2 lives in 12 hours

 

It can only be cruel coincidence that two lives, one making local headlines and the other national, would be lost. Suicides, both of them. Third of June, midday, a young boy, pursuing medicine, undergoing first year examinations, hung himself in his hostel room. Few hundred kilometres away in Mumbai, an actress, in the midnight, does the same in her house.

Do not we feel sad about suicides? Do we, perceivably ‘strong’ people, tag it as an act of a ‘weak’ person who could not handle the pressure? We ask reasons for suicides, and more often than not, emerges that word which is synonymous with suicide – failure.

Life is beautiful. It is a privilege to live. To share cup of tea with parents, laugh with friends, cry on shoulders, see movies, help others, create something, have a home, love, hate, express, feel, get hurt, rise, quarrel, gossip, enjoy, curse...and countless, truly endless range of emotions, of all hues, is possible only when exists life.

But we are deeply conditioned for something else too, something that like a creeper runs with life, it co exists, it flowers too, it makes life look beautiful to everyone including oneself – and that is to succeed. Success is the cornerstone of our lives. One sperm succeeded in bringing us to lives is true, but do we have to attach that attribute to everything else? School, education, relations, work, society, and everything and everywhere else, there is only one road to take – the road to success.

And it is under this aura of success that failure appears as the ultimate curse. It is a poison. Lack of success is frowned upon, cursed at, humiliated, and above all not accepted. It is this lack of acceptance, be it by parents, by friends, by partner, by the grading system, by the society, that exerts immense pressure on an individual.

A rope of coir, plastic, steel will have different snapping points. Does not every chemical have different boiling points? Do not we all have different emotions, different ways of reacting towards every situation? We do. But despite being different in all aspects, we expect the same formula of success, same medicine to fit all, suit all and also be effective for all. Herein we miss the point.

Do we fathom the amount of frustration, the furlongs list of failure that would have taken to take that decision, that decision to finish it all, that decision to leave the comforts of a mothers hug or a fathers pat, that decision to sit with friends, read a book, stroll on the beach, or how ironic but that decision to stop thinking!

It is thoughts which needs addressing, which needs to be pondered upon. Thoughts of parents to begin with; for what are the right amount of pressure for the child or the lack of it. Thoughts for education systems, the harbinger of grades and thus comparisons, to evaluate if they are not providing vents in this rat race. Thoughts for society; for what is definition of success and how do we deal in the face of lack of it.

Suicides are waste of valuable lives. Those lives could have been existent, laughing or crying, for a life cannot be only filled with laughter or mired with mirth. The boy would have become a doctor, helping others live; the actress could have entertained others, helping others live. But instead the lives were cut short, by themselves, both in a span of 12 hours. Cruel.

Meiyappans & Maoists

                    

Two headlines that shared news space over the last couple of days were the audacious attack and cruel killing of Congress leaders and party workers by Maoists in Chhattisgarh and the arrest of Chennai Super Kings team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan on charges of betting and fixing Indian Premier League matches.

The details of both the incidences are more or less known to the public by now. While it can be assumed that the Indian upper middle class and above, youth and GenY, would be well versed with the cricketing debacle, would have debated over it and would have opinions on it, the brutal maoist attack , just news on the ticker and newspapers, would not have evoked responses of the former’s magnitude. However that is not the mainstay of the article.

Maoism is an internal threat, the largest one at that. When the Prime Minister said from the Red Fort that Maoists are our ‘own’ people, many would have questioned the reason for our ‘own’ people becoming dissidents and rebels. Of the variety of causes, one stark cause would be destitution and economic alienation. Not many rich kids become Maoists, do they? Tribes, the landless, oppressed, and also the gullible, anti-nationals, become so.

Abject poverty is a concept that almost all the readers cannot have a deep understanding of. My colleagues do not believe when it is told that people do live on less that Rs 3 a day; and on that basis are classified as below or above poverty line. It is actually unfathomable. But on the other side of the wall when it is brought to our collective notice that Gurunath Meiyappan, an individual, allegedly lost Rs 1 crore (owning fancy yatches too) on betting, it is believable and thought to be part-of-the-game. It is so because it is that world which is familiar to us.

It is the world of these Meiyappans who have concentrated the wealth and with greed are exponentially increasing it. Since money does not grow on trees, there is an imbalance that is created by these people. It needs to be mentioned here that it is not a diatribe against all riche people. In a capitalistic economy (with socialist leanings in government’s policies) everyone has the right and freedom to earn wealth. But when capitalism becomes crony capitalism, it becomes unhealthy and a cancerous growth like that of Maoism today occurs.

The recent attacks are to be condemned; the brutality with which it was conducted is scary; but it should not lead to an ‘eye for an eye’ situation. Heavy handedness of administration is required to crush a revolution but that it has not been achieved after several years shows the complexity and multi dimensionality of the situation. With the military might, the money-might issue needs addressing. In an increasingly evident and felt rich-poor divide, in an increasingly oppressive regime and its cronies, in an increasingly intolerant society, Meiyappans need to be crushed in order to crush the excesses of the Maoists.

To Judge

“The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgement.” Jiddu Krishnamurty

No it’s not a philosophical piece. Well almost not. As the season of college fests, inter and intra college cultural extravaganza, food festivals, and numerous such competitions, etc., come to a close, the time is ripe to reflect upon that one component that is integral to such contests – judging.

The noun judge refers to an official of a court of law whereas the verb judge, about which few following lines shall harp on, means to form an opinion or draw a conclusion about. Since we are all so familiar with the word, synonyms will be redundant, however, assessment, rating, deciding would fit the bill.

As a judge to various competitions since the last four years now, primarily of cultural and literary events, I have witnessed various spectacular performances and disastrous ones too. I have seen as a judge of such events the best possible judgements delivered and controversies raging too.

Judging per se is a fact of life. You may think it as the most unfortunate exercise that has so seriously gripped mankind or think it to be necessary exercise to distinguish the better and best from the rest, depending on which side of the spectrum you believe in. But judged we get right from cradle to grave. But as I told you in the beginning, we shall not delve much into the philosophy of it.

Events such as dance shows, song competitions, street pays, miming, debates, all require judges to decide which person or which team is the best. Though participation spirit is exhorted in each such competition it is more or less that ‘winning’ which is the motivation that drives people to participate. And to do that most-of-the-times difficult job judges are invited.

To circumvent subjectivity about 3 or 5 judges are invited. At the end of the event however a peculiar phenomenon occurs. The usually senior judge, or the one who has greater expertise in the category of event being judged, try to impose their thought on others. Judges huddle up and if a long discussion goes on, it could be because of such a reason.

Another often observed phenomenon is what I should describe as extreme vs. average marking. There will be judges who either shall award extremes of marks affecting the end result extremely or those who would award so similar marks to each participant that it would hardly make a difference in the end. The gold standard however would be to add and average the scores.

Clarity of thought is the most important virtue that a judge should possess. Only that will have clarity in the end result. Judging is an undesirable act many a times. It often leads you to be hated by a section of people, for obvious reasons. And certainly since we are so hardwired and our lives revolve around being judged and to judge, all this shall stay put.

The article originally appeared on manipalblog.com

http://manipalblog.com/2013/05/01/being-a-judge/