Saturday, July 18, 2015

Know Thyself - Series on self analysis

Know Thyself Series

#1 Who are you?

What of us is actually ours?
Our chromosomes are our parents.
Our very name is given by them.
Everyone around us, as we grow up, determines what we turn out to be – our parents, our relations, our relationships, our friends, our colleagues, our enemies.
Our qualifications are bestowed by educational institutes; our achievements by other institutes; our honours still by other institutes. We ‘earn’ them alright, but only in the light of them being given to us under certain circumstances.
Our lives are the attainments and goals that we stitch together to become us.
In the end we are nothing but a long list of things that we are or want to be.
And then we put our own spin on these things – our achievements, and hope when we die they will be remembered, even if only by our loved ones and friends. And if are we lucky, maybe they will be noted down by someone for prosperity. In most cases we make do if just our loved ones remember us with love.
Others give up on these ‘achievements’ and go their way – indulgences, decadence, selfishness, anti-social behaviour. The ‘misfits’. Or the most successful amongst us. Or the talented.
Or those who want to make a difference.
But what are we, in the end? A name to be remembered? Maybe to be honoured? Or remembered with disdain?
In the long run to the end of our lives, we may not even know who we are. We have been so busy living up to the expectations of those who make a difference in our lives that we do not know who we are, or have become.

So, who are we?
#nalin