Share a Solution

Usham Tomba *

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself"- Leo Tolstoy.

Hunters in the vast Saharan deserts frequently use an easy way of catching monkeys. In full view of the monkeys they put a piece of fruit inside a rocky hole large enough to pass only a monkey's hand or arm. Then, they hide themselves behind a nearby bush and wait for the monkeys to make their move. One among the monkeys cautiously climbs down a tree and curiously puts its hand inside the hole, catches the fruit with joy and tries pulling it out.

The hole being too small for the monkey's clenched hand with the piece of fruit in it, will just not allow it to pass through. The monkey would struggle but won't leave the fruit behind, getting trapped, even when the hunters attack and catch it. Every one of us act like the monkey sometimes. In our search for happiness we land up in troubles of our own creation.

Everybody wants to achieve happiness and many among us consider happiness our birth right: the sole purpose of our lives, as if assured by god before birth. In our tryst for happiness we bear many things to complain against and ask for in this world. The electricity is in doom, the roads befit ways to hell, the government has sold out and our foods and water are toxic; to name a few. Newspapers, television, internet, office meetings; anywhere we go we find somebody complaining about something or the other.

Our complaints know no boundaries. They go places; right from Justine Bieber's singing skills to Ramdev Baba's interesting eyes, if we say nothing about his tummy. I will not be surprised if, given an oppurtunity, some of us jump up at the first chance to become a Hitler or a Saddam and volunteer to destroy what we believe are the scums of this world. But that is impractical and not possible. We need another way. After all, we live in a democracy where half of our society stays busy pulling down the other half. This makes democracy so irresistible; at least to one half of the society at any given time.

We find people calling names, mudslinging and insulting, showing sheer signs of frustation. Then come the complaints on the society as a whole. Some complain that the society is full of selfish cowards, hopeless nymphomaniacs etc. Just in short, the complaints can go against anything and anybody under the sun except themselves, forgetting the weakness they try to hide in the blame game getting exposed in the very act.

Life as a youth today is like facing a tsunami while being stuck and sandwitched between great expectations like being tomorrow's pillars of the society on one side and the lack of infrastucture and befitting education on the other. Compounded over this are the inhumane acts. The psychological impact of these on the youths in such a setting is profound.

In such a situation what can be worse than casting an impression that the society of elders the youths so fondly look upto are hopeless, pathetic, incorrigible and whatever synonyms and adjectives one may find in the dictionary with eyes like hawk? Portraying reality is welcome, but going some extra miles to the level of demoralization will be counterproductive.

Has there ever been any society without social issues? What we are facing today just happened to be a challenge with a solution bigger than our brain can think of yet. But let us not leave a legacy of our frustration that can gnaw the future of our younger generations. Let us give them enough space to understand that they are the same if not better than their compatriots. This in no way means setting a trend of inflatted egoistic unrealistic fools.

It won't be fair to deny that many genuine issues come to the fore out of the voices of the tormented hearts and minds. Some people rightly said that identifying the problem is the first step to solving it. They have been very good at that and some even deserve a master's degree. But what we need to know, nothing less than the knowledge of the issues, is the solution to the issues. The real essence has always been finding a solution. After all, are not Nobel Prizes given for finding solutions?

Think of a world where we enjoy equal number of solutions, if not more, to these burning issues. We may not find it today, not even in our lifetime but sharing possible solutions will definitely be a legacy which will enrich our future generations. It will definitely be a worthy effort and make our present generation remembered, if not for what we achieve but for the aspiration we share. That will be an effort worthy at every count.

We sure think too much and talk too much but can seldom find a way to the solution. Here comes the role of education. Different people will give differing opinions about anything under the sun, including their S-O-Ns. It is we who decide our stand. Our stand depends on our understanding. Our understanding depends on our education. Our education depends on us. There are other factors too, but most of all it depends on us and our hard work. And in education lies the solution.

When our youths read about the heart wrenching issues taunting our society and about how low our society has fallen, I pray to kindle a small flame at the farthest corner of their mind that no society is free from social ills and that one way out of this vicious scum is education. Education is the spark that will light up the good leader in you.

It will lead us to the light at the end of the tunnel. One good leader is more precious than a thousand comrades. When you start showing the fire in you, we will follow you. If understanding the issues confers us a master's degree, sharing a solution will get us a Phd. I am sure there is no dearth of fertile minds amid us. Let us go the whole hog.