CHOICE - Which one are you making?

‘CHOICE’ a six letter word, plays an important role throughout the life of an individual and perhaps even after his/her life. Choice can have a huge impact on the mental state of an individual. Choice I believe arises when one has alternatives which could be one or many, but even say when one does not have an alternative there exists a choice. A simple example in an Indian context could be whether I should touch my elders feet?

A choice is nothing but a decision one takes after weighing all the consequences, sometimes a forced one and sometimes at ones own discretion. Decision making I think starts right from infancy. An apt example would be of small children. They choose to stay close to people who benefit them in some or the other way. Nobody teaches them this but it comes so naturally to them. Choices change with time.

A choice one makes has its bearing not only on the individual per say but also on the near & dear ones and also in certain instances depending on the situation the society at large. Now-a-days one finds many people doing things and say that, ‘its my life, its my choice’. Well it definitely is but many a times these statements I think are made at the spur of the moment and sometimes also when one finds no justification for the activity that he or she may be carrying out.

How important it is to think about others while making a choice/decision?? According to me this is a very situational thing. There are times when one becomes selfish which is reflected in the choices that one takes. Well humans need to be selfish for if they are not they would not be surviving (Survival of the fittest). This is perfectly fine but what concerns me are the choices/decisions we make which hurt our near & dear ones especially the parents.

Many a times youngsters under peer pressure or otherwise get into activities which hurt the parent. These choices may be right or wrong, very subjective as it depends from whose side one is looking. A suicide bomber never thinks he made a wrong choice for him it would have been the only right choice. A person makes choices under different states of mind. A persons decision to become a suicide bomber could have been after thinking about the welfare of the family. A youngsters choice to go for love marriage could be more self oriented (Its gonna be ‘my life’ funda).

Now here we have 2 situations.
Situation 1: You take a choice of becoming a suicide bomber for the sake of your family (from the point of view of monetary benefit) and self (attaining moksh). Now this choice of yours according to a majority of the world is wrong. (Considering ones family agrees to it)

Situation 2: You decide to go for love marriage. No prizes for guessing that a majority of the world would say that love is the best thing. But say if your parents don’t agree for your love marriage and they leave the decision on you. I suppose majority of times one would go ahead try convincing the unconvinced giving the funda that ‘its my life’ and may be some others too.

Now would it be fair on ones part to take such a decision where the world would not have any objection but somewhere your decision/choice would have hurt your near and dear one especially your parent.

Lets turn the table around and go back to situation 1 wherein the choice that one has to take would in no way hurt the near & dear ones but is wrong in the eyes of the world.

Whom should one think of self, family or the world (society) before one makes the choice? Should one take decisions without any attachments? Is it possible in this material world? Hmm.. if u ask me like a good diplomat I would say that a balanced approach would be the best.

We hold the steering of life with us. Its imperative that we make the apt choice of the turns or decide to go straight (may be the conventional way). One may escape a wrong choice of turn unnoticed by the traffic police but its important from owns point of view to acknowledge the wrong choice of turn and not repeat the same. The important thing is to learn from ones choices. Here’s wishing that u all may make fruitful choices.

I hope you did not have the dilemma of choices before reading this article and I also hope u do not regret your choice of reading this. Your responses would be appreciated.