Forgetting Fear
- Rouble Tuli
Samaira was a brilliant student.
She had topped in her class till tenth standard and even in twelfth grade, she was amongst the toppers. She was a sweet girl, with blunt hair and fair complexion. She was not studious but had a sharp brain.
But now twelve standard boards were coming. She was quite worried this time. She wanted to score the best of marks but the subjects were tough, time was less and the main reason of her
anxiety was that she had often heard her parents and relatives talking about her future. They wanted to make her a great doctor and give her the best in her life. They had set many dreams for her.
This was making her more tensed day by day. She had explained her thoughts to her friend Simran, “I don’t want to break the dreams of my parents. They love me so much and are doing so much for me. How can I destroy their dreams and make them to suffer so much. I am really afraid. If I wont get selected anywhere then? I can’t study Simran! I feel like weeping or leaving this house. I cannot see my relatives in grief! What should I do?”
Like Samaira, there are many children in the world who are suffering from inner tensions because of no reason. Being capable and deserving, they have a useless fear of the unknown. It is easy to overcome the fear of the thing that we know but too hard to deal with the fear of the unknown. For instance: Death is an unknown and unpredictable process and fear of death is the most difficult kind to overcome.
Such was Samaira’s case. She had a fear of something she was not sure of. She could not see her parents in grief but could leave them in grief. She could not hurt them but also could not support them.
Simran consoled her telling her that she was an intelligent girl and should not worry about all this and should do as much as she could and she would definitely be selected. She reminded her that she had worked hard for more than a year and so she will score the best and even if she won’t score good, her parents loved her and they had nothing important than their children and so they wont be disappointed.
Samaira got a good advice and she was relaxed but Simran was herself suffering from a more intense problem.
She was a below average student. Least interested in studies. She had enjoyed a lot in the last year and had hardly studied but now as her exams were approaching, she was getting tensed too. She had a
tension not of failing but was worried regarding what people would say if she would fail. She would be insulted and not given importance. People will not accept her and she would have no friends left for her.
Simran’s case is more saddening. Fear of failing is acceptable but fear of people is really foolish.
If we give a closer look at different people’s lives, we find that they are not actually what they appear from outside. When we don’t know a person, we make guesses about his/her internal life by his personality and way of interacting. Finally when we get closer to that person somehow, we find that he was himself suffering from so many tensions. He had a fear of other people too!
It means it is a circle in which one has fear of the other but we all never realize that and let our fear survive and grow within us. We want to do many things in our lives but it is due to the fear of other people, we leave many things undone and while dying we complain that Oh! Shit! That work of mine is left! or Oh! Lord! I haven’t lived for myself yet. We live to amuse others and forget about our own amusement. We want to score good so that we become the part of the outside society, not because it gives us pleasure.
Sometimes we fail in some work or exam and then either we lie to many or we limit ourselves in the four walls of the house to prevent any kind of interaction with the people. It is all due to the fear that they will make fun of us.
Simran like many thousands of others should learn that in life, fear is to be faced. Face the fear and the fear runs away. If you can’t face it, then have fear atleast for something that is fearful not of something ordinary like you. All the people around you are ordinary and are different just from their outlooks. From inside, they all have their own fears and tensions just as you. No one is complete or perfect. They actually do as you want them to. If you hide something from them, they will try to unveil it more. So better not to leave anything hidden and live in the society the way you feel comfortable. Their sayings should be heard and then unheard. They cannot do any harm to you. Don’t become a puppet, have control on your senses…