Be the change!!

The words kept churning in his mind. “Be the change you want to see in the world”.
“He is right. It makes sense to work towards change, rather than sit and crib about every system in the country,” thought Siddharth. Although the old man, had not gone into great lengths to explain what he meant by those words, the more Siddhart thought about it, the more grown up and responsible he felt.

It all began one morning when Siddhart and his friends were waiting for their Junior college admission forms. The queue was so long that it seemed to snake through the entire college campus! Siddhart and his friends were still far away from the counter and the queue was moving at a snails pace!! By noon they were most certain that they would miss the afternoon show at the multiplex. That one thought got them agitated. Their cool attitude in the morning was replaced by anger. Their irritation showed and their frustration took a voice.

“The system is all in a mess. It’s so faulty and slow” complained Siddhart. “Why can’t they have a couple of more counters to process freshers’ application?”
“Such inefficiency,” growled Udhav, “its either tea break or lunch time. When will all this change?” Udhav sounded exasperated.

“Nothing will change,” concluded Anand.

“Why don’t you make an effort?” said a voice from behind them.
The startled boys turned around and saw an old man standing behind them in the same queue. The boys were so immersed in themselves that they hadn’t noticed the old man or anyone around them. Suddenly they became aware of the crowd, the noise, the heat, the restlessness written on everyone’s face.
“I have been listening to your endless complains,” said the old man, “why don’t you do something about your misery?”
“What can we do, if the staff and authorities are not doing anything about it,” Siddhart defended himself.
“Be the change you want to see in the world,” said the old man prophetically.
“I too had a lot of complaints at your age,” he continued, “of a different kind though. We were being treated as a second class citizen in our country. We were restricted entry into certain clubs and theaters. We wanted our situation to change. And, that’s when the words of the Mahatma “Be the change you want to see in the world” made an impression on me and my friends. If you are not happy with the way things are, go ahead and try to make it better,” the old man concluded.
“And then did you ring in the change,” Udhav was curious.
“Yes, we did,” he said with pride. “Today our country is our own. We are free from bondage. Initially, we disagreed with Gandhiji’s ideas of non-violence, non-cooperation, or Satyagraha. But slowly the meaning and value of his teachings dawned on us. We joined the youth movement of those times. Yes, it was a struggle. But when I see young people like you, free and happy, I know the effort was worth it,” he smiled.

The boys were very impressed. As they headed back home, each one was thinking aloud on how to go about requesting the authorities to allow for few more counters at the admission form collection centre.
“The old man has done his bit by shaking us up, and now, I just can’t seem to sleep thinking about how to proceed to bring about change,” Siddhart smiled to himself as he tossed and turned in bed.


Bina Thomas