What do you need to do to change
things around yourself? Other than read this blog entry, I mean.
Have you ever noticed that a
huge percentage of people in every nook and corner talk about problems
prevailing in our surroundings and have breathless descriptions of changes that
they would like to see. There are dozens upon dozens of problems to choose
from on any media source you choose from. At this point it’s getting a little
ridiculous; per [Sturgeon’s
Law]; you don’t need to bother much about changing the world.
I’ve tried to get people to do
things, in a way which I feel is right, at various points in my life. And I’ve
always failed. Utterly and completely. Eventually, I realized that the problem
wasn’t me. Most of us tend to seek convenient ways to do things.
Searching for the right way to
go, I got acquainted with this remarkable organization called [SPIC MACAY]. It is doing a brilliant job of
promoting Indian classical music and culture across the globe. In early days of
my association with this movement, a question always crossed my mind…What’s the
whole point of this? The responses which I got from most of the people back
then was like… because it’s OUR CULTURE or because OUR CULTURE IS
THEBEST. Those were all the unsatisfying responses and made me feel like
SRK in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSNypuXqa1s.
Thanks to SPIC MACAY, I was
exposed to an amazing world of renowned artists, which helped in understanding
things that actually mattered. If I try to list down the most glit-edged
characteristics of this movement, those would be:
The driving force is music and
culture which is unifying as opposed to a divisive notion such as religion.
The movement runs mainly on the
shoulders of youth.
It introduces you to a whole
new way of living, dedicating your life to a particular thing.
I really see this as an
activist’s lifestyle. We often talk about vague notions like following your
passion etc. because that is a convenient way to describe it. If you see it
closely, this activist’s lifestyle is about dedicating your life to solving a problem.
The problem is not defined by people around you but it originates in your head.
No one believed that freedom is our right until one day someone thought in his
head “Hey! We should be free. I must do something about our
freedom”. I am sure they didn’t see it as an opportunity; instead it was a
problem which they wanted to solve.
We have a lot of successful
people who changed the world trying to solve a problem in their head. They
perceived this problem solving process as a life principle. A lot of musical
instruments would have been history by now if the artists wouldn’t have decided
to save them. Writing this blog or any piece of text for that matter would have
been hell lot difficult if [Larry
Teslar] had not decided to set the world free from modes.
I see a lot of people who talk
of changing the world and do nothing. And then I see people who are solving
problems which exist in their heads. People working in the field of
education because they believe that the system needs to be improved. People
working for equal opportunities. People who work for their principle are
often the ones who change the world.