IN A CAGE AND THEN OUT OF IT

Ever felt like you don’t belong? As if, you were born at the wrong time or in the wrong place, or like you were born under the wrong stars? All this because you hear the calling of distant vistas, far removed from the imaginations of those near you. Have you ever felt like your purpose in life is very different from others? Have you ever felt lonely while in a crowd, even among friends? Do you feel it too or is it just me?

Life is a series of incomprehensible questions and what decisions we take when faced with life- altering situations dictates the direction our life is about to take. When you feel a sense of isolation and crave for the corner of the room in a party, simply because everything happening in that room seems so meaningless to you, self-doubts emerge. The feeling is that of a fish out of water. I feel this way far too often for a person my age. Am I anti-social by choice? Or am I simply unsuitable for performing in normal social situations? Why am I so weird? If you have ever wondered the same, welcome to the club!

It’s not easy being the one who always stands out, the one who is “different”. Whether you are the only rebel in your family like me or someone who questions the status-quo at every point of time, if you have felt this sense of seclusion you fall in the same category- that of thinkers, philosophers, writers, the intuitive dreamers of the world, the people who dared to stand alone, those who challenged the age old norms of the so-called society. We are the people who are ahead of our times. There have always been sages or wise men and women who were labeled as the “outcasts” of the society. If you find yourself in the same category, have faith because you are in some good company: Nostradamus, Albert Einstein, Galileo, Copernicus, Isaac Asimov, Salinger, Steinback, Mark Twain, Harper Lee have all felt rejected by the society; their lives are stellar examples of  socially dysfunctional lifestyles.

While some of us have objections to the way the society and the world at large functions, many others just want peace of mind, which is hard to find midst crowd. Some seek peace at special camps, some find it while sitting in their favorite chair, in their favorite part of the house and some others find peace in utter chaos because sometimes the calm after a storm is just what you were looking for, sometimes getting lost in a mob and not seeking individuality is what makes a person unique, sometimes blasting music at full volume in headphones seems to be the apt solution to all our problems and sometimes all we seek is a silent room to fulfill our duties peacefully. To some desperate souls, love may serve as peace, their eternal bliss while for certain others peace is finally getting their worth in the office setting and for some others it may be watching a sunset or watching the waves drown their sand castles while lost in thoughts or beautiful memories. Whatever your reason or method for seeking and finding peace may be, it is imperative that you find a way to it, a way out of it and when in dark, a way to find it back.