If you stay home, we all stay safe!

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‘If’! Have you read the poem by Rudyard Kipling? It was taught to us in school. Ever since it has kept coming back to me, ever I have looked for something that helps me decide a future course of action. It stayed with me through the college years, through my career as a journalist. And even now, it’s a first-read before I think of what to do next.

‘If’! It has also been with me in computer science. Taught as a part of the conditional statement ‘If-Then’; it again taught me that many things in life are conditional – profession, people, loved ones, friends, colleagues, health and wealth.

What if? If only… Not if you… Well, if you agree… how many times somebody or some people talk to you each day, each week, each year, with conditions?

Some of the ‘Ifs’ are legitimate in life. Such Ifs help us decide and take bold decisions. Such ‘Ifs’ are a pre-condition to our actions. Such ‘Ifs’, like ones in Kipling’s ‘If’ help us build ourselves. Yet there are ‘Ifs’ that demotivate us. We have our personal list of ‘Ifs’, we define – legitimate or illegitimate.

Life throws us opportunities. Most of these come bundled with ‘Ifs’. Yet, such opportunities are many times preceded by hurdles and harsh phases. It’s human to face challenges and still be positive. Humans have overcome hurdles and discovered opportunities. We have committed mistakes. It’s human. Yet it’s superhuman to learn from our mistakes and not to repeat the same.

Our greed and selfishness can serve us well, but not for all times. We are a group-creature, like many species in nature. Those who care for others beside self, indeed have a better life gauged in the context of a species’s evolution. If any among us would have not thought beyond our self, we wouldn’t have succeeded in building our modern civilization. Despite our differences, we collaborate.

The challenge today is to collaborate. The challenge is to have an unselfish approach. We are humans. Realise this without ‘Ifs’ and the opportunities will follow. One world, one promise, as we pledge in scouting. We shall overcome harsh hurdles, now and ever. Those who fail to realise this, this time, aren’t adequately prepared for the new dawn ahead. For the next 100, 1000, 10000 years. The future is of ‘Ifs’ that bring us together and not of ‘Ifs’ that divide us. Fellow humans, I am happy to be you, without ‘Ifs’.

* IF you stay home for the next prescribed duration, we all stay safe. 
#fight covid-19

Photo by Bonnie Kittle on Unsplash