Smoking & drinking due to peer pressure || Acharya Prashant, at AIIMS Nagpur (2022)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Good evening, sir. In many places, especially in the college, it is seen that the person

00:11start drinking or smoking just because of peer pressure, because he has a fear that

00:18if he don't do this, his group will throw him out. So, what are your views regarding

00:24this concept? What do you expect me to say? We do not know what to do in life. We do not

00:37know how to spend the evening. We have nothing worthy enough to dedicate our time to. So

00:47that's what we do. We try to identify with a group and then we are forced in some way

00:56to do as the group pleases. All this is just inner void playing itself out. Why will you

01:09sit with random loafers and drink and smoke and what not, if you had something worth doing

01:16in your life? Why will you do that? And why will you not do that, if you have time to kill? There

01:27are so many of us who simply have time to kill. Think of this, time to kill. Why? Because you

01:35just do not know what to fill up your time with. Because you do not know what is life. Life is

01:41time. You do not know who is the living one. You do not know the worth of each passing second. So,

01:50you say I have time to kill and so you sit with someone and frequently it happens that when you

01:55come to college and you start consuming animal flesh. These are the things you pick up typically

02:03in your first semester. I don't know about the knowledge that you pick up but these are the

02:09things that most of us generally do pick up. Somebody picks up chicken, somebody takes a

02:15liking to mutton, smoking, drinking and then we say now this is college life. This is what we

02:22anyway worked so hard for. Somebody takes to chasing girls. They say this is the freedom that

02:32you get in college and at that time it all appears so nice, so attractive. Because you

02:45have cleared the entrance exam, so daddy gets you a bullet or an Activa and then on the bullet you

02:54are another Kabir Singh. There too the setting was a medical college. Then you can do this,

03:05do that and you say yes I have arrived. Yes you have arrived in freshly brewed hell that

03:15you have created for yourself. These few years that you spend in the campus are often the last

03:26opportunity that you can have to redeem yourself. After this the world will swallow you intact.

03:34This is the last opportunity when you are within the protection of the walls of the campus and can

03:47learn about life and can safely make mistakes. Once you are out, you will be one among the

03:59millions. The same kind of average mediocre ordinary crowd that you find all around. Why

04:06do you want to become another ordinary person? There are lakhs of doctors. Why don't you realize

04:17that this is your only chance not to be wasted? And the campus that you are in, I'm pretty sure

04:27it has so many facilities. There must be an extensive library. There must be badminton

04:36courts and tennis courts and squash courts. I don't know. All good campuses have those things.

04:44So and there would be student clubs and societies you can participate in and excel in. Instead what

04:54do you want to do? Ride your bullet through the city and wear a t-shirt or sweatshirt carrying

05:04in bold aims Nagpur, hoping that some girl or boy would be impressed. Don't want to read,

05:14don't want to go to the gym, don't want to learn swimming. The campus has these facilities. Am I

05:23mistaken? You do have these things. But very few people are going to use them. I'm coming from my

05:30experience from IIT and IIM. A swimming pool is there. Kabir Singh is busy smoking. Why learn

05:40swimming? And having swallowed gallons of beer, Kabir Singh is now like this. Why visit the gym?

05:53Somebody talked about the philosophers. There is no place for philosophers in our education system.

06:02I suppose he named Kant and Hegel and Voltaire. I'm pretty sure these would be just names to most

06:10of you. Why don't you use your time reading them? Spending time with them is much much

06:20better than spending time in your worthless group. It's alright to be a loner sometimes.

06:28If great things can be done only in solitude, it's alright then to be solitary. If you find

06:35a great friend, wonderful. If you don't find a great friend, be alone and do what is right.

06:41And these seniors, please be very cautious of them. Who do you call as a senior? Like a fellow

06:54one year ahead of you? He is still a kid. He is pampering himself being called a senior. How are

07:04you a senior dude? What makes you a senior? Senior is a big word. But then that's what you do as

07:14juniors or freshers. You rush to the so-called seniors. And the senior himself is a big idiot.

07:20And he is dispensing free advice. I'll tell you. I'll tell you how to live. If you have to learn

07:28how to live, why not go to Plato or Socrates? Why go to your senior? Or is your senior above

07:34Socrates? But the senior indeed pretends as if I have all the funda. Come to me. Bol fache kya

07:43mata? Thank you, sir.

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