Daily Times

Life impels you towards arenas which are not meant for you, yet because of unsurmountable circumstances, you tread them.

Most of the people who graduated with me recently, I feel, are in an incredible anxiety for their future. Some have decided to avail themselves of scholarships and get off scot-free from here. Others aspire for a better and incandescent future in Pakistan, most probably throwing the gauntlet to themselves for civil services. It’s all a haze beyond which nothing is visible.

No one can certainly validate what the future holds in store for them. But this nonsensical competition is hamstringing talent and human aspiration to become truly what he wants. Man is not here to define a path but to discover several ways to only tread the one for him. For perspective, let’s add philosophy. French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre used a term named Bad Faith (mauvais foi). He noted that a human being is born free, or to precisely use his words ” is condemned to be free”.

When man is free then he must affirm his existence by setting values that reflect his self. Per Sartre when a man ”attempts to evade the responsibility of discovering and understanding one’s authentic self” then he is in bad faith. Most of the graduates fall for the charm exuded by people in service. But little do they know that behind the curtains their life is full of distress that wrack them day in and day out. Most people in different services are in bad faith for they have defined their being as regards a servant.

Some more philosophy. Jean-Paul Sartre in his book Being and Nothing mentions two types of beings: en-soi and pour-soi. The former refers to being-in-itself, viz. all the things around us that are not aware of their existence such as a tree or a pen. Sartre says that for these kinds of things, essence precedes existence which means their destiny is pre-determined.

A pen is made for writing and a pen is not aware that it exists. But for human beings, Sartre used the term pour-soi or being-for-itself. A human being must make a bid to do something that genuinely reflects his being. When a man decides that he is only made to serve as a waiter, as Sartre mentions this example in his book Being and Nothingness, then he is under a deep illusion. He must shatter and bust this illusion and get exorcised. He must try to embody freedom and strive for things that are germane to his being.

Furthermore, most people when they succeed in academic careers get embroiled in an irresistible abyss of being other than what they are. It throttles their self-hood and being and compels them to become what they are not. This tendency perpetuates uncertainty and flocks people like a herd of cattle on a path that is not meant for them. I have seen people who have quite late in their lives realized that they have lived their life with the wrong values.

A human being must make a bid to do something that genuinely reflects his being.

A civil servant who went to England for studies once suggested I come there and shun my career here as life seems to be much easier in academics and gravely difficult in government service. Most senior civil servants have repented over their decisions to go in a way under the exigencies of society. The point is that becoming great and excelling in a field that truly corresponds with your soul and being is what carves your way towards an authentic being.

Living in a part of the world where everything feels insecure, it is prudent to aspire for a job but it is also essential to note that a job is not an end itself but is a means. Most of us have made the job an end. I have seen people who have said to me civil service is tantamount to a circumstance where either I live, ace the exam, or die, flunk it. This reeks of an insipid mentality devoid of human sensibility.

Shekar Kapoor who became a chartered accountant at a very young age did not stop at the station of accountancy. He well knew that his life was much greater than a job. He is renowned for his movies such as Mr. India and Bandit Queen. He made a name for himself for he knew that if he stopped, he would perish forever.

Besides, one must not subscribe to the tropes of success and accomplishment for in a society where we live success is associated with carrying the day only in examination. Have you ever heard about a public appreciation for creativity and any other field? Because our society has defined success in a very facile term. As learned and sapient individuals these things need to be debunked and resisted. If not, this will usher in depression and mould us into intellectually emaciated people deprived of innovation.

Moreover, at our training centre when a man who came to educate us about a subject related to our department, asked most of us what we wanted to be in our lives, I said: a writer. Because that is, I feel, where I can excel and contribute to society to the best of my capacities. As individuals, we must not tarry in a place and waste our time but search for avenues that suit us best where we can push the envelope.

In a world where life has become little less than a subterfuge to beguile us in different areas that are not meant for us, we must not abide by rules that kill our being; rather we must sing a different tune that evinces our inner selves.

Most of us are in an unpalatable struggle to achieve something soon that should earn us admiration and deference in society. But little do we know that this achievement will not make us happy even a day after the success. Every success entails new challenges and throws us into an imbroglio of frustration, vexation, and irritation. What most of us are missing is the journey where true contentment resides.

Fyodor Dostoevsky gives a very illustrative description of the aforementioned journey in his novel the idiot. He writes: “And what about Columbus? Why, I maintain that he was blissful not when he discovered America, but when he was discovering it; do you understand? The highest moment of his happiness was, perhaps, exactly three days before he found the New World, when the mutinous crew in their despair almost turned the ship back to Europe! The New World is not the point here; it can perish. The point is in life, in itself, in the discovery of it, perpetual and everlasting discovery, and not at all in the discovery itself.” So, let’s learn something from Columbus. Not for his discovery of America, but for his journey where his contentment of a new world resided.

The writer is interested in philosophy and literature and is based in Islamabad. He can be reached at shahabakram0852@gmail.com