Essay 4 – Not all who wander are lost

Not all who wander are lost.

Note: 1272 words – Completed in 1 h 45 minutes (brainstorming + writing) – typed version with minor grammatical edits made (originally handwritten on 23 December, 2023)

A young boy, only 10 years old, walks around the grand castle, watching in awe as the paintings on the wall speak to him and to each other, literally. He turns to his red-haired friend and says, “Ron, Hogwarts is even more amazing than I thought!” Ron nods his head in agreement, both awestruck and shocked by the band of ghosts that just flew past him. Their friend Hermione rolls her eyes at the duo, unimpressed by their behavior.

You may be familiar with this iconic trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione from J.K. Rowling’s famous series: Harry Potter. These 3 wonderful characters and the world that Rowling created in her books have ruled the hearts and minds of people of all ages over decades, starting from the 7 books and extending to the 8 movies, plays, video games, spinoffs, and innumerable fanfiction stories written by ardent fans. Yet, for this world-famous author, the journey wasn’t always this smooth, or rewarding. Publisher after publisher rejected her manuscript for Harry Potter. To the world, she was just a struggling, wannabe author, wandering from one publishing firm to another. Broken and dejected, Rowling tossed her would-be masterpiece aside into a corner of her room and sulked. Eventually, however, a publisher agreed to publish her book, and the rest, as you know, is history. From the wavering pen of a struggling wanderer, the great Harry Potter franchise was born.

The world is full of such people, wandering through life like a bee buzzing through the forest. To the world, they seem aimless, lost, worthless even. They seem to have no purpose. They are discounted and shunned by society as hopeless and ordinary. However, this is what it seems like from afar. Zoom in, look closer, and you will realize that like the bee actually buzzing through the forest looking for nectar from flowers, these wandering people too, have a goal in mind. Like the bee, they might not always know exactly which flower (target) they’re going to reach, but they’re making every effort to reach there. 

Why is it then, that the world sees these wanderers as being lost? The answer lies in the social conditioning of human beings. Centuries of evolution have taught us one thing – what matters most is survival. In prehistoric times of cavemen, wandering away from the security of your tribe meant certain death – whether from starvation, cold, and other elements of nature, or being eaten by a predator. As more complex and sedentary societies developed, rulers rose to power, and kingdoms fought for prominence, survival for most people meant going along with whatever your leader (chief, lord, or king) decided. Disobeying orders from higher authorities meant either banishment from the village, town, or kingdom, or in more extreme cases, you parting ways with your head, literally. These developments over the centuries and millennia taught us that it’s better to “go with the flow”, follow established norms and conventions, and obey the higher authorities if you want yourself and your family to be safe. For the masses, this killed the human spirit of curiosity, innovation, and risk-taking. Only a select few in each society throughout the world dared to pursue these innate ambitions embedded in their spirits, and many paid the price for it. While some of these men and women who dared to challenge the status quo were labelled as heretics, crazy, witches, or accused of blasphemy, others were declared guilty of being against the King, Queen, ruler, or God himself.

Naturally, this orientation of human societies all over the world trained people to look at anyone doing anything different or unconventional with skepticism and suspicion. When Galileo played with his strange instruments in his laboratories in Europe and started claiming that the Earth actually revolved around the Sun, and not the other way around, they laughed at him and dismissed his theories as absurd. They thought that he had lost not only his way, but also his mind. This is what it meant for most people to see people adopting new paths – they were wandering fools. However, just because you have a choice doesn’t mean it’s a good one. Sometimes, it’s the only choice, as it was for commoners throughout history.

As we saw with our friend Galileo (who was actually correct, as proved by astronomers later), we cannot trust society’s judgement of what is the right path or not. This is because the very definitions of wanderers are subjective and relative. To most of the leaders in the Congress Party, a woman like Indira Gandhi defying the directions of the Syndicate and taking independent decisions was absurd and wrong. However, her assertive stance on many issues, exercise of the sovereignty of the post of the Prime Minister of India, and refusal to be a puppet paid off for India (albeit with many controversies).

The question that now arises, however, is why people wander and deviate from established norms in the first place. Again, the reasons vary greatly from person to person. The most important reason for this phenomenon is that there is no single path to success. Through their journeys of struggle, people discover themselves and their true purpose in life. Each failure and stumbling block may seem pointless for people watching from outside, but for that person, it is an opportunity to fix mistakes, plug holes and gaps, get stronger, and keep on improving on the way to their destination. Babur’s retreat may have seemed like a setback, and a win for the Lodhi rulers in Delhi, but it was only a way for him to recuperate, come back stronger, defeat the Lodhis in the 1st Battle of Panipat, and establish the Mughal Empire in India.

However, there is some truth in the thought that people who are wandering are actually lost. This lack of sense of direction or inability to move effectively towards their goal, however, may often be attributed to the absence of a mentor. This mentor can act as a guiding light, a charioteer like Lord Krishna for the Arjun marching towards his enemies (challenges) on the battlefield of life. Having a mentor can clarify to a person how to avoid the pitfalls that one may encounter on his/her journey. In many cases, wandering off on your own without a clear roadmap and guidance can do more harm than good. When Abhimanyu entered the chakravyuha formation of the Kauravas, he knew how to fight his way to its center, and he did so. However, he didn’t know how to exit from the chakravyuha, and as a result, he lost his life. It is said for good reason that having incomplete knowledge is often worse than having no knowledge at all. This is because it makes you act recklessly in an ignorant manner. That is why a mentor who can lift the veil of illusion from your eyes can be a blessing and make your journey to your goal easier.

We’ve seen why the world looks down upon the so-called wanderers of humanity and the reality behind their seemingly aimless escapades. We have also understood the methods behind the “madness” of these people and how when they do reach their goals or become successful like Ms. Rowling, the same critics who doubted, ridiculed, and dismissed them become their admirers and supporters. Such people are living embodiments of the phrase “work hard in silence and let your success do the talking”. Like the publisher who first agreed to publish Harry Potter, sometimes we all just need a spark, a guide, or a mentor, to turn our random voyage into an example of resounding success.