Being Average
We all look forward to
the first day of the week, Sunday to provide us a break from the daily routine, starting from 5.30 in the morning till late
at night with no fixed time set to roll into bed. I love Sundays for those extra ten minutes in
bed in the morning, unmindful of the thud of the newspaper falling, the barking
of the black dog opposite our apartments that is allergic to anyone on two
wheelers(all the newspaper vendors and the milkman come in bikes) and the sing song cry of the kabbadiwalla. Those
ten minutes are heavenly bliss as I snuggle under the bed sheet (even more in
winter under the cosy blanket) wishing those ten minutes to be eternal.
What is ironic is once
out of bed, Sunday turns out to be the most hectic day of the week. The weekly
cleaning, washing and ironing, preparing special Sunday dish, catching up on
missed calls and responding to piles of e-mails that had remained unread for a
week and above all reading Sunday
newspapers and the supplements leave me ( I don’t think it is an exaggeration
if I substitute ‘me’ with ‘us’) any time to blink before the day is over.
Yet I wait for Sundays, more so for the newspaper supplements that cater to readers with colorful pictures, astrological predictions, juicy tidbits, and art of living. This morning I glanced through one of the leading newspaper supplements proffering wise tips for living life” average size’, with its catchy byline “ rev up your life” and my eyes at once riveted on an interesting homily on ‘Being average’ . It was an article that provided comfort to me( and to all ‘me-likes’) as it short circuited our efforts to hide our being average. It was a great relief that instead of concealing one’s mediocrity, one acknowledged it and gained in stature for being average. With feigned modesty it makes us proudly say “not for me the rat race. I would rather be average than chase a mirage unlike my parents who had damaged themselves in a of envy-spending their lives in a hamster wheel.” One is applauded for such honesty, such humility and self deprecation. This is the irony of modern life where being average gains an equal or perhaps a higher status than striving for excellence.
Deep within I knew that
this is the easiest way to evade any challenge that life continually
springs forth in our
daily activities without being criticized. A laid back attitude is easy to
follow than to be a productive individual. It needs a lot of self determination
to stand out or be someone, be original and not a copy of another. To move with
the flow demands very little exertion; to go counter to the flow and that too
in a distinct manner is a challenge to one’s mind, intellect, will, strength and
time. It is natural for most of us to sit back and enjoy someone else steering
us through life. To take to the wheel involves concentration, responsibility
and mental alertness and physical effort. The world needs its people to be more
than average in respect of the talents they have been born with and skills they
have acquired through training and education. To take umbrage in pseudo
greatness of being average is a failure to rise to one’s potential. If the
world has over many millennia progressed significantly, the credit goes not
only to the innovators in science, technology, industry, medicine, entrepreneurship,
but it is due to the assiduous and diligent application of many workers to make
the innovations available to the society.
Innovations are key to
the betterment of society. I recall my
brother citing Schumpeter who had coined
the phrase ‘creative disruption’ as
basic to move the world beyond its present state. Schumpeter’s eloquent expression
‘creative destruction’ is a process in which the sudden displacement of the old
by the new takes place. It highlights the primacy of Innovation for long term
economic growth. One has seen the emergence of automobile industry displacing
the earlier transportation through horse led carriages. We
now see the postal service upended by email, telephones by smartphones which
also have replaced television, newspapers and books. Schumpeter’s ‘creative destruction’ endorses
radical Innovation through a disruption with the past.
With the fast moving age and faster
moving technology, being average can no longer be a desirability, leave aside
its possibility. This hyped slogan of wanting to move away from rat race has served
us well for nearly five decades- from the days of the flower children of 1968- to
delude us and revel in being average. The present day youth hooked to Facebook,
Selfies and net related activities is a reflection of its acceptance to remain
average without striving for anything. Being average is solipsistic; it is nothing
but a glorification of being mediocre. It is wrong to impute an ideal of not
wanting to run the rat race. Time we call the bluff of being average and
revitalize ourselves to rise to our full potential.
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