A piece I wrote for English class. :)
Freedom, the word has several dimensions;
it means different things to different people. It is a word that one would
naturally associate with the freedom struggle, revolutions, movements, rights,
speaking up and what not. But freedom, to me, just a simple student of standard
12 is not much a big fuss. For me, freedom is basically doing what I want
without being questioned, without being judged, without being dismissed. As
every teenager of my age would say, for me it’s about having my own space and
liberty. Nevertheless Ruskin Bond’s idea of freedom got me thinking about
whether freedom is really something that one needs to insist upon. Personally
speaking, I've never had to ask for freedom. Having a chilled out dad helps
sometimes. I have, and I consider myself lucky for it, always been given what I
want/need without having to ask or insist on it. I have always considered
freedom as a thing that changes according to situations. You have to work and
wait sometimes and you have to demand sometimes. It’s quite a transient thing. Of
course handling it responsibly by being sensitive to other’s feelings is
involved no doubt. My idea of freedom revolves around simple aspects of my life
that affect me and my moods like having my own room, dressing the way I want,
socializing with my choice of people, not having too many rules about going out
of the house once in a while, choosing my own career path. Freedom is what lets
you define your existence, let’s you take charge of your life’s direction, it
sometimes just comes your way or sometimes make you pursue and work for it. I
basically want to control my life and want my life to reflect who I am and not
be a product of anybody else’s judgement and desires. It’s my life and I want
to live it my way.
When I first read Ruskin Bond’s thought on
freedom being something that one has to often insist upon, it got me thinking.
First of all what can I categorize as freedom in my life of 17 years? It’s
quite weird you know when you spend nearly 5 years of your life demanding
rights of various kinds and now you’re confused about whether to bring those
under the spectrum of freedom! After giving it a four hour thought, I came to
understand that freedom involves simple things like having the right to argue
with your parents when they lay down rules without giving you a proper reason,
standing up for your choice of friends when certain people find them ‘lame’,
making your choices and living your life the way you want so that it exudes
your vibrancy and not the aspirations and expectations of everyone around you.
Having my private space is one important part of my idea of freedom. My sense
of freedom is having the liberty to make my own choices and not a slave to
anyone else’s opinions. Most of the time I have had to demand, as being a girl
normal expectations are that a girl must be soft spoken, well behaved and what
not. But I like to let my hair down sometimes and have fun. And freedom comes
with a whole lot of responsibility. We must be sensitive to others, see if this
sort of liberty is worth it in the long run, we have to practically ponder over
it like adults, which is the sad part. Freedom though is not something that you
always insist on, sometimes one has to persevere and be patient to get rights
sometimes or sometimes it may involve both as is the case of our freedom
struggle. To sum up, I want to be the one who holds the reins of my existence;
I want my life to reflect who I am and what I stand for. I want to be the
driver of the chariot of my life.
There’s a lot of damage that we ourselves do to our
lifelines of transport. Finished a bottle of water or a bag of chips? Oh let’s
just throw it out, anyway there are people to clean! That seems to be the
attitude today. :\ Being someone who
loves to drive, these man made menaces, the non-living garbage and the
unfortunately living maniacs that threaten our existence on roads successfully
reduce the joyous pleasure of driving into a humdrum, extremely risky fight for
survival. 
There are so many kids out there who, on turning 18, want to
lay their hands on their own bike handles and glide through the roads, the wind
breezing through their hair. It’s a freedom,
a joy that everyone must definitely experience. Parents also don’t seem
to mind the picture of their kids driving. But there are some for who letting
their kids on the roads is like suicide. Honestly if my own aunt reads this she
will probably recreate my accident scene and getting super hysterical. But it’s
not their fault. Roads today are like open death traps that invite you to lay
your lives down to validate their supremacy. Authorities have the will to sort
out, but no will to put it in action.
