What is freedom? Is it a state-of-mind? A physical, social or personal reality? A perception that can be manipulated? On Independence Day, I asked some of the writers and readers of Unboxed Writers what their idea of freedom was. For some it was an intensely personal state-of-being. For others, it was a hard-won right to exist in a society where some are more free than the others.

Art writer Poonam Goel said, “Freedom to me, is to be able to say,’no,’ to emotional and physical manipulation, to arm-twisting, hypocrisy, dishonesty.”  Not an easy thing to do for women who are always expected to go with the flow than to question it. To fit into moulds rather than break them.

Writer Sonali Karande Brahma added, “Freedom is to choose my priorities and not base them on someone else’s. In the professional space, freedom is the right to choose people I work with; in the personal space, to choose the way I would lead my life right from what time I want to wake up in the mornings to what time I will go to bed, to what I read, watch, whom I am friends with, where I go, the clothes I wear, the things I buy, the traditions, customs I follow/or not.”

Brahma’s words are powerful and poignant especially because women in just about any society would find it impossible to have all the little freedoms that she longs for. Women  are bound by expectations, duties, deadlines at home and at work, dress codes and cannot always choose their friends, the time or the manner of  their leisure and to decide just how much tradition is too much for them.

Bali Sanghvi, a young mother of twins and a writer has a more introspective view when she says, “Freedom, I feel is a state of mind. If you can free yourself of all negativity and hatred, then you are free. To have control over your life, mind and attitude rather than letting them control you..to live each day with honesty, integrity and simplicity, to be able to distinguish good from the bad, to be humble despite your success, to be a good human being rather than a human ‘been’…that is freedom.”

Maybe personal accountability can sort both inner and outer realities and as Sonia Sant who has seen corporate success and is now a life and career coach opines, “My take on freedom is the feeling of lightness where one has the ability to flow like the leaf in the wind with no constraints. That clear space within which feels  no threat of being controlled by what happens around.”

But she realises, the world also must respect the idea of a woman who is free within. She adds, “Above all as a woman in this real world, freedom is to be able to walk on the roads, travel in trains without being felt by an elbow, without the fear of being kidnapped, raped or mugged. As a woman I want that feeling to be able to walk in freedom.”

Poet, writer, RJ Priya Ganapathy quips, “Freedom is a wide open road with no signboards.” She would know because she has always walked her own  path and creatively challenged herself without worrying about security nets.

PR  entrepreneur Saleela Kappan says,”Freedom to me is being able to stand up and speak my mind against things that bother me/society at large without thinking about the repercussions.”

Photographer Krishanu Chatterjee who quit a conventional career to chase the dream of photography says, “The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom…courage. ”

Young writer and passionate traveller Averil Nunes summed up, “The freedom to say NO any time/ any place/ to any one makes you free to say YES.”  To yourself. Your choices. Your path rather than the one chosen for you.  This Independence Day, we wish all our readers the freedom to agree, disagree. And to choose a life of intention. Not obligation. Of volition.   Not repetition.

Reema Moudgil is the author of  Perfect Eight (http://www.flipkart.com/b/books/perfect-eight-reema-moudgil-book-9380032870?affid=unboxedwri )