Gaurav Arora at Manekshaw Center |
I completed my MA Clinical Psychology. It is a picture of my convocation. Whenever I used to tell people about pursuing it, I got a response that followed a standard template - "Wow" followed by "but why?".
I would then find myself scrambling for an answer that sounded acceptable -
- It would help me become a better leader in my career
- It would help me write better poems
- I want to pursue academic research in the future
Sometimes, I would make a joke.
- I want to read the minds of hot ladies who find me cute.
- When the economy goes into recession and you go to depression, I will come to rescue ...and charge you a hefty fee.
- I have an engineering degree to pay bills. So, I want a degree that doesn't pay bills. Variety!
(I said make a joke, not necessarily a funny one.)
None of those is a real answer. They are either untrue or at best just manifestations of a bigger cause which I find difficult to explain to people. The real cause lies in powerful words like kindness, empathy, understanding, empowering, helping, treating, solving which we dismiss as emotional talk.
(And reading minds of hot ladies who find me cute)
I have seen companies treat employees like vending machines where you put in money to get a product. I have come to know about people who committed suicide in the same society I lived in. I have seen people live-in toxic relationships, families, jobs, schools, colleges. Won't deny, sometimes that person has been me. I learned through the course that most people don't realize that they are in a ditch. We believe the life we live is the reality of the entire world. We feel that's how the world operates. Insight doesn't come naturally. We need someone else to give us a bird's eye view of our lives. I am not saying you are a damsel in distress and only a Superman can save you. But some point in our lives we all are. Taking help doesn't hurt. When the Superman is succumbing to Kryptonite, you could be the Wonder Woman that saves him.
Amazon CEO Jezz Bezos could not sustain his marriage. Elon Musk once said he would "rather stick a fork in my hand than write about my personal life". We all are in our own respective ditches. The only way we all can come out is when we simply help each other.
I again made it sound like a profit-loss situation to make it more appealing. The real reason is much simpler.
It is good to be nice to each other.
(It is even better to be informed and educated about how to be nice.)