The past 4-5 years have been all about following one's heart, realizing one's passion, and doing what makes one happy. I will not be so harsh as to blame solely the film, "3 Idiots" for this, but their contribution to what I call the "passion revolution" can not go unmentioned. It was a message from a film - a good one, no doubt, but one that has been blown to enormous proportions, causing a lot of irritation to the few level headed citizens of this country.
The current generation, though extremely mature in some respects, are pathetically misguided in others. Logical thinking is one arena where our generation scores, but we seem to have almost completely neglected the learning - wisdom, rather, that comes from experience. And for youngsters to be wise enough, they need to learn from others' experiences - and this is what I find lacking in today's youth. Being sceptical is good, but there are some things which should be accepted without questioning.
Life is too short for one to rediscover old knowledge for oneself. There is no better example that Newton's famous quote, "standing on the shoulder of giants". Acceptance is the best display of humility, and this, in my opinion, seems to have been lost somewhere in the most recent stage of the ever-happening, inevitable modernization. One can, however, not complain that people aren't listening to their elders these days, now that the latter have ceased advising their progeny. Older, experienced people are now seen merely as unconditional financers,
It surprises me when some people argue about looking at every aspect of life "scientifically", but upon observation, one can clearly see that logic governs hardly any activity, let alone a path one chooses in life. Birth and death may be considered as far fetched points in this context, but things even as simple as man's instinctive desire to get intoxicated and to temporarily suspend his intellect makes one wonder if man is entirely intellectual. And my answer to that is no: man is a mix of emotion and intellect - each portion trying hard to deny the existence of the other - few have achieved harmony between the two.
Funnily enough, no questions are asked about the recent (in my opinion, twisted) definition of fun as being alcohol consumption and/or sex is unanimously accepted (too cool to be questioned, perhaps?) - and so are scientific articles that explains how "the brain" perceives things*, among scores of other such ambiguous areas that are coolly brushed aside. I feel that one must be humble enough to admit the fact that things aren't truly crystal clear, and a certain amount of arbitrariness is inexorable.
With that said, I'd say that while following one's heart sounds not-so-bad-ish, a little input from experienced elders in addition to the brilliance of one's own intellect will go a long way in ensuring that one's heart doesn't lead one into a gutter.
*It is said that a pain in the leg, for example, is communicated via some nervous system to the 'brain' which perceives it. One never asks how a perception by "the brain" ends the article. One might always ask, "How does this realization of the brain reach 'me'?" After all, a person who is brain dead isn't considered completely dead in the biological sense.
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