Moonlit Sunshine

‘Owning a Gucci makes me feel good about myself’. It probably holds some weight if it’s something you say out of the pride that after sweating it out and toiling hard, you earned yourself a really costly bag, in this case, a Gucci. Nevertheless, if you’ve bought one with your dad’s card swiped then you ought to pull it off with something called shame rather than pride.

More often than not, such tentacles of the so-called pseudo-pride look extremely attractive. Why I call it pseudo-pride is because things like smoking, drinking, watching a popular sitcom just because the world talks about it, pretending to be a voracious reader, etc fall under something called status. We have been giving status more importance than it deserves. And sometimes, I find it unbelievably unnerving when some of the people I know do or say some things just because it adds up to the status quotient.

Citing clichés in the order of our mental growth..

At the age of 10, owning a Ladybird is a status symbol among girls obviously.

At the age of 15, being best friends with the most popular girl or boy in school is a status symbol.

At the age of 16, being an integral part of the most good-looking group is a status symbol.

At the age of 18, rash-driving is a status symbol.

At the age of 19, smoking, drinking and partying hard is a status symbol.

At the age of 20, having the best-looking and the most sought-after people giving you attention is a status symbol (even if those people don’t really give a damn about you.)

At the age of 21, owning a Blackberry is a status symbol.

At the age of 22, bragging about your dad’s new BMW is a status symbol.

At the age of 25, talking about ‘independence’ is a status symbol.

At the age of 35, having lot of hair on your head is a status symbol :P

Well, I haven’t really thought about the status-ian needs beyond the age of 35 but I presume it’d have something to do with aging, kids and home for some reason.

Whatever be it, it's sad that sometimes we feel the need to satisfy our urge to be acknowledged in other people’s eyes so much that in the process we forget whether what we do is actually genuine or put on. Even if it is genuine, we tend to brush aside the question of whether it was something we really wanted or was it only to bring in that feel-good factor.

I do not intend to say that bragging about your dad’s car or your beautiful home is a bad thing but beyond a point it seems obvious why you crave to let other people know about it. All that a high status-quotient brings with it is attention is what you believe. Sadly, it happens to be just the opposite. The more you put on, the more you brag, the more you call yourself popular because you are the most popular person’s best friend, the lesser and lesser people care about you. It’s just like a bunch of hay fully covered with an aluminium foil that shines way too bright. You tear it off with your own hands and in the process unleash the ‘nothing’ that lies beneath.

There is fine line between status and pride..

If you do what you do for yourself then you won’t talk about it as much as you do.

A bag from the road-side, if self-earned looks much more beautiful to you than a Gucci bag earned with your dad’s money.

A friend who happens to be the least noticed in college but yet trusts you more than herself is the most popular friend for you.

Self-restraint that you exercise when you enter your teens, refraining from smoking or drinking while your gang does it, is the pride that will make everyone look up to you.

If you care about the life that you have rather than about how much your car can take, then you have won your heart yet again.

If you can tread along with equanimity and face hardships without anyone, then you need no ‘group’, however popular, to support you.

If you can take your own decisions by yourself at the age of 25 and yet believe that it is your mom and dad who know it better than you then call yourself independent.

Be proud to be yourself, by yourself..