Me and My Society - Part 1

Society, what actually it means to a guy like me who lives with friends away from their homes? As per me, the scope and impact of society differ for people with the profession and the place where they live.

At an early age, introduction to society and our participation in social activities is made through our family, school, and playgrounds. The exposure gets during that time influences the person's involvement in social activities.

After graduation, I had left my home and since then been away. It's been around 7 years. Like me, there are millions of people who for studies and work stay away from family for many years and tend to form their independent social network which has nothing to do with their family's network. Many a time, the emerging trend is that individual social network is more prominent in their case and they have very less to do with their family's network.

In my case, I use to be a very shy person who tends to remain quite dormant in social activities. At that age, my low involvement could be due to my shy nature and also due to being a child of working parents. Once I moved out of my home, I become part of individualism.

The early days of hostel and college were struggle and influence of individuality. The notion we had of social and behavioral expectations got a rude shock. In a way, it was like an amalgamation of individuality. Boys and girls from different parts of society came to one place and were trying to identify their place. The rawness and rudeness of such experiences make one understand where one stands in society. Belonging to a sub-metro city I was average in social gatherings at my college. By average I mean one who has exposure and awareness of social trends and norms.

My college was supported by the state government, so most of the guys who use to come there were from non-metro cities. Even the city where this college is not that great in terms of civic facilities.

Initial shock over a period eventually becomes the sense of responsibility, the responsibility of bridging the gap in awareness. In a way, I filled the gap about the society which I never came across. Society of people who belongs to the backward region, the region where political and social perspective is quite different than that in metros. Individualism starts and ends within the family. People had notions which have nothing to do with society or even with their own interest. Many of them even thought whatever they getting is more than what they deserve or have rights for. The hysteria was quite astonishing for me. In a way, we all have such perspective but the degree of acceptance vary.

Such experience made a flow of awareness from one person to another which brought little better understanding. But preconceived notions had a greater impact initially and brought resistance in acceptance and cause a delay in the flow of awareness. With time, either people tend to stop looking for answers or stayed within like-minded groups or propaganda their own views. I was among those who were not good at breaking the ice but always ready to take things with an open mind. I never tried to make effort to increase my awareness, but always took whatever I experience as part of my awareness.

Assortment, vandalism, scrutiny, separatism were some negative aspects of society that I experienced over there. There were many highlights also like togetherness at time of adversity, Celebration at a grand level, Popular-ism, influencing larger group or in a way "Power of people" is biggest plus point of serving the society.

We had gone through various incidents where the "power of people" was quite effective. Harnessing this power is also a great experience in itself, which not many get to do. When your work scope goes beyond you and affects society and had a direct relationship with the section of society then visibility, level of scrutiny, power, lack of privacy grows with it. Your individual aspect may differ from your individual thought towards society and this happens when you are in that place where you need to serve society. A new kind of fear grows; fears which could not have been there at a personal level but have directly connected with your position and acts towards a society.... (to be continued)