Wielding his pen dipped in vitriol and still going strong at 96, Khushwant Singh in today's newspaper remarks on the strange contradiction of a nation that boasts of Gandhi as its greatest icon and also takes great pride in showing off its military muscle in public pageants (as on Republic Day in New Delhi). He sums up by saying that 'India is not the land of Gandhi, it is the land of humbuggery'.
Which reminded me of a schoolboy who recently told me his teachers had taken away the offer to let him speak before the assembly because he had demurred at needlessly buttering up an ex-principal by calling him a 'great' man ( though it is common knowledge that the teachers and the entire student body almost without exception privately despise the man in question, and in any case he has not left any significant achievement behind).
Not only are we humbugs, we elders as teachers and parents insist that the children in our charge must grow into humbugs too! Otherwise, our 'glorious civilization' will be in danger...
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4 comments:
khuswant Singh's latest two books are a delight to read :"absolute khuswant" and "the sunset club" , the latter being a bit too erotic. in both the books he hammers one point in my mind , that India is a land full of mind boggling contradictions .one such contradiction in this 'land of Gandhi' is that we are supposed to be the peace loving people in the world(most of the peace keeping portfolios in the UN are held by Indians) but we love fights and quarrels ,be it on streets or at home !
I'm glad you put this up alongwith the link, Suvro da. I especially like that bit where Khushwant Singh says that even he sits with rapt attention to see the same bit every year. I remember I watched it with great pride as a kid. The Republic Day parade, I mean, and later on I couldn't help but swell with pride whenever someone else was watching even though I would mumble and mutter under my breath. "Bah Humbug" fits well.
Good for the school boy who "had demurred..." Reminds me of one of those old songs in the Carmel song book: 'It takes courage to dare..."
I rather liked glancing through this entry in wikipedia on 'humbug'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humbug
Thank you once again. I was waiting for a post here.
Shilpi
P.S: The last little joke on the Khushwant Singh column - I think I will use in a class on deviance...after providing a context.
P.P.S: I didn't know that Gandhi's favourite song was "Lead Kindly Light"....
A lot of times, a lot of people use the word 'great' in so loose a sense that it makes me cringe in disgust! Greats come and go only once in a few hundred years. What would we call the likes of Vivekananda and Spinoza and Socrates and Hemingway and Madam Curie if we have to call SRK and Sachin Tendulkar and the ex principal in question great. It is not only beyond the limits of flattery to use the word 'great' in this case, it is also strange that someone in his right mind can actually feel flattered by it. Even if someday, in some extreme case, an obsequious individual uses the word to describe me to win a favour (I must stress here though that such a situation is highly unlikely) I would fell like a complete idiot.
Our fate hangs in precarious balance. Unless we learn to measure men, how are we going to progress?
Sayan Datta
The situation is no better in 'developed' countries either. Sucking up to your superiors is an essential part of everyday living. The more comfortable people are with being two faced, the more rewarded they are. Those who do not participate in this essential ritual need to adjust their expectations with respect to appreciation for their work or career growth of any sort. We are indeed a race of humbugs.
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