There is a breed of people who warm the
cockles of my heart. This breed is rare and this feeling is rarer still.
Usually, in my experience (at least in India), people
tend to make a virtue of diplomacy. In any given situation, it is considered a
good thing to pass over anything unpleasant, turn a blind eye to anything
inconvenient, let sleeping dogs lie, maintain the status quo, avoid ruffling
any feathers, … you get the drift? The idea is to flow with the current and be
a picture of ‘positivity’— and like positivity is a positive word, all those
other actions just listed are deemed to contribute towards the ‘positive’. The
trouble is, sometimes, the price for short-term positivity is long-term good.
By pretending things are hunky dory in the present, one ends up averting a situation momentarily, but it is like sweeping dirt under the carpet because one
does not like the sight of dirt, instead of taking the dirt head-on and
throwing it out of the house. It is taking the easy or cowardly way out.
It takes a lot of courage and a commitment
to a goal higher than one’s personal goodwill to stand up for one’s
convictions, even at the cost of being proved wrong, being proved a fool, being
the one toppling the nice apple cart. Maybe some apples would fall now but one
may actually manage to save the cart in the long run. Not everybody would see
it that way though, and therein lies the risk.
Now, coming to that rare breed of people…
It is indeed a rare breed that will hold on
to and speak up for what they believe in in spite of the risks, a rare breed
that will be answerable to the purpose to which they have committed themselves
to…rather than the dictats and diplomacies of the world… but it is not them I
talk about.
I talk about that other rare breed … the
ones who appreciate honesty and sincerity of purpose rather than blind service.
The ones who actually urge ‘honesty to one’s self and one’s conscience’ where
the common run of people will tell you to ‘just do what is said’. The ones who will
make you feel that you did right, and that your actions are a reward unto
themselves.
I owe a lot to this breed… may their tribe
increase!
posted by Sylvia D'souza at 9:56 am
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