It is said that human values do not change. But, if mutability were to be the law of life, when human thinking is at variance, values which are at cognitive level could transform. It is to be understood that in this eternal creation, uni-polarity is non-existent. Thus, ‘variance’ is in consonance with this universal law. Hence, Ambition & Aspiration, even if were to be seen as ‘diametrically opposite manifestations’, are part of us.

Ambivalent thought, prior to the debate, is that both do define ‘the human spirit’. It is the context that’s the differentiator.

Is it appropriate to say that the world is being ‘increasingly materialistic’? It is, and it is all relativity. While we say that both positivity and negativity are part of creation, the nature always tends to settle towards a state of equilibrium. It is only that, given a particular time span & a specific geography, dominance of one of these manifestations ‘Ambition’ or ‘Aspiration’ is prevalent. It only seems that the time span is increasingly widening particularly for negativity. For a larger time span and a larger geographical area ‘ambition’ is prevailing amongst the youth. The equilibrium still is getting maintained by the manifestation of ‘aspiration’ in a lesser span of time but at an increased intensity.

As an illustration of this:

o In the pre-independence era, ‘Awakening of our country into that Heaven of Freedom’ (Gitanjali: Tagore) was an ‘aspiration’ in the minds of people across the Himalayan Sub-continent. This ‘aspiration’ of the people manifested itself for almost a century as their struggle for freedom and as the spirit of humanity called ‘Mahatma Gandhi’.

o Once that freedom was attained, perhaps, the ‘ambitions’ of the individuals or that of community at large took over, leading to the division of the sub-continent within no time as compared to attainment of freedom which took several decades.

o Today’s young generation in the sub-continent living separately in their own countries live through the situations of ‘aspiration’ yet again oblivious of the mutation which once had its roots in ‘ambition’.

Conclusions from the aforesaid illustration are-

· Decades of inspirational movement (aspiration that prevailed over larger span of time)

· Followed by a year of intense agony of separation (ambition prevailed over a lesser span of time)

· Together resulted in creation of two countries i.e. Ind-Pak (equilibrium)

· For the current generation now, it is freedom in their own countries but for the freedom fighters then, it was a split (relativity).

Aspiration has its roots in inspiration. Ambition could be out of materialistic attainment, greed. One is the means and the other material. One is the enlightened self interest (endeavors that yield good, benefit or which I may enjoy or not) and the other a mere self-interest (I shall be the beneficiary).

So let the exuberance of youth emerge out of the thought of contributing and giving back to the society thus leading to a….HAPPILY EVER AFTER!