Friday, October 4, 2013

Beware those titles

The very mention of titles probably remind you of "Sir" and "Lord" if you are inclined to aristocracy. If you are more inclined to movie stars - especially the South Indian version - you probably are thinking of "Super Star", "Supreme Star" and the like. There are reasons to beware of such things too but that is not the subject matter of the thesis here. (Of course thesis! And I expect a doctorate out of it, mind it!)

Let us first consider what deification means. Ram cannot be an ordinary mortal - he is the incarnation of Vishnu. This conferring of godhood makes it easy on all of us. We do not need to be affectionate and obedient sons, loving brothers or faithful to our wives. Gods can be thus but we are mere mortals. On the other hand, though, we can doubt our wives at the drop of a hat citing Ram (When even the god Ram did it how do you expect a mere mortal like me to abstain?) conveniently forgetting that, unlike him, we are not juggling the welfare of our society with the welfare of our wife. So, conferring godhood on Ram ensures that we do not have to live up to the virtues that he embodied.

This country keeps creating problems for us, however. We deify Ram and ensure that we have no troubling thoughts about being worse than we ought to be and it springs a Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on us. Now, come on, non-violence and Truth? Getting beaten up without retaliation and still fighting injustice? Starvation? Well - that was a bit too much to expect us to do. So, heck, We christen him "Mahatma". Problem solved. Now if anyone catches us in a lie, "I am no mahatma, merely an ordinary mortal". If I walk away from injustice on the streets, why should I be expected to do otherwise? I am no Mahatma.

We have now the solution to all such inconvenient folks who show us uncomfortable things like values in life. The one thing we have ensured is that we have made goddesses out of our women. Goddesses exist to grant the needs of mere mortals, after all. Mere mortals cannot give anything to goddesses, can they? So, very neatly, we ensured that they did everything for us and we had no reason to do anything for them. And they also had to maintain the dignity we vested on goddesses - in dress and deportment, didn't they?

So, now you know. If there is anyone around you who makes you uncomfortable with his value systems - don't rail at him. Just bestow a title on him - that will absolve you of all the need to feel guilty about not living up to those moral standards. And, for Heaven's sake, avoid any title like a plague. It is too constricting a life living up to a title.

46 comments:

  1. Well said Suresh Sir! We find ways to justify our wrong-doings by proclaiming that we ain't God, Mahatma or the likes. Whereas the God, the Mahatma were all real human beings and they just fought their own conscience before anyone else. Their determination is what helped them succeed. And we sitting here just wish another Mahatma to come and clean up the system for us.

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    1. Thanks! That is the problem with calling people 'Mahatma'. We think it is not possible for us to live that life or become that sort of person.

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  2. True,living up to a title is difficult.We look for alibis to hide our weaknesses and continue with our crooked schemes.
    But even being 'human' today is a title.

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    1. The 'human' title we readily bestow on anyone walking on two feet. Why even those incestuous rapists of young children are 'human' - they have 'human' rights!

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    2. That is a rare insight-why should animals deserve human rights?

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    3. I always felt so. That if you were law-abiding there is no concern for your human rights. You suddenly acquired human rights if you committed a heinous crime. You can happily be allowed to starve to death as a good man without anyone lifting a finger but hanged to death as a rabid rapist? Oh! No! God Forbid!

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  3. How true is this...escapism, really! We find all sorts of ways to shrug responsibility. This is an insightful post...well said :)

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    1. Thanks! Well, at times, humor slips and Gandhi Jayanti triggered off some raw thoughts :)

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  4. Rajya Sabha MPs, Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award winners...heck, the President of India - all tokens of deification. All sent 'upstairs' to a higher realm so we can forget about them! Simple.

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  5. Well said Mister Suresh Chandrasekaran, and now that I have give you also a title "Mister" go ahead and live up to the decency, dignity and decorum that the title deserves.

