Our result-obsessed society

Since childhood we become obsessed with results - the final result, the end result.. From the first day we set foot in school, we are pretty much told to study well and study hard. The reason? "You have to fare well in the exams. Better than your classmates." And the exam will be held right at the end of the academic year - one year later. So, all that you do in one year is keep an eye on those exam dates. The whole year you play, you sing, you dance...but dont forget the exams. Even if you do, the exams will never forget or rather forgive you, if you are insincere towards studies. So, you know you are having a good time the whole year and you also know whether it is actually "good" or "bad" will depend how you do in the exams. Whether you are a "good boy" or "good girl" depends solely on your exam results. The entire year in summed up by a week-long exam. As exams near, tension grips, not only the student, but his or her parents and everyone around. Once the results are out, neighbours and relatives show how much they care! The same cycle follows the next year, the year after and on and on. There is a lot of fun in studying, but the focus on a good result ruins it. An entire year of fun is lost because someone said that you have a week-long exam at the end of it. And then there is the BIG destination that parents point out to their kids - to be a doctor or an engineer that lies a good 10-15 years ahead. The entire childhood is lost in chasing dreams and achieving results. Nobody cares about the journey of growing up and,somewhere, quietly it dies a natural death.

Even I believed a lot in destination and cared little about the journey. But that's until I went to Auli (I have written a blog on it). It is during those days that I realised how beautiful can a journey be...and how much one should enjoy the journey itself instead of getting obsessed by the result or destination, which lies in the distant future. I planned so much about how I would enjoy in Auli. When we undertook the journey, we passed over Haridwar, Rishikesh, Devaprayag and Rudraprayag and found gorgeous rivers and might mountain range as companions all along the mountainous road. I realised the journey itself was so much enjoyable, so much interesting, so much precious. And that we should cherish our moments in the journey rather than being consumed by thoughts of the destination.

We are too occupied with the destination, the result and the financial gain. The journey is never enjoyed as a journey. It is always viewed as a means to reach a destination that lies way ahead in future. A journey is always weighed by the destination it leads to. My MBA was expensive in financial terms. One of the questions I have to face quite often is, "Did spending so much on your UK MBA pay off?" Now, how do I answer that? If you ask me purely on financial terms, then I would perhaps fail to put up a very encouraging profit and loss statement, if I were to make it today. But the journey cannot be summed up in any quantifiable number. My journey of more than a year revolving around Cranfield is what makes it special - the things that are taught inside the class and those that you learn from the environment. Things that actually enrich and enlighten you.The things that I cannot explain, however hard I try.

This result-oriented, or rather result-obsessed, attitude percolates into our day-to-day life. Every time we set out to do something, we keep thinking of the probable result and the possible outcome. As we grow up, we weigh this result in terms of the financial gains. And then we try putting a price tag to everything that we do. Is the purpose of our life to make financial gains in all the "transactions" we make? Why do you sometimes indulge in some good and expensive food and clothes, if basic food and clothes were sufficient for your survival? Is there any material gain that I get during the short trips that I make from time to time. In fact, strictly speaking, there is a financial loss. But, how do I explain someone how much I discover myself each time I visit another fascinating part of my motherland and the world, at large? We have mastered the art of measuring the materialistic parameters of the world, but not the world of the mind and the soul.
People practice for years to climb peaks like the Mt. Everest or the Kanchenjunga. And then they climb them in days and stay at the summit (which were their supposed destination for years) for minutes. What actually makes the climb so appealing is the journey that started with the first day of preparation and not necessarily the few minutes at the summit. It is the journey that makes the destination so special.

I am not sure whether any destination is a permanent destination and any result is ultimate. Destination may be lying way ahead...and yet we don't know whether that is the real destination or that is also a part of a greater journey. The ones that we come across in our lives are more of milestones, to me. You reach one and then you reach another and another. They are like bends and curves that you find in any journey. Some may be easy to tackle; some like the hair-pin bends will be difficult to negotiate; sometimes the ride will be smooth.  If you think that by negotiating the bend ahead you will reach your destination, nothing can be further from truth. The bends are not destination in itself - they should not be mistaken for destination. So,if you focus only on the curves and close your eyes and ears to the twitter of the birds, raindrops on blades of grass and the changing colours of the sky during sunrise and sunset, you have missed some invaluable moments, which are lost forever, never to return. Bends and curves will come in everyone's journey, because they are part of the journey; they make the journey!