As Per Your Wish!

 

“Choice is yours!” 

Sounds Good! Isn’t it? When someone tells this, it appears that they give a free hand to you to proceed as per your wish. But it is not always so! It is not that easy to execute such open-ended options. In some circumstances it creates a lot of inability, chaos and displeasure.

Once, during school days, I was deputed by my school to take part in an Essay Competition. That was organized by a popular non-political social service organization. It was told that the title would be extempore. Which means, as we all know, that the title will be exposed on the spot just before the competition. The participants shall start writing the essay and hand over the completed sheets within the time limit given.

All the participants assembled. They were eagerly waiting for the ‘Title’ announcement. They thought that, as soon as the title is announced, without wasting time they must start writing.

But the announcement came as follows:

“The title for this Essay Competition is ‘As Per Your Wish’. You can choose any title and write. ‘Choice is Yours!’. The time allotted is thirty three minutes from now. “

Participants instantly felt happy. The title is given as an open chit. Deciding the ‘title’ by participants themselves and writing on that title must be very easy! Isn’t it? Yes! It appears so!

But, I don’t know, if any of you, who reads this, had such an experience. I would like to share some practical hurdles with examples on this venture.

Thinking on the ‘titles’ to choose, took a few minutes. Then to evaluate, which title would be better for the writer took some minutes. Then, whether the writer will have enough stuff on the chosen title took some minutes. Then considering and reconsidering took some more minutes.

After losing almost 50% of the allotted time, one writer chose ‘Cow’ as the title. With the time pressure and instant content scarcity, the essay on the title ‘Cow’ came out as follows: A cow is a cud-chewing animal. It gives us milk… It has four legs.. It has one tail. (then he got struck and losing time). Then he continued: a big banyan tree was tied to the cow. The tree cannot go away from the cow… The banyan tree was in the middle of garden. The garden was nearer to the city. Now a days, the cows are wandering even in the city limits… (Like that the essay went on!)

Another participant, who was in utter chaos on deciding the title for a considerable time, thought “I can write about ‘anything of my choice’. So I will start on ‘Anything’ itself as the title” and started writing as follows: I can write on ‘anything’. But something is needed to write on anything. Even I am talented to write on nothing. From Nothing, nothing can be written. Even something cannot be written from nothing. But we can write about ‘nothing’. And something can come from everything. Also when nothing is added to everything and something is taken away from nothing what remains is ..! Any way something is better than nothing.

Thus, he finished his essay and immediately left the place once for all.

In a different platform, to view another dimension of ‘Choice is yours’, the following example will demonstrate its potential.

Once when I went for buying ice creams, I asked my family members what flavour they needed. Each one was saying something. My wife said that any flavour is OK for her. When I wanted her to be specific, she told, ‘Get any flavour you like’. The problem started there. I recollected the previous occasions. When I bought ‘mango’ flavour, she said ‘mango tastes like apple’. Another time when I bought ‘strawberry’ she said, ‘strawberry is nice, but today it is a little sweetless’. When I bought cassata, she said that a cup ice would have been better.

That was the day, I stopped going for buying things for my family, where choice is involved!

So, it is to be understood, that, to execute the commitments in the circumstances like ‘Choice is yours’ ‘As per your wish’ ‘Anything’ is like playing a football game – without goal post; or playing cricket game without stumps; or playing tennis without boundary lines!

Hence, it is better to take care next time, when you are offered a choice like ‘As per your wish’!