Forgetful fame

There are times when I really do not want to write on a topic. I mean, like, if you loved sweets what would you feel about writing about the 'devil sugar'? Or, when you have always boasted about how you are the world's greatest procrastinator, how would it suit for you to be waxing eloquent about a stitch in time saving nine? It is times like that when you feel you missed out on the greatest of human characteristics - Hypocrisy!

What set off that diatribe is coming across this kural from Tiru...

Pochchaappuk kollum pughazhai arivinai nichcha nirappukkon draangu - Tirukkural

Just as poverty destroys knowledge, forgetfulness will destroy one's fame - Loose Translation

You can understand how a person who opens the refrigerator and keeps wondering about what he intended taking out from it...such a person wondering about whether he has a right to be talking about how bad forgetfulness is.

By the way, Tiru is not against the poor. Rather, he makes the point that living in continuing poverty is what keeps them concentrating on the getting of food to the exclusion of any acquisition/retention of knowledge. AND, just as poverty destroys knowledge, forgetfulness will destroy your fame in his opinion.

Actually, elsewhere in these pages, I have mentioned how fame itself may cause forgetfulness. To win fame is to achieve a significant amount of success. THAT success can cause you to forget a lot of things. You may forget those who supported you in your dark times till you achieved this success; you may forget those who were also instrumental in the achievement of this success; you may forget to do the things necessary to KEEP the success once you achieved it. (Like, come on, if you achieve a market success with a product, you think you can just coast on it forever?) and so on.

In other words, forgetfulness can put you on the accelerated slippery slope back to failure. Even if you do retain enough acumen to sustain your financial success, your forgetfulness about people may leave you leading a barren life with none to consider close to you. And THAT, believe me, will eventually feel like failure to you, no matter how many strangers may laud your every tweet. The biggest of failures is to not have a single person to lean back on if you fail.

Tiru is not talking of how you forgot where you left your glasses or your inability to remember the day of the week. He is talking about forgetting the more important things in life. Mislaying friends not mislaying things; forgetting to thank, not forgetting the date; and so on.

THAT forgetfulness could well result in your fame being forgotten by the world. So there.