Materialism !!

I enjoy reading newspaper these days because its full Anna Hazare and our fight against corruption, but something stuck me today while reading one of the Anna's interview. He was asked that he never got married and had children and would he advise the youth of today to do the same, to which he replied "No never. Today's youth should get married and have children. They should live a good life and should never support wrong. The only concern I have against families is that it makes the man selfish and he behaves as 'I don't care if your beard is on fire but I want my bidi'". This statement from him made me think if families really make us selfish and if so how. It wasn't very tough to answer when I looked inside of me.

Today almost all of us are piled with garbage of hunger for money, authority, promotion, thousands of emi's lined up every month, big cars, 2-3 bhk's with big extra balconies, etc etc. And of course I am no different than all of us. When I first heard of Anna Hazare, the reaction was pretty resigned, but as he grew popular and crowd was supporting him I tried to figure out what is he really fighting for. And then I did my share by accepting a few causes request, a few likes and comments on facebook and I got rid of the guilt thinking that I did my part. I guess thats the attitude that Anna is talking about "I don't care if your beard is on fire, I want my bidi".

All these thoughts made me open the "My Life" document which contains all my long term goals for the next 20 years (I wrote it 2 years back). It had goals related to my personal development, financial development, my goals as social worker and my goals as a wife, mother and daughter. And when I started looking at my thought process and my actions today, it was very clear to me that the only areas where I am trying to make progress are the ones concerning financial development and my goals as a wife and daughter. Personal development and social work is something that is almost invisible in my life. That probably is the reason of such a resigned attitude towards whatever Anna is fighting for and turning into a slacktivist (person who supports the causes virtually i.e online and in turn adds no value to the cause).

I don't know how many people (like me) were touched and forced to look inside themselves because of this movement that Anna Hazare has brought to this country. But even if there is a considerable number of people who could feel the way I did today, then I think Anna is a true hero and a leader.

Now there is only one question in my mind, "What's next ??" and yes thats an obvious question, "Good that I realized what I had to, how is it going to change anything that I do today?? Am I going to eradicate the dreams of owning a beautiful house and a BMW ? Or am I going to just going to do some small social work like I used to do earlier ?" Answering these questions really makes me move out of my comfort zone and I have lost that habit of working out of comforts since a long time. I do not have answers but I can feel the source of commitment and inspiration residing inside of me come to life again !!

Thanks Anna !!