As I grew up, I started looking back at history as a map of events, a process, that involved different stages that have led to the present. The specific days did not really matter. I celebrated the stories. I celebrated every event in the thread of events.
The country celebrated its 73rd Independence Day recently. We, being a part of an industry that thrives on capturing the mainstream, processing it, and narrating it through our stories, and constantly working to find a way out of it, were surrounded by bold messages of freedom.
Being the ones telling the stories, we need to be reminded that we also hold the power to change them. We hold the pens. We are on the screens, and screens are everywhere. Even if we don’t believe in the days, we are a part of the celebrations. These are complex times, and the narratives are complex too, and it is almost impossible to know which two stories are connected (or is it just one, big story?). This would certainly mean that we are very near to the truth, even if we don’t have the eye to identify it.
In this overflow of narratives, how do we make sense of the days we are celebrating? How do we make them a part of our journey and not let go of what could be an important piece of our own puzzle? How do we write our own stories of freedom?
Here, let me point you to what I believe is the beauty of the work we do. It is that the ambit to know, understand and acquire is endless, and we have access to all of it. We are not confined by specialisations, if we do not wish to be. We can create our own definitions. We create our own stories.
So, before you start “celebrating,” give yourself a little time to think about what these days really mean to you, what freedom truly means to you. To think about how free you truly are from your own biases, and what you’re doing to overcome them. Remember, this is not a script. This is about reflecting at the narratives your minds consciously or unconsciously chose to stick to while creating elaborate brand stories.
Freedom to me is freedom from archetypes, freedom from dated, stone cold methods that refuse to die, the ones that prevent new learning.
What about you?