There is a story that once the Goddess of good fortune - Sridevi - and the Goddess of misfortune - Moodevi - appeared in front of a Brahmin asking him which of them was the more beautiful. The Brahmin was frightened. Obviously, he wanted the former to stay with him but, if he called Moodevi beautiful, Sridevi may get angry and go away from him. The problem with making Moodevi angry was not that she would go away but that she would not.
And then he had his Eureka moment. "O Divine Goddess Sridevi! You look the more beautiful when you are coming. And O most awesome Moodevi! You look the more beautiful when you are leaving." Which pleased both Goddesses and, of course, they wanted to appear at their most beautiful to the Brahmin and thus...
Anyway, I remembered this tale thanks to some recent incident. About many people singing paeans about an unsung genius. That has always been intriguing to me - what IS an unsung genius?
I mean, yes, I am hearing people singing of him, which is why I at all know about him, so how is he 'unsung'? AH! You mean he was unsung while he lived and all these songs are getting sung ONLY after he passed away? Somewhat like Moodevi's beauty, his genius shines through only after he is gone? Else, you could well have sung it all when he was alive and made him a 'sung' genius!
To be sure, there is a lot of static in the world...and even those who genuinely sang his praises while he was around could not be heard above all that noise. Especially because the mikes are thrust into their faces and the loudspeakers are at full volume ONLY after he has passed away, so in his lifetime their voices are as effective as a lark singing in a gale-storm. In other words, media gives you space for it only when it becomes NEWS!
There is also that other thing. It is easier to praise someone dead. HE is no longer competition...not necessarily in your own field but generally in what we call success. It makes you feel all warm and selfless when you do it, without the concomitant niggle of finding him grow bigger than you and having yourself compared to your detriment with him.
Of course, it also very difficult to acclaim a genius when he is alive. Much easier to pull down someone since, after all, perfection is only given to divinity and, being ordinary mortals, there will always be some imperfection in our work to peg the criticism on. To praise - especially against the run of things - is to prepare to defend any and all such imperfections and it takes a very courageous and confident person to do that. Much easier, again, to praise after someone is dead...Nil nisi bonum and all that and so there will not be many who will oppose your praise then.
Perhaps, just perhaps, there is also something in the way that humans are wired that to add to the stature of someone they do not know, even when it costs them nothing, seems like profligacy. We can be all praise for people we love, and people we call our friends, where we feel the likelihood of shining by reflected glory but a rank stranger? "What is in it for me?" Except, of course, when the rank stranger IS already celebrity when we will gladly add ourselves to the fan following, talk of how you KNEW he was a genius even when he was sucking on his all-day sucker...
The words 'Unsung genius', 'Unsung hero'...anything with that damn 'unsung' in front sticks in my throat. It is a matter of shame that there should be a genius or hero or whatever and he should BE unsung. There is something very wrong about the rush to sing it in the Obits, especially when the first time you raised your voice in song IS in the Obits. It is a black mark on Society that it has failed to recognize and reward its geniuses...and lost not only what they could have offered but also lost ten others who may otherwise have followed their footsteps.
Yes, all of us have our lives to lead and so, yes, we probably do not have the time to render compositions in praise of others. Fine...but why waste the time in the hypocrisy of raising an unmusical ruckus after the chap is dead, when you couldn't care less about whether he was alive when he was?
It is, maybe, that we prefer to keep them unsung so that we can all proudly sing in chorus when they die...
Of course, it also very difficult to acclaim a genius when he is alive. Much easier to pull down someone since, after all, perfection is only given to divinity and, being ordinary mortals, there will always be some imperfection in our work to peg the criticism on. To praise - especially against the run of things - is to prepare to defend any and all such imperfections and it takes a very courageous and confident person to do that. Much easier, again, to praise after someone is dead...Nil nisi bonum and all that and so there will not be many who will oppose your praise then.
Perhaps, just perhaps, there is also something in the way that humans are wired that to add to the stature of someone they do not know, even when it costs them nothing, seems like profligacy. We can be all praise for people we love, and people we call our friends, where we feel the likelihood of shining by reflected glory but a rank stranger? "What is in it for me?" Except, of course, when the rank stranger IS already celebrity when we will gladly add ourselves to the fan following, talk of how you KNEW he was a genius even when he was sucking on his all-day sucker...
The words 'Unsung genius', 'Unsung hero'...anything with that damn 'unsung' in front sticks in my throat. It is a matter of shame that there should be a genius or hero or whatever and he should BE unsung. There is something very wrong about the rush to sing it in the Obits, especially when the first time you raised your voice in song IS in the Obits. It is a black mark on Society that it has failed to recognize and reward its geniuses...and lost not only what they could have offered but also lost ten others who may otherwise have followed their footsteps.
Yes, all of us have our lives to lead and so, yes, we probably do not have the time to render compositions in praise of others. Fine...but why waste the time in the hypocrisy of raising an unmusical ruckus after the chap is dead, when you couldn't care less about whether he was alive when he was?
It is, maybe, that we prefer to keep them unsung so that we can all proudly sing in chorus when they die...
BRILLIANT!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sampat
DeleteNamaste Suresh sir,
ReplyDeleteIs this post related to the passing away of Vijay Nambisan sir?
Thanks,
Mahesh
Yes, Mahesh! How did you know? From my TL on FB? He was in the same school as I, one batch after mine.
DeleteYes, Suresh Sir, from the FB post only. I was not aware of Vijay sir at all. The past week saw me reading articles on various websites and obituaries by various people that spoke of his poetic genius. I also read his National Award-winning poem "Madras Central". A picture of someone strangely familiar came to my mind. I am looking to get the books he has authored - One on Bihar, the other on the translation of the Narayaneeyam and his anthology of poetry. I also discovered Kavery ji's blog. Her writing also touched a chord. It is truly tragic that there are so many poets and novelists from India writing in English, quality stuff that we are not at all aware of!
DeleteThanks,
Mahesh
You know, Mahesh, I cannot appreciate poetry so I cannot myself assess Vijay's genius. I was angry because so many people who actually thought he was a genius, so many newspapers who thought it needful to carry pieces about him did it only after his death. Certainly, a few would have also voiced it when he was alive but the majority...and what I read of him, he lost belief in the importance of his poetry through a major part of his life. THAT is the tragedy I lay at the door of the silence of these people when he was alive.
DeleteThanks much Suresh....This writing voices the rage in me very well...One of the "songs" we heard well described the challenges and how the genius shined in spite of it. Those of us who knew the genius can take solace in having seen the genius in the making first hand.... After all, the true genius is seldom a marketeer...
ReplyDeleteIt is a sad world we live in, Kumar. Being able to do no more than rage...in vain.
DeleteSometimes reality is brutal ....but with poetry geniuses do it because they love it and enjoy it irrespective if how the world treats them...hope this gentleman enjoyed it irrespective of how the world sung
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understood, he gave up on poetry as being not important for quite a period before he got back to it later in life.
DeleteWe generally tend to assume that a genius necessarily finds solace in doing his thing regardless of feedback. THAT is too sweeping a generalization. I will remind you of a story of...was it the Panchatantra?..the author found the king unreceptive, went back and started burning his work. Art requires sensitivity in the artiste...and sensitivity does mean that the artist can get severely wounded by lack of appreciation.
The fact that the dead are no competition, is definitely an interesting thought on why people who never look at someone when the person was alive, sing praises when they die..
ReplyDeleteThanks Asha
Delete