Progress happens out of comfort zone

PROGRESS BEGINS WHERE COMFORT ENDS There was a boy who was made to sit outside his own classroom, apart from the other children, because of the family he was born into. When he was thirsty, no one let him touch the pot. A peon would pour water into his hands from high above, so that his hand would never touch the vessel itself. That boy always had a dream to educate himself well. Even after all the discrimination that boy grew up to become one of the most educated men in the country, earning degree from London School of Economics.

And yet, when he returned home, society still would not let him drink from a public water tank in his own town. He could have stayed abroad, in comfort using his degree to live a quiet, respected life far from all this. He chose the harder path, He led the "MAHAD SATYAGRAHA" so that untouchables could finally claim the right to drink from public tank. And he went on to chair the drafting of India's Constitution, placing the abolition of untouchability into its very first pages. This was DR. AMBEDKAR His life tells us something simpler - In order to bring change (or) progress in a society, one has to have the courage to step out of his comfort zone. Staying in the comfort zone will maintain the status-quo and progress doesn't happen. This also echoes in our Indian history, where many personalities defied to stay in the comfort zone. Centuries earlier, Razia Sultan had defied the discomfort her own nobility felt at being ruled by a woman, taking the throne despite open rebellion, while Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi gave up safety of quiet, pensioned widowhood offered by colonial rulers, choosing instead to fight and and die, defending her kingdom in 1857. Both became an example for the women who came after them, if they could step out of their comfort zones in a society so deeply patriarchal that a woman's ambition itself treated as rebellion, then women today who stand protected by a constitution that guarantees them equality, have even less reason to stay confined within theirs. Ancient Indian society was not equal the way we like to imagine equality today.

Structural inequalities of caste and gender ran through nearly every corner of life, and oppression was visible everywhere. A human being was boxed into the prejudice of caste, gender and judged accordingly. Then came a man who watched a woman being burnt alive on husband's funeral pyre, and while society called it a "ritual" - he truly called what it was - "A MURDER" - He came from a privileged background and could have easily accepted the comfort that privilege offered him, staying silent the way most of his class did. Instead, he acknowledged the privilege and used it to fight against the practice, facing resistance from the orthodoxy society & even after all that he persisted and his perseverance and stepping out of his comfort finally led to abolition of Sati- He was "Raja Ram Mohan Roy" Then came a woman from a poor background, educated by her own husband at a time when almost no one educated girls at all. She came to believe that Education was one thing that could truly change society, and that learning did not, and should not, differentiate between a boy and a girl. She could have accepted the comfort the society offered her, simple silence and no one would have blamed her for it. She chose not to. She walked to the school she built to teach girls, and was met with stones and mud thrown at her along the way. She did not back down, she spent her whole life fighting for women's Education and Empowerment. This was Savitribai Phule The contributions of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Savitribai Phule did more than to end two specific injustices, they taught an entire generation how to think and act against injustice itself, showing that stepping out of one's comfort zone to voice dissent was not reckless, but necessary. A country does not progress while it's people stay comfortably silent in the face of what they know to be wrong. India's Independence movement as a whole tells the same story. Gandhiji, along with many other educated, capable individuals could have chosen the far more comfortable path some zamindars and Rajahs took, quietly aligning with British rule, protecting their land, titles.

Instead, they resisted, were repeatedly arrested and jaild and still refused to let imprisonment silence them. Bhagat Singh was just 23 years old and he was highly educated in his field. He would have ignored the injustices and led a comfortable life. But, he didn't he chose a difficult path which was out of his comfort zone. and was been killed at the end. Bhagat singh's sacrifice and Gandhi's non violent movement used very different methods. But both pushed Indians out of comfort and into resistance. That spirit did not end with independence. It still lives in our constitution, in the freedoms it gives us and the duties it asks us to follow. A New Nation's Risky choices:- Independence did not end this pattern, it only changed its stage. India in 1947 was poor, illiterate nation (below 10% literacy rate). Nehru could have chosen caution. Instead, he invested in institutions the country could not yet afford, AIIMS and IIT's among them, and called them "Modern temples". A leader's risk then, now are able to produce brilliant doctors and Engineers in the country. The Hindu Code Bill carried a similar risk, reforming personal law to give women real legal standing - faced backlash from leaders from his own party - yet he introduced the bill. It led the "Bedrock for Modern Gender Justice" An Economy Forced out of its Comfort Zone - By 1991, India's economy stood at edge of collapse, foreign reserves nearly exhausted. There was no comfortable option left for P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh used that crisis to dismantle the decades of protectionist policy through LPG reforms. Took the uncomfortable decision out of crisis that led to India's Economic growth. The Self, Pushed past it's own limits - Mary Kom, Born to a poor farming family in Manipur, she took up boxing at a time when the sport had almost no space for women, she trained for that sport secretly because she knew her family and society would disapprove. She fought through Poverty, Injuries.

She could have stayed within the comfort of what was expected of her, quiet, domestic and unambitious, Instead, she became a world champion and Olympic Medallist, proving that her discomfort and her refusal to accept its limits, was the thing that built her career. However, leaving your comfort zone is important but it must have a clear, organized plan. If it doesn't it just turns into reckless chaos. Muhammad bin Tughlaq's token currency experiment was a bold departure from the administrative comfort zone, but this reform crashed the economy into chaos due to unorganised planning. With organised planning and execution, can only progress happen. For instance, In contemporary era, India's Governance transitioned from the comfort of cash-dominated, informal economy toward a digitized financial ecosystem. Initially it caused friction. Yet, the creation of Robust public Infrastructure increased financial access to millions. Similarly in an era of climate anxiety, moving away from comfort of fossil fuels towards renewable Energy requires immense policy shifts. Just as Gaura devi and the women of chipko movement chose the discomfort of fighting to protect trees in 1974, Government today must also face a hard choice. Thus, True progress does not happen by staying safe, but by having the courage to step into difficult unknown. For a nation to build a better, more equal tomorrow, it must always be willing to break its own comfort zones today.