What can I do?

What can I do to make you love me

What can I do to make you care

What can I say to make you feel this

What can I do to get you there

English as a language has the capability of expressing several nuances of a word, phrase or a sentence. We often talk about half glass full or half glass empty, representative of an optimistic or a pessimistic outlook respectively while using the said phrase. And there are several such instances that add to the richness of English.

“What can I do?” is a simple sentence and most of us have used it often in our day to day dealings to express helplessness or despondency. While at times it possibly is the correct representative of one’s state or position (if there is a state of severe drought I cannot produce water to overcome such a state), it at times could also be reflective of shirking one’s responsibility.

On the other hand the expression, “What can I do?” also has positivity woven around it. It’s the same good feeling we get when an Air Hostess attending to our bell call comes running and politely asks us, “What can I do?”. And there are scores of examples of ordinary folks going beyond the call for their normal duties and asking, “What can I do?”. We all know about school students and ordinary citizens collaborating to clean Versova beach or a village in Maharashtra responding to “Swachch Bharat” call and making their village the cleanest in the entire state and I can go on and on quoting such real life instances. Even for the above drought example, though I am not capable of producing water through chemical synthesis, I can definitely contribute in reducing the gravity through more prudent use of and by conserving water!

Let’s not use the expression “What can I do?” to shirk our responsibilities or convey our helplessness but try and empower ourselves by asking “What can I do?” for the betterment of our society and country.