The gap between what we think and what the reality is!

There have been a good number of circumstances and experiences that have made me to personally realize that oftentimes what we may think about something may not really be the case, until and unless we fully experience it firsthand. There are many pre-conceived notions that are made in society without even one trying to experience things firsthand. This is one approach, while there is a whole different approach where one tries to put oneself in different scenarios whether comfortable or uncomfortable, and then shape their thinking basis the learnings from the experiences. 

We have been hearing a lot about how the country’s administration is focusing a lot on the development of the Northeast and remote areas in India. As part of my work, I am getting an opportunity to work in the Northeast and in some of the remotest parts of the country. There has been lots of learnings that is happening as we make physical visits to these places. 

A lot of times the way we have jobs, is we are to sit in the office room work on laptop, write reports, analyze data etc., but it is also equally important to keep getting an exposure to what really is happening on ground, that can help us better to understand a lot of situations and decisions that we make at work / in our daily lives.

An example on the gap between what we think and what the reality is – a lot of times sitting at home/office etc. we may think about what all could have been better in the country, and what all is wrong and how that is affecting our lives. It is quite easy to blame and point out what we may think is wrong, but how often do we question ourselves about what we are doing to improve what we think is wrong. The on-ground field trips to remote parts of India are also very important as these give an opportunity to widen our perspectives and help us to understand how challenging living is for most of the people in our country, and despite these they continue to lead their lives and try to make their ends meet. 

The field visits can also help us to understand what is so beautiful about this country, as we get an opportunity to understand the very roots of it. It is when we interact with people who are living in remote areas, we truly get to know about this side. Only when we experience some of these harsh conditions, away from our comfortable lives, is when we can open a new side of empathy and understanding of life. It helps us to think and question ourselves twice the next time when we are about to make loose statements on how life is unfair, or on how there are many challenges in our country which are the reason for us to not able to grow etc. 

The more discomfort we create for ourselves, and the more we may be able to step out of our comfort zone, the more of a person we may be able to become. It is critical to understand as humans we all, irrespective of who we are, have similar set of organs, body set up. It is mostly our circumstances that push us to how we are leading our lives today. Getting a ground experience is important for us to holistically understand any situation before we come up with judgments/notions/conclusions. Only once we have experienced a situation firsthand whether be good/bad/easy/tough we may fully become equipped to understand it and then make an opinion/notion about it.

Our country is beautiful, it has its own challenges, but only when we get out of our comfort zones, and get on ground, visit some of the remote places, interact with people leading challenging lives is when we may be able to understand the dynamics of our country in totality and understand the gap between what we think and what the reality is!

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