Murali Varadarajan
Aug 9, 2017 · 4 min read

I Can !

A mantra to break norms, challenge status-quo and defy mandated destinies.

Thinking different, dreaming the impossible and always on the quest to find that difference you can make, labels one an outlier or a rebel. Are you one ?

Growing up , I started noticing the presence of a weird existing social mindset — nothing warranted a deep dive or even a decent conversation. To be on the surface, to be non-challenging and maintaining the status quo seemed everyones goal. Taught as etiquettes and social norms, the pressure was monumental. My every breath was suffocated and my words stifled by the naysayers — the protectors of the current. - “That’s not how things work here!” they said. “That’s not how we do it here” and “Where are you from again?” they repeated, along with smirks, laughter and ridicule. The bottom line was always: “You cannot! No way!”

I painted my mirror with those words back then.

from my bedroom in the mid 80’s

I looked at it first thing in the morning. Saw those words and then myself beyond it, until the reflection and the words blurred together into one. Every time before I stepped out to face the nay-sayer world.

A ritual to maintain my integrity & sanity. A way to face an otherwise impossible world.

This weird place of conformists where nothing new was seen as possible or welcome. And surely not if it came from someone who looked just like them!

Today, decades later, I see myself at the same juncture again, in a new place known as the land of opportunity.

Miles away from where I started, I am now in a different world, which had begun as a new promise. People seem the same, the context a bit different, but the basic theme is still the same — “That’s not how we do things here!”.

déjà vu ?

The fight was back again. This time, with a need for survival. Living within the confines of my ideals, surrounded by a world trying to break them constantly. Support from all over poured in the ridiculous form of — “Think money, why fight, it’s not your fight, you are risking your families security for your stupid ideals. Just compromise, take up anything, do anything, wait for another time to chase your dreams, do it in parallel while living like everyone else”.

Something made me look for that mirror again when my Dad sent this picture. I was that teenager again, looking into the mirror before I could step out into the world.

I smile now and think of how far I have come. All I had to do was to just acknowledge that journey. Realize that I had prevailed. It was a much needed sanction to myself to rekindle my passion and pursue the spark within, relentlessly!

The spark within you that is the reason for you to be YOU.

It’s that fire that burns within oneself to realize a vision. It’s that spark that lingers and keeps those dreams alive. It’s that drive that carries that hope and keeps the heart ticking every second, every day!

You might have forgotten it or lost it in a system that teaches you to belong. It might have been covered by prevailing notions as lime poured and hardened by a society that boxes you in its definitions of ‘what is’ and ‘is not’, ‘what can’ or ‘who can’ and ‘who cannot’.

It is there within each of us, an innate spark waiting to be unleashed. And yet, with every attempt or chance it has to emerge, we see a concerted effort to fight it down, not just by the world around but also by the person carrying it . They all fight to subdue it and yearn to celebrate a return to “normalcy”. Why is it so?

Is it a fear of buried truth emerging into the open? A fear of acknowledging and confronting one’s real self ? Or just a fear of reprisal?

To follow your dream is the hardest challenge and the toughest journey you will ever undertake. But its rewards will surpass any goal anyone else ever has or will ever set for you.

Everything else not in that path is what creates a hollow zombie-like existence. A life of struggling to find purpose and happiness through acquisitions (of wealth or material that does not matter ) and leads to settling down with regrets as time passes.

It seems like my struggle never ended, and it never will. And yet such a struggle is something, those who challenge the status quo, will always need to endure.

Two mighty words, spoken with conviction, faith and hope that will never fade. Two words etched forever in an eternal mirror for the adventurous:

“I CAN”

by Murali Varadarajan

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