Beauty in being one's own self

Several years ago, there was this strapping guy, my son’s schoolmate, who was a staunch aficionado of an American Sitcom. He was such a sucker of the show that, with a singular focus, he’d watch it and strive hard to mimic the accent/mannerisms of all main actors. Finally, he was fairly successful in acquiring a fabulous accent, but, as a fallout, had failed in fortifying his lexicon base. To an extent, he couldn’t comprehend even a tad complex word, when his friends tried communicating with him.

In fact, he was endowed with enormous memory, which he could have exploited in enhancing his other language skills. Instead, what he wasn’t bestowed with, he tried bolting after it, only to bag it in bits and pieces!

Next, there was this neighbour, who I could hear coaxing and coercing her child into learning Carnatic music, as the children in her friends’ circuits were into it. Though she discerned her daughter was just dabbling in it, like a dilettante dissipating dollops of their dough, she didn’t do a damn about it. More so, when she could see what had actually captivated the child’s fancy was the violin notes. If only she had given her progeny plenty of leeways, to pursue her passion, maybe the girl would have vaulted ahead in life, in being a violin virtuoso today.

Even on the academic front, it is common to find people, propelling their progenies, into pursuing courses, that paves the path in procuring plum jobs, when the latter would be having a penchant for something else. It’s like pushing a child, with a predilection for Fine Arts, into taking up Medicine, which calls for profuse pluck, phenomenal patience, persistence power, pertinacity to hang on, and importantly, profound passion, the absence of which can make that child concede and chicken out midway.

We must know life isn’t a race, and that we aren’t competing with others. When we blindly try aping others, isn’t it then a total waste of what we are, and waste of our own abilities, talents, intellect, etc? Not to discount, by losing our own identity, individuality, and unique personality, we even end up being a bad clone of somebody!