da incorrigible SAZEAL

The world is big; It is also very small.
People around are magnanimous; They are also frivolous.
But I will not complain, I will not crib.
Because I know I will succeed in what I believe.
In what? How? When? I do not know.
I had heard, once:
“This is a tough world, pal, dog eat dog and all that
And I for one, am not gonna be left behind.”

But, I am out of this rat race
I don’t want to be a rat all my life.
I have much greater task in my life,
For which I am born!
I am nature’s answer to worlds needs,
I am God’s reply to his subjects’ needs.
‘Coz I am a fighter; I am a warrior!
And I know I will win.


This explains what I believe. And the incident that triggered my thinking in this direction is as interesting as the topic itself. It was the kind of discussion that usually takes place in written notes in the last benches of a class. Excerpts of which entail:

…Ashish: This is not the right place. Here, autocracy is ‘the’ word and freedom is obsolete. So, just forget it.

Sazeal: Agreed Sir, but if you believe in something and you are passionate about it, it is not impossible to achieve anything. We can change the system also. I don’t say it is going to be easy.

Ashish: Man, all this is just gyaan. Just a bunch of goody stuff; far away from reality.

Sazeal: Not just goodies. In fact it is very much practical. The only thing is that you have to fight. You should not give up, even if you fail. Optimism is the word for the game.

Ashish: philosophy of a fighter, huh? It is too far fetched. Not everybody can be a fighter. Look around the class, I see only strugglers.

Sazeal: Yes, in reality, all of us are strugglers. A fighter can only be recognized in his trying times. Tough times tell us a fighter from a struggler.

Ashish: Hmmm… I had read this somewhere, “A fighter fights and wins; and a struggler struggles and dies”. I do agree that one should never stop, whether he wins or loses. One should never compromise or compensate if he really believes in something…

Now, at this juncture, I was left thinking. Thinking who exactly is a fighter, a warrior, a soldier?

Who is a fighter? Who is a struggler?

Dictionary defines a fighter as
“A pugnacious, unyielding, or determined person.”
and a struggler as

“A person who struggles with difficulties or with effort.”

You have two roads at any point when you are to take a crucial step or decision: either you give up or you continue to believe in yourself and do what you believe.

In other words, you stay in the system, work within it, you crib and still you accept. You are a struggler. You stay in the system, work within it, understand it and work towards bringing about positive changes against all the odds. Then, you are a fighter.

Fighters always have, through the history, found it ‘difficult’ to achieve their targets because they pose a serious threat to the power and authority and the current system as a whole. But when you break all the bars, and prove you are right, you are a fighter.

There are a few great people in history who I very positively term as fighters. These personalities are Bhagat Singh, Swami Vivekananda, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Howard Hughes and Alexander the Great.

When do we fight? To what extent is fight justified? In what way should you fight?

At this juncture I must pose the most important question. Do we fight against a person? A group? Do we have to fight against someone?
No, I say. Fight need not be against someone… it could also be against a man-generated situation or a natural calamity or it could be against your own traits. Fight need not be to hurt your opponent or a villain, but to help him understand your view or even help him out of his ideologies. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I am not against fight. I always believe in fighting wherever there is injustice. The question is do you fight to change the situation or do yopu fight to punish?”

A fighter may be offensive or defensive, depending on the demand of the situation.

The basic philosophy of a fight is never to give up. That is never give up if you believe in something. Just go ahead and do it. Strugglers crib and try to struggle out of the situation. Escapists also struggle. This does not mean that I am comparing strugglers to escapists though latter is a subset of the former. But if we talk about strugglers, we usually talk about the mass that does try but not enough to succeed.

Fighters at some point of time are strugglers; but one thing is sure that, not strugglers are fighters.

There is something that always crops up when I talk on this particular subject. And it is very much coherent to the subject I am discussing here. That, the characters I describe as fighters show elements of eccentricity. Take, for instance, the example of Howard Hughes. I say, Eccentricity is important… because what people consider eccentric is actually the unusual and exceptional qualities of these personalities that normal(?) people cannot understand and that’s why they are not fighters… we must appreciate eccentricity and not shun it regarding it as ‘crazy’.
In fact all of us have some or the other eccentricity which is actually their potential to grow larger than life.

This reminds me of Swami Vivekananda’s words:
“Wake up! Be bold! Understand your duty and take the whole responsibility on your shoulders.”

GOALS
One must have a goal in life. And a large one, because our President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalaam said, “Small aim is a crime.” If it is something that we feel for, we must go ahead with all passion. And the fact is that you cannot reach the pinnacle without taking substantial risks in life. Congruently, we must consider the odds, weigh them and take decisions. And we must be ready for the repercussions.

I would like to end this article by the lyrics of a song by John Bon Jovi:
“This is for the ones who stood their ground,
For Tommy and Jeenah who never backed out.
Tomorrow’s getting harder, make no mistakes;
‘Coz luck aint even lucky, gotta make your own breaks.”