Our growth is directly proportional to our hard work and effort. Each one of us has an innate capacity and when honed appropriately, the sky is the limit. All of us is born with strengths and there is definitely not one individual who has none. The success with which we achieve our goals is sometimes affected by those around us. The individuals who either motivate our achievement or take away from it. Very often we give the power to control our own capacity to another individual. People in power sometimes misuse their position to cripple us, thus making life very intolerable.
When you are constantly confronted by individuals who deplete our self-esteem with their words and deeds, it turns slowly into a cancer that eats away at everything we imagined we are and thus breaks away the gift we were born with. There is no dearth of such intolerable characters in our lives.
The key to escaping their clutches is to firstly identify them and bring to awareness the negative impact they have on our lives. Living constantly in fear of upsetting the perpetual egoist can be emotionally, psychologically and yes physically draining too. When you feel that there are people drawing from your resources due to their intolerable behaviour, you need to make changes and make them quick.
It is these intolerable beings that also have very intolerant ideologies. Intolerance is the unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behaviour that differ from one's own. When we deal with those who have their own set ideals, they tend to coerce those views on others thus forcing them to let go of the thing that makes them uniquely themselves.
On a much larger scale, India has taken giant strides forward. We are one of the most diversely cultural countries in the world. And yet, on many a well-researched study, we rank among the top three most racist countries in the world. Sadly, we are horribly intolerant.
Considering that we were subjected to so much humiliation at the hands of the British, we still have this unyielding love and adoration for the white skinned. Where our guests are supposed to be treated like our Gods as per the frequently used ‘atithi devo bhava’, we come across those who very clearly define which colour falls within these lines. It is truly disheartening to hear accounts of maltreatment received by our guests who lack the so called ‘Right pigmentation’.
Our intolerance goes way beyond skin colour however. Our ‘rich cultural heritage’ has been marred by our inability to respect every individual from every religion, caste and class. We are so quick to judge and we are always in the greatest of hurry to hold everyone else responsible for everything going wrong around us. Being intolerant comes from deep rooted issues that span generations of bruised egos and self-esteems. Those who attribute the degradation of society to the influence of Western culture are being nothing but hypocritical.
Intolerance is taking on a whole new meaning these days. Looking down on people for their choice of political views, sexual preference and choice of lifestyles has become common place. The hard hitting fact of this major flaw in our ideologies is that we indiscriminately pass it down to our children and propagate the same damaging thought processes to the next rulers of our country.
Our entire system need to take cognisance of the direction we are headed in. Every realm of society needs to evaluate the messages we are constantly sending out. Why are we allowing those intolerable individuals with their intolerant beliefs rule our country? Why are we allowing abhorrence and bigotry to take charge in a progressive world? Why not put an end to the narrow-minded and flawed perception?
Our children are watching us rip each other apart, they absorb every intolerant message we let out there. The way we talk and behave and the way we judge are more powerful than the text books we send them trooping into school with. Every time we come home from work, complaining about an intolerable boss and going back the very next day, we are sending a message that submissiveness is the key to survival. When we nod along at a racial slur or agree with ideas that put down another individual, we are blatantly propagating intolerance all in the presence of the blank slates that are our offspring.
We all dream of a better tomorrow, a tomorrow that is devoid of hate and negativity. One of the primary causes of the destruction of society, does not include any external force. It is right here in the core of our beliefs. The beliefs that make us bow down to certain colours, those that scream of superiority of one over the other, the ideologies that are aimed at disfiguring the beauty that is individuality and the constant acceptance sans logical reflection. Let us rise above and not tolerate the intolerance.
