Our stories are disproportionately woven around non-conformism.

Recall, Vijay, the angry young man in Deewar, played by Amitabh Bachchan. Vijay doesn’t conform to social norms. Vijay doesn’t think twice before bashing the union goons. He refuses to enter a temple and wishes to chart his own destiny. Vijay is a non-conformist. And so is Tony Soprano, the protagonist from Sopranos, a popular crime Drama on HBO.

Then there are stories of good men turning bad. The transition from conformism to non-conformism. Recall Walter White in Breaking Bad and Edward Norton in Fight Club. Or that odd villain in Spider-Man comics who happened to be a law-abiding citizen until life happened.

But that is the reel life. Real life is a bit different. Conformism is linked to growth. Perhaps the next promotion. Or conform to the work culture. And we conform until one fine day we no longer feel like conforming. The Vijay in all of us wakes up and challenges the norms and behaviors we are obliged to stick to.

This is where transitions happen, our life stories happen. No one writes about ardent conformists unless you are a Batman.

On a lighter note, Batman is a conformist. You can be interesting as a conformist too, as long as you fight the non-conformists, have a Bat mobile, and own Wayne Corp.