Freedom…….
Freedom….
One of the things I am enjoying in africa is getting a lot of time to read and think which keeps me busy most of the time.
I recently finished two very long and great books. “The road to freedom” by Nelson Mendela and “Shantaram” by Gregory Roberts. Both were autobiographies, the first one about a freedom fighter fighting for his countrymens’ freedom from his own countrymen, the second about a freedom fighter fighting for his own freedom from his own countrymen……..
Nelson spending his 27 years in prison in the persuit of freedom for his people and Gregory breaking the prison and living for years on run for his own freedom. Both men were running for freedom of somekind, and i was unable to rate whose motives were more purer although one being accredited with a nobel prize and the other wanted by interpol on various charges.
The idea seems funny to compare a renowned world leader with a nobody, but i saw alot of similarities….both men having common enemy(prison) and common goal(freedom)…both men sacrificing their immediate family for persuit of something greater… both men having that pinch of stubborness to be someone great… both men making their choices and living by its sadness and rejoices and above all both men doing things with honour, as Gregory puts in his book defining honour for a gangster, ” people seem to mix the concept of virtue and honour, virtue is what you do and honour is how you do it”, so i find both men honarable though sometimes not virtues even if the later one was part of an indian mafia but the same can be stated for nelson mendale of forming a militant terrorist organization responsible for setting up bombs in south africa and preparing for a gurella warefare, not to mention the colateral damage and loss of thousands of lives, both doing things for something great. Again i can quote shantaram “doing wrong things for right reasons”…… I wonder if mendela would have been even nominated for a nobel prize if the 9/11 incident happened in 60s.
The two books made me think about two concepts. Greatness and freedom.
What is greatness,what motives are greater, what makes a man great… is it the circumstances that make men great or is it the men who make themselves great by creating such circumstances.
And freedom. Is freedom a social act or a personal persuit, or is it just making choices and living by it even if that means going to prison for freedom’s sake. All these questions i leave for you people to think and comment.
The more i think of these two concepts the more i see both being two sides of the same coin.
Alot of my close friends I think are doing great in persuit of freedom of somekind. Some trying to change the world for freedom’s sake (freedom from satan, evil, or class struggle)and discussing whether it is good to make a church or a hospital. And others trying to live their lives in peruit of their individual freedom( climbing mountains,setting up businesses, living in alien and distant lands, going for yoga courses or simply bag-packing).
I find myself still sitting on the crossroads of going the nelson’s way or Shantaram’s way, thinking if it is really worth to feel great and free or is it just another illusion………
till later
Salman
2 Comments
Iris
I really wanted to call you last night. Do you think if I were to ask someone the same question at night or in the morning, the response would be different ? Do you think the night or the day or the mid-day for that matter bring their own set of rules with them. But it should depend on the question and not the time of the day, right ? What crap am I talking…and in fact why talk. It sounds so useless, so pointless, doesn’t it ? Will it help ? Or if you talk, will it clarify the muck for you ? Even the talk of freedom becomes at some point an exercise in vanity, doesn’t it ? all you gotta do is live the day, from morning till night, and then all the way back again the next day. Getting from point A to point B, because the universe can be broken down into tiny, finite, measurable distances so human beings can traverse them without getting the feeling that they’re lost, which they actually are. So when does life start to assume some meaning ? Because by God, I am a big(?) believer in meaning…
Salman Ateeque
🙂
The response does depends upon which frame of reference you are at when you question. It will be different if you live in days and nights, it will be different if you think of universe in measurable distances to delude yourself. To get a final absolute answer you have to consider yourself at the final absolute level.
Some call it “scale theory”. Seeing something with a microscope is different than seeing the same from a naked eye, or from a tree or sitting on the moon and seeing the same thing. Now try yourself at the place where the universe becomes a point or even beyond where that point disapears too, and all is left is you. Ask the questions about “freedom” and “Meanings” and if I were you, the only answer i will be having is that “Freedom is our ability to give meaning to things.”
cheers. 😉
Salman