Freedom...to be.

Ok folks, a bit of chicken soup for the soul, served straight from my heart kitchen!!!

Thought for the day is Freedom.

What is it about this word that rings bells in my head? Well its something my father taught me. He always stressed on the importance of me taking my own decisions and instilled the decision taking ability in my blood by giving me my freedom, right from when I was a kid(ok I am still one at times :P).

In the words of Optimus Prime, "Freedom is the birth right of all sentient beings". A lot is expressed in this one line form the movie Transformers. I believe that the most essential factor for one to live a happy life is freedom. Being free, evokes the Hero in us. It allows us to think endlessly and achieve whatever it is that we seek, but sadly, this factor is often overlooked. I know many a soul whose lives are confined by the false beliefs and selfish thoughts of society and sadly sometimes even family,and to an extend that they are so used to this lack of freedom that they think it is a way of life; this oppressed way of growing up that is, and it becomes a vicious cycle. All this does is, smother a person's intellectual development. It is when we are given all possible resources to choose from, shielding the negatives, of course and then when we are let free, that we truly reach our potential. We are all here for a purpose...lets go out there and find out our purpose of life. Lets live it with freedom to explore ourselves and take decisions to move forward and accomplish our goals.

We are like these pigeons I shot recently with the Nikon D700 and a 50mm F1.8 prime lens. I was walking around at union square, just enjoying the breeze, enjoying the freedom I have in life to do what I am passionate about, I thank my parents for this, they took care of me as I grew up, conditioned me into an adult and now they let me fly into the world to explore it and some day settle with a mate. Saw the pigeons doing the same, flying off to wherever they want, sharing the joy with a mate forever and to me, they symbolize the joy of freedom...to be.

PS: Should I have the freedom to
*Enter your house and steal money?
* Smoke marijuana or inject heroin?
* Drive at 150 km per hour?
* Say anything I like?
* Kill someone, if they ask me to?

The answer is NO. Come on , you know what i mean right :)

Signing off,
Mukul Soman.