Monday, February 22, 2016

Lost and floundering

"All you Brahmins are like this."

I heaved a sigh of relief. So, I was not responsible for my actions, then. After all, if what I am was genetically coded into me from birth, could anyone hold me responsible for being who I am or acting as I did?

Apparently, they could. It was one of the earliest lessons in human relations for me and one I have still not fully internalized. If I had committed what my cohorts thought was a behavioral crime, it was quite possible that those criminal tendencies got attributed to my nationality, caste, community, state whatever, but that still did not absolve me of my own responsibility. Hmmm! Hardly seemed worth having a convenient community to blame things on, if this is how it worked. I mean, if I have to shoulder the guilt and blame for what anyone from that group had done since the dawn of life to date, it is only fair that I am, at least, relieved of personal responsibility, isn't it? Something on the lines of, "Poor chap! He cannot help acting the way he does, after all, since he was born so-and-so." Not happening.

Just as I was getting myself accustomed to this strange unfairness of life (Yeah! I know everyone says, 'Who says Life is fair?' but that does not mean that you readily digest the idea. Stupid to think that knowing something makes it palatable. It is not as though the fact that you know Chennai is particularly sultry in Summer makes you feel any more comfortable to be there, then), Life throws a curve-ball at me.

"Ah! You IIM guys can never really understand these things."

Huh! What now? One year back, it was alright for me to discuss the thusness of economics in India and say whatever I wanted. Now, just because I had spent a year at IIM (I would have said 'studied' but I am afraid of my mates and professors calling me a liar), I was suddenly someone incapable of seeing things, except in the IIM way, whatever that was. It is as though the place we study works on the raw dough of our personalities and turns out perfectly uniform cookies and, thus, the student of one becomes incapable of seeing the point of view of the student of another. (Maybe I was the exceptional lump of pre-hardened dough. That would explain why, whenever I say I passed out of IIM, people give me that peculiar look that as good as says that they are too polite to call me a liar to my face.) Either that, or it is that same thing of having to carry the collective guilt - which is the sum of all the individual guilt of all past students of IIM, as seen by Society. (Oh! What about virtues, you ask? I refer you to Bill Shakespeare - 'The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.') So, effectively, if I am from IIM, I was supposed to venerate the corporate and look down on the rest.

"What do you city guys, in your comfortable air-conditioned offices, know about the farmer's problems?"

My God! You just digest one thing and the next thing socks you in the face. Whatever was I going to say to this? Now I was also expected to achieve some sort of uniformity with all these millions of guys who live in my city or, even, with all those tens of millions of people living in all the cities of the world? Tough ask - especially since I would also have to carefully leave out people like this guy, who also lived in a city but was endowed with a mystic understanding of the farmer's problems that elude the rest of us city-slickers.

Needless to say, I find myself lost and floundering in this world of ours. Something has been royally messed up in my make-up, I suppose, since I do not seem to have the collective persona of all those things I am - TamBrahm, IIM grad, city-living etc etc. It seems as though every single cookie-cutter that I passed through has broken its teeth on me without making the slightest impression on my personality.

AND, of course, I have absolutely no perspicacity. I mean these guys know how Brahmins think and behave - without being Brahmins, themselves. They know how IIM guys react - without necessarily passing through IIM. And I, poor mutt that I am, have no clue about how a farmer feels because I am no farmer.

When I am at the Pearly Gates, I have a serious complaint to make.

And God will probably say...

"Oh! You mortals are all like this."

18 comments:

  1. Ohhh, poor you and poor all of us! Forever floundering in an attempt to find our mettle and being tagged misfits in the attempt, story of our lives. I'd like to think we are extraordinary, feels better, when your attempts at doing run-of-the-mill chores is tagged as being different...so be it! Different=Unique!

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    1. Yeah - so what if it is uniquely crazy in that we do not think that people can be so easily typecast :)

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  2. Hahaha Very witty and sharp, Suresh. Indeed, one is doomed either way. Apparently, we are all clueless.

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    1. Nice to have lots of great company in my cluelessness :)

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  3. You bloggers are all like this Suresh! ;D

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  4. I really like the way you ended. It is just too mortal-like to be lost in this crazy world of ours! There was a time when people said - read and learn and you will know. Now the more we read, the more we feel lost! The more we discuss, the less sure we feel. And maybe that in itself is the sign of hope. No? At least I would like to hope so.
    I always admire the way you say such profound things in such humorous way. Wish I had a teeny-tiny bit of that talent :)

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    1. It can be a sign of hope, provided we do not always assess the opinions of others purely based on typecasting then based on the background of the one who says :)

      Thanks for the compliment Beloo.

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  5. I can imagine St Peter looking at you and rolling his eyes, but exactly what attribute would tick him off? All us mortals are like what?

    Funny, maybe? I doubt if anybody jokes around in heaven.

    Famished? I am told that there is a permanent banquet table laden with food, like a five-star, 24/7 buffet. Free, of course.

    Horny? Well, from what I know of heaven, you can't do much about that. You don't have any physical form, y'see. :D

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  6. What are we without our sweeping generalisations? :D Lovely piece, Suresh!

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    1. Hahaha - true Percy! Without them we may be forced to think for ourselves :)

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  7. Ha...ha...too good!! God help the psychology of generalization.

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    1. AND God help us as long as we keep on with this psychology :)

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  8. Well that is how people are and will continue to be I guess. They even beat up people based on these generalizations. An African runs down a woman and the mobs set out to teach all these 'bloody Africans' a lesson, even the ones not even remotely connected to the incident.

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    1. THAT's the point and that, unfortunately, is our sticking point too :)

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  9. Aha ! You bloggers are all like this ;) Now I can say that as I am a blogger and therefore ought to know the essence of that, but I would never say that would I :D I would say, oh you Humor Bloggers are all like this ! Or you Humor bloggers who are bachelors are all like this. It's something that never escapes you. You Indians or you Tamilians.

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    1. Slice it far enough and there would only be a population of one to suit - me :)

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