anything and everything as a means and end to increase your net worth will not take you anywhere. When it comes to personal life and relationships, Go with your heart … it rarely fails you. And more importantly stick with your choice and put your might behind the person you choose. Don’t ever make personal relationship decisions based on materialistic choices. You will realize sooner than latter that a truly loving heart can never be bought.
When it comes to materialistic things, heed to your mind as well and explore things. You will be surprised to see how many people have gone through the same dilemma and have a story to tell you.
Choices are good. They make you independent and enable you to take control of your life. They help you lead your life. your way. Choices are what makes us different from the 32-bit programmed computer on which you are reading this. Go, Choose…