Freedom, As I Know It
Updated: 7 days ago
Harinath
Poet
If freedom arrived tomorrow, what would I do?
Honestly, I am not sure I would do anything different.
I think I am already living the kind of freedom I once imagined for myself.
I walk. I trek. I cycle. Sometimes I simply head out without a destination. I meet people and listen to their stories - the wonderful, complicated, funny, sometimes heartbreaking stories that remind me how differently each of us experiences life.
I organise little programmes for children and elders. Nothing extraordinary, perhaps. But when I see their faces light up, I realise that freedom is also having the time and space to create something that makes someone else happy.
And then there is Mumbai.
After seven in the evening, I sometimes drive towards the sea or South Bombay. The city begins to exhale. The traffic thins. The wide roads become quieter. I walk past old buildings and fading facades, admiring the architecture that makes Mumbai feel like Mumbai. I don't always need a destination. Sometimes, the walk itself is enough.
I don't think freedom, for me, means sleeping till noon, switching off my phone, or escaping every responsibility.
Perhaps freedom is much simpler.
It is waking up and deciding what you want your day to become.
It is having the freedom to say yes to a trek, a long cycle ride, an unexpected conversation, a cup of tea by the sea, or some completely thoofani idea that suddenly appears in your head.
And when the day is over, I like sleeping on time—with gratitude for what the day gave me and curiosity about what tomorrow might bring.
Because I don't want my life to be a series of days spent waiting for something great to happen.
My day has to be a full day. My life has to be a full life.
I don't want today to be a waiting room for tomorrow.
Maybe that is what freedom looks like to me:
Not escaping life, but being free enough to live it completely.
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