What is Independence?

Pratiksha Sharma

There's a certain happiness in doing your errands on your own, isn't it?

Making your bed, ironing your clothes, cooking your own daily meals, managing your day at work, handling your relationships, everything all by yourself, without mom, dad or anyone, just by yourself. I live by this definition of independence.

However, there's a little modification for some of us who tend to twist the definition into an unjust explanation. For instance, some of us feel that wearing short clothes, consuming alcohol like a fish, smoking, defying our parents, and being unnecessarily rebellious are a sign of independence.

I believe that being able to make logical decisions at stressful times, supporting your kith and kinon every occasion, understanding your parents and the steps they take for for you and being considerate towards oneself, gives a real meaning to this firm term of independence to a certain extent. Maybe this is one of the reasons why our generation is very well known for giving rise to focused-yet-confused personalities.

We are mostly on the wrong track when it comes to analysing such concepts. We lag here. We know which books to study, what papers to read and what exams need to be taken. What we don't know is what things are to be seen and felt. I believe there's no one to blame. A few things are to be adapted from our parents while the rest are simple human instincts. There's always a balance and there are always exceptions.

We tend to mix the concept of gender equality with the pure concept of independence. To smoke, drink or being a rebel doesn't give us any sort of strength to our personalities. We go nowhere with such thoughts but only dwell in the concept of pseudo-liberalism.

For instance, it is very common to witness men offering seats to women in places like metro trains and buses but how many of us witness women doing it for the men or the older citizens for that matter? Isn't this pushing the women to a more ethereal category?

Such incidents can be seen everyday in our lives, everywhere around us. From standing in the long queues for bus/movie tickets to restaurants where few women wait for the men to open the doors for them. The real question is: do we really need this? If not, then what is that we need?

Moreover, nature has made both the genders biologically, anatomically very different and exquisite. Defying such notions doesn't do us any good. Again, we must believe in the theory of balance. We are less than no one but few things don't call for any change.

Can we give this a thought and realize where are we heading? How about this new idea of independence?