Choices?!

‘Given a choice, I would/would not do this.’ How many times have we uttered this sentence aloud or in our mind? Have we ever thought about the consequences this statement would fetch, if God happens to listen to us?

Imagine an ideal (?) life where we would be granted choices in any stage, in every situation and at every instance. Aaah…that would be good…isn't it? Choose to wake up late and bunk office or college. Choose orange juice over a glass of milk for breakfast. Choose to relax and read all day by lying curled up in a sofa and reading a book sipping a cup of hot chocolate or cappuccino and laze around under the pretext of catching up on much needed sleep. Or even choose to shop all day and blow up a massive amount on some useless shopping!

There are larger aspects to having choices which paint a very rosy picture. I would choose to have an exotic holiday abroad or pamper myself to a spa treatment instead of slogging it out over a never ending project. I would also choose to make my life my own way, carve out every move. And so could YOU. YOU as in my reader/s. You might be thinking that I have written about all my choices to do with entertainment and relaxation, but let me tell you, it is only just a quotable instance. There are choices in almost any and every walk of life and a part of each decision that one makes. So choices are good, right? WRONG.

Well again, this is my perspective. Over the years I have come to see that in a given situation, once the host of choices is infused, it always works opposite to its purpose. Infact, even before we are old enough to understand their significance, we get surrounded by choices. Only difference is that as a child normally someone else chooses for you and as you grow up, you are supposed to make your own mature choices. Let us take an example of little kids in primary school whose parents want them to excel at studies and also be all-rounders. So, there comes up a host of choices – sports, IQ classes, music, dance, elocution, painting, etc. The innocent impressionable mind is subject to a lot of things that his/her parents bring forth as choices. It is good to have A hobby, whereas it is not a great idea to be Jack Of All, Master Of None and compromise on academics and get so exhausted by the end of the day, that the so called Play Time becomes non-existent. Then at various stages of life, options keep hovering around them in the form of school, extra-curricular activities, toys, clothes, friends, food, etc. So from a very early age, the mind is attuned to choose among alternatives and always look for different options.

Imagine a boy, fresh out of school with an extraordinary academic record of more than 90% (worthy enough of praise). He is very keen to pursue his talent and his hobby of writing and thinks he would really excel at it. And whoosh sweep in the preferences, notions and nuances of the intelligent experienced minds (or so we think). Suddenly everyone who is even remotely linked to the boy’s family will call, give their gyaan, whether seeked or not and lo! The confusion has just managed to increase.

It just goes on and on. Whether it is in picking an optimum career, or its zeroing on the job and the company of your choice. And then comes the huge topic of marriage. And when I say, marriage, I mean the concept of arranged marriage which is largely existent in India. Umm...Don’t even get me started on that one!

My take? Choices just complicate things. So it is definitely not ‘the more the merrier’. Indecisiveness creeps in and creates mayhem and general disruption in the route called LIFE. But my take is of course, just my take. Life’s take is something else altogether. In life we are always faced with more than one ways of reaching our destination. And strangely a person’s personality, thinking, nature and the very existence is judged based on the choices he makes in life.

How I wish that I would end up with a perfectly ideal blend of all that is good to have, arranged like an assortment of tempting offerings in every step of life! Given a choice, I would like it that way. There I go again, given a choice! Situational irony? I am as clueless as YOU…

The more the choices, the more the confusion,
When all is hunky dory, it adds to the commotion
There are opinions flying around in absolutely no unison
It’s the longest route for finding the best solution
When all you would hope for is just a perfect fusion!!!!