Once a hunter reared a dozen eaglets. As the chicks grew up, feathers covered the little ones and began hopping around, he cut the wings of a few of them so that they wouldn’t fly high, but would peck around clearing the ground. He caged some others that he could see them always. However, he let free a couple of them to sore high in the sky to realize their potential as he thought they were capable of that – not the others though.

Years passed by, the hunter grew old and he wanted to set free all his by-now-grown up eagles. To his dismay, the ones whose wings he had clipped regularly continued to hop around even when their wings had grown fully. Those in the cage never attempted to fly though they were free to. Hence, he branded them useless and never bothered to care for them thereafter.

Most of the time, the hidden potential in an individual dies with the person as s/he is never in the group of that privileged lot who the hunter thought could fly high. Call it pre-arranged anatomy of the universe or simply the law of nature or due to imprudence and egocentricity, branded and with a tarnished self-image we move around carrying the burden of 

The dream never dreamt,

The ambition never realized,

The goal never reached,

The song never sung.  

We live in a society that upholds and highlights the achievements and personality of a select few however negligent may be the contribution they make. The majority is left out in the dark to stagger and falter even if there are gems among them. Why? They are not all supposed to fly high. Does the hunted has the freedom to hunt the hunter? The line between destiny and reality is mythical, mysterious and fragile. The day we shatter the bulwarks of this vicious line we would make progress by leaps and bounds.

No change in monotonous imitation

No novelty in the structured pattern

No thrill on the trembled, trodden paths

No progress devoid of refusal to amend

No heights conquered without gazing high

No peace when the mind is perturbed

No love fulfilled without involving risks

No success scripted pursuing not one’s dreams

No bond of friendship lasted if selfish

No points ever proved being in the crowd

No heroes rose sans sacrifices made

No relationship blossomed when sharing lacked

Refusal to look outside the structured strata without being judgmental, contemptuous and presumptuous seems to be as hard as being asked to change oneself once and fore all for most of us, humans. The insatiable urge to follow the archetypical behaviour existing in the society, however grotesque or irrelevant doesn’t seem to hinder most from being repetitive and blindly imitating what’s laid down. The hippie movement hit the streets of the US in the 60s. In the 1960s the event that most dramatically divided consciences was the Vietnam War, which witnessed the killing of millions of youth in Vietnam and several thousands more in the US. Many middle-class students not only took to the streets to demonstrate against the war, but also began to question and even reject the moral principles on which they had been brought up.

In the universities, students rejected curricula that had served for decades and instead they demanded "relevant" courses in black or women's studies and participation in the decision-making process of the universities. the ripples gradually gathered rhythm and spread in the US and then across the West. It originated in the San Francisco Bay area in 1964. The hippies’ ideological principles were grounded on non-conformism, homelessness, oriental mysticism - especially the Zen version of Buddhism, an expansion of individual conscience by means of unrestricted alcohol and drug taking- especially LSD and hashish- colourful pacifism through the so-called flower power setting all disputes.

Though the movement got disintegrated and degenerated it did prove a point or two and clearly left behind a mark that was to be reminder for many.

well, you come across things like this from the class notes when you study for the xams!!