No easy way: Path to freedom

There is no easy walk to freedom, my friends,” were Sanjay Dutt’s first words on walking out free from Pune’s Yerwada Jail after being granted remission in his five year sentence. What those words meant to him after 23 long years since his arrest in 1993 and subsequent trials, is something perhaps only he can decipher.

International cosmetic brand MAC made a major announcement on Friday introducing Caitlyn Jenner as its new brand ambassador. For former American Olympic gold medal decathlete (then known as Bruce Jenner), and television personality Catilyn at 66, this is a pathbreaking deal since she revealed her identity as a trans-woman last year. “In the last nine months since transitioning under the critical, often unforgiving microscope of the public eye, she has come to represent courage, fearlessness, honesty and compassion — characteristics long-prized and celebrated by MAC,” read the announcement that sees the launch of limited edition lipstick — Finally Free — coming April in association with Jenner. ‘Finally free to be me’ is an expression that has taken long for Caitlyn to realise in her life, much achievement, and six children from three marriages later. Quest for freedom and to find its truer meanings are what reflects upon us in every aspect of life.

The times are changing, and in those when we are questioning diversity, gender, and everything that is right or wrong with society and its prejudices or stereotypes. Finding a voice and expression float free in a society or be accepted without prejudice is what everyone seeks, and thrives for.

Student leader Kanhaiya Kumar is under arrest and fighting sedition charges with the issue being debated nationally. The case throws open a much larger picture that the media, politicians and public figures and social media are waging a war on what entails ‘freedom of expression’. Filmmakers are dealing with the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on the grounds of finding unedited voices to their stories, from a ‘dictated agenda’.

The idea of freedom that we all stand for and fight for in our everyday lives are to push forward that ideology that we believe in or what it may deliver us. Valuing the gift of freedom, and our constant inherent need for it within our own decoding of its meanings always do not yield results.

Freedom stands for something greater than just the right to act how one chooses; it also stands for securing to everyone an equal opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The constant enedavour for gender equality, equal liberty, and individual expression brings forth the struggle to be ‘accepted’. The meaning of freedom for a peaceful co-existence in today’s world is to find that true balance and space. Surely, it’s not an easy walk.