    Just kidding, loved the fact that you also get angry but don't necessarily let the anger affect your posts per se.

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  6. I read through your post and went on nodding me head. But its one of your replies n comments which made me sit up and notice more. The part where you mention even rapists are humans and have human rights. What a day has arrived for civil society no?

    Richa

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  7. Insightful! Guess, blaming titles are one of the easiest routes to retreat back safely into our wonderland.

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    1. We just set people apart and say we cannot emulate them because they are different :)

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  8. "If I walk away from injustice on the streets, why should I be expected to do otherwise? I am no Mahatma" - Leaders don't and can't take this attitude, straight-forward or otherwise.

    There is always a solid demarcation between a leader and a follower. No, politicians need not be leaders always and people need not be followers always.

    Destination Infinity

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    1. Really? I do not necessarily leadership and moral values as indivisible. Hitler was a leader as was Stalin! Leadership is the ability to attract people to follow your path. Morality is the process of adopting the right path. The two are not the same. A moral person need not necessarily possess leadership qualities and a Leader need not necessarily have morals.

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  9. I love sarcasm, my favorite flavour. Enjoyed this post a lot Suresh

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    1. Thanks Ritu! I venture into the realms of sarcasm but rarely :)

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  10. Enjoyed thoroughly. Bestowing titles is often the first step of a strategy to destroy a person. To some extent, the problem lies in the fact that we are unable to see the true scope of our abilities and purpose. We hold the heavens and the hells within us, and are free to choose where we come from (and where we are headed too I guess). The darkness is so much more comfortable and appealing to the masses and the senses, that we choose to let the divinity be. Am I just gloating or is your post-fifty post getting more philosophical?

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    1. Ah! Subhorup! I have written a lot of direct philosophy as well. Quite a few of my humor posts are actually philosophy in disguise. It is only that, sometimes, the disguise slips :)

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  11. How true! Titles are bestowed for the virtues displayed. It makes me sneer though, at the political posters eulogising the 'leaders' by the sycophant 'chelas'.

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  12. You are the lard and mustard of us humble bloggers

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    1. Now that is a title that is apt - particularly the 'lard' part for anyone who has seen me :) (Of course, I also know what title has been adapted to suit my girth :) )

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  13. I once started to write a post, though I never completed it. I knew a secret that has been in the open since the beginning of time. It was titled 'How to destroy a champion'. And now you've made a thesis out of it. Shucks!

    :)
    Blasphemous Aesthete

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    1. Wow! See - most of the time it is only a question of who gets to print first :)

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    2. And you beat me by a millennia I guess :P

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    3. Or by a nano-second :) Who knows? :)

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  14. Nice observation and thesis, Suresh. Titles do rope you in in certain obligations.

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  15. Quite the preacher you have become, and I mean well! As a child, I used to hate 'Chashmuddin'!

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    1. Alack and Alas! Looks like celebrating my 50th has turned me into a "Bete! Sun! Zindagi ki yeh reet hai" type :)

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  16. A common comparison when some female goes out of her way and tries to help someone is ' y are you doing all this ? Want to become the next Mother Teresa ? ' we are okay with lauding someone unrelated to us. The rest need to be ' mere mortals' . Well put Suresh

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  17. absolutely.
    ,once wrote on social media that the media is actually harming Rahul Gandhi by terming him YUVRAJ,CROWN PRINCE etc...but i was misunderstood

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  18. This is so true Suresh.
    At the end of one of the blog posts I was reading recently (about the need for sexual freedom in India), I had an argument with a guy who told me a woman cannot exercise such freedom, while a man can cause women are akin to goddesses and such behavior isn't befitting. While a man can, cause he's nothing like God.
    Your post reminded me of that. I love the subtle humor that's all over ur writing.

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    1. Thanks, Ashwini! We try to fit in people into exalted images either to absolve ourselves of the need to live up to those values OR to stifle them in a behavioral construct.

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