Foul Southern Zephyr

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(Edited)

I've always searched for freedom, a concept that is still ambiguous to me, but still I want it, always have.

There is this guy on YouTube, most of you, who spend a respectable amount of time on YT might've heard about him. Because he has a spectacular more than 100 mil subscribers. And his name is Pewdiepie. A Swedish guy who has been making videos for almost a decade now, who I've only seen through a digital screen has taught me more about life than my school teachers. When a 30-year-old Youtuber does better than the mentor's society has picked out for you, oh boy, now that speaks about a huge problem. It says how your community, your peers, and you have failed at getting it right.

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To make what I want to say a bit more understandable, let's draw an analogy here. Shane Warne, one of the greatest cricket player ever, had this weakness. Every time he chose to block a hard to play ball, his feet came before the bat, and that action alone turned him into an average batsman. Now, what this simple uncontrollable subconscious act did was caused him to lose his wicket time after time. The coaches he worked with, nobody seemed to manage this vulnerability of his even till he retired from every format of Cricket. Almost every time he played a block or a straight drive, his leg would abruptly come before the bat. This was due to him practicing his block from a faulty stance throughout his life. Whenever he blocked a bowl or even hit a practice shot, he only practiced using a wrong stance. This didn't seem to affect his exceptional career as a bowler and batting was not his forte, but it is a faulty trait, nonetheless.

Now, imagine another random guy who lives in a society where some of the wrongful practices are deemed as social norms. This guy, who might be a philosophical guru, a motivational speaker or somebody who adds value to the society, throughout his life did everything with honesty and effort. But he doesn't even know that the things he has been doing are wrong, to some extent, even evil. Like Shane Warne, practicing a wrong stand again and again. Meaning that if you don't even know or don't want to see that you are stuck, how will you ever get free? If you don't even know that you might be a slave to something, how would you venture on your quest to freedom in the first place? the classic Blue Pill/Red pill paradox.

This random guy, Jon Doe AKA Vupen, is a wholehearted jolly young lad. Wherever he goes, he preaches positivity and youthfulness. But he is blindsided to a chaotic trait of his. Usually, a collected guy but in rough situations believes in the use of brawl more than the brain. And in his brutal adventures along with his fists seem to only harm bystanders more than the perpetrators.

ভেবে দেখেছো কী
তারারাও যত আলোকবর্ষ দূরে...
তারো দূরে
তুমি আর আমি যাই ক্রমে সরে সরে...

An excerpt from a classic Bengali Song that I like. Sings about a dystopia in the making. A milieu too well known.

A few moons ago, in a quite hot and humid day after a failed fishing trip, I returned home around noon, empty-handed and hot-headed. From the get-go, I could hear one of my neighbors’ kid shouting like a mad lad for some yet to know reasons. As I went to take a bath, a power outage occurred.

Now, the area I live in is tranquil around midday. And when electricity is absent, it’s even more hushed. In such times, you can even hear the silent farts of the old woman who lives around the block:v. Now, power outage took out all the ceiling fans and coolers. As I opened the door of the washroom, all I felt was the eternal warmth like, if Lucifer has decided to open the gates of hell right on my face. And my temper was increasing to the point of breaking out of my temple. The shouting of the kid was working like an aggressor catalyst. The more his screams grew, the more my nincompoop anger was becoming harder to control.

A quarter of an hour went by, and that kid was still shouting. By then, my skin started itching due to the heat. And then, I heard crying of a very familiar voice. Tintin here with anger management issues has a mother whom I know very well. This kid started beating his mum with a broom, an action just enough to tip my rage over the edge.

A bit of context is needed here. I know the kid and their family very well. A disappointing mum with mental issues, a looser father, two cute sisters and this kid with a history of substance abuse. A family of idiots who usually we all try to avoid. But him beating the mother had done it. I took this quarter-inch couple of feet long metal spring-like thing I typically use as gym equipment in my hand, came out and started running towards their house. I was all lost and determined to beat that cringe lord into a pulp.

As I was crossing the second story stairs, the shouting had stopped. The door to their apartment was wide open, and there lay the mother of the devil. Women in his fifties, grabbing her knee while moaning in pain. And then Tintin came out.

This kid, in his boxers, sweating like a pig had the bloodshot eyes of a killer, seeping with rage. I jumped over the mother with the rod held high, and as soon as It was going to make contact, I hesitated and my brain shorted. Time started running slower. And my consciousness began to talk. It asked, "what are you doing, you idiot? confronting violence with violence?"

The door on the right opened, and her sister came out. For a brief moment, I looked at her tearful eyes, and all I could see was despair. Filled with Hatred towards his brother and mother, but all the disappointment available in god's earth for me. That moment of clarity had made me understand what freedom is. The choices that make us who we are.

I could've bashed his head in a few inches’ deep right then and there. Even my hands would not have shaken even a bit, and I could have gotten away with manslaughter, by abusing my family and peers reach. At times, the taste of blood is more provocative than the warmth coming out from the naked thighs of a virgin oozing with chastity. The way this society I live in works is either you victimize others, or you get victimized—The Darwinian theory unraveling all in its glory. And I could've tasted blood too, but I CHOSE not to.

I know my sentiment might be clouded, and my analogies too farfetched. Enough to deem me either a distressed Samaritan or mentally handicapped in front of the juror. But can't let my actions push me in a solitary hell made by my conscience now, can I?

So I chose. And that is freedom, my freedom.

-Vupen, Gen Z


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5 comments
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The funny thing with freedom is, someone else might have chosen differently than yours and all of a sudden freedom isn't so glorious anymore isn't it!

I have said it before, I don't remember where or to whom, but freedom was always supposed to be relative, not absolute. While we have a lot of good people, we also have enough to wreck havoc on a society with absolute freedom. And we have seen that happen.

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Spoke my mind daktar shaheb:) its the choices that matters. Some have the ability to take better decisions than others, but at the end, the ability to chose is freedom.

The kid i wrote about is a real person. He lives on the first floor of the building next to mine. Right now, he might be sleeping soundly not knowing how close he came to being sent to heaven. And that is his freedom. I chose not to turn him into a meat sack despite having the situation perfectly on my side. And that is my freedom.

We bengali peeps even after almost fiftey years of liberation still do not know what freedom is. You mustve heard about the recent event of a major being killed by the police officer. And that is exactly the perfect example that can define freedom, at least the mutated version that we live in. One got killed because he didnt know what do with his freedom, and the other killed him because he overused his. Its astonishing how a concept that can be defined with just a single word can be so complex and intricate.

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Yeah I heard about the incident, but there's too much political cloud surrounding it. However, it does show how freedom can be approached in all the wrong ways.

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Wow!! For some reasons, I wanted you to hit that boy so bad but it's a good thing you didn't.. Approaching violence with violence has never proven to be a good thing, it only ends up creating more problems.

And I do think that the only way one can be free is first of all accepting the fact that something is holding them captive. The cricket guy couldn't change his stance probably because he didn't even know the stance was the problem. So we need to first of all accept the fact we have a problem, then work towards solving the problem before freedom.

Lovely writing Zayed. I always love all this little story you chip in whenever you're trying to explain something, makes it much more interesting.

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The cricket guy couldn't change his stance probably because he didn't even know the stance was the problem.

Exactly that prayzz. The thing is we always subconsciously know the things that can be done right. But we either choose to ignore them or we do not care at all. That first step towards the path of being liberated is the hardest but its the initiative that we lack in.

Thank you mate. You have been such an inspiration. Thank you again for being there brother.

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