Mayank was not that young to allow any momentary lapse of reasoning and take a fleeting
decision. Though 34, his disposition suited a 45-year old. A week earlier, he felt an urge to do
something even at the risk of being labeled hasty and rash. However, coming back from Manali,
he had his mind in poise and clear on what he wished to do and how. The mountains had stoned
the poise in him.
He rang up the reporter who had written the scam story and as he had expected, the reporter had
been handed over transfer orders which would mean he would quit his job.
Reporters are very
reluctant to change their places. It takes years for a reporter to build his contacts and his worth
depends on his contacts.
He could sense a shade of anger building up inside him. Perhaps, his own anger and frustration
with his profession had piled on the incident. As a journalist he had so many issues which he
held dear to his heart and wanted a patient hearing from his editor and owner of the newspaper.
Let alone as a professional; as a social person too he believed he had genuine questions which at
best needed clear answers but at least, he expected sympathetic audience to such questions.
His anger always liberated him. It gave him the energy to vent his feelings, to bring up queries.
He believed that inquisitiveness was a growth sign. He would never allow his simple and
innocuous „why? to wither away. Anger was his critical energy that jolted him out of the inertia
of status quoism that the social milieu around him would often slap on his face. Anger would
give him the energy to extend strong support to his instinctive inquisitiveness by adding the
stubbornness of his determined self.
He used his anger to ascertain that at least things were seen in right perspective. He was always
very clear in his mind about the fact that judgment about a justified action can be postponed but
not the judgment of a justified thought position. A fact will remain a fact even if its practice be
procrastinated or even stopped. What irritated Mayank most was that most people, who were in
the positions from where taking right judgment and that too at the right point of time would
make the world a better place, would simply not do it. The tragedy is that most often, they would
use all power at their disposal to kill the question itself. Naturally, the questioner became first
victim.
For the larger society, rooted in inertia and status quoism, a question is like a poisonous snake.
People with baton of socio-economic and political authority are so panicky of the venom of nonconformity,
which a question has the potential to unleash, that they are quick to thrash its head.
Often, innocuous and well-meaning questions and questioners are killed in the panic over the
threat to peace and order of suitable conformism.
Questions are important. God is the biggest question. The religion is the mother of all questions.
The greatest tragedy of humanity is that today religion smothers more questions than it was
suppose to answer. Regrettable it is that on the name of religion, mediocre and conformist
answers are being forced on masses and many meaningful questions are not even allowed to
breathe.
Since his childhood, Mayank had witnessed his family members stifling questions which he
asked innocently. He would be hushed up and told that it was bad manners.
Often, discipline was
considered the primary virtue and even his innocuous curiosity would be bracketed as
undisciplined behavior. Discipline as the greatest morality was not always acceptable to him as
he saw it as a non-reciprocal tool of outdated notions of societal conformity.
Even later, in his school, in college and in his career, he would be faced with the authoritative
structure that emphasized and enforced discipline, pouncing on any chance to kill even the most
innocent inquisitiveness. A slap would always save the burden of thousands of unconvincing
words for the authority. And why would anyone anyway consider it an authority if it didn?t slap!
This only made him become sure and more confident of the righteousness and justification of his
natural inquisitiveness. The nervousness that he could see his questions generated among those
who were responsible for answers assured him that righteousness was on his side. If not, why
would questions scare? The force with which the authoritative layers attempted to smother
questions only reflected the reality that there was something that they feared the questions would
expose – either their incompetence or ignorance to answer them or the larger hypocrisy of
humanity.
He grew up to the realism that asking question was a greater virtue than giving answers. Keeping
a question alive, not allowing it to die prematurely required a lot of courage, character and
conviction. Almost everyone claimed to have the answers; some of them probably had. Most of
them even fought for their answers to be the only justified one. Many had the authority to impose
answers or the refusal of it on people. Only few however had questions and the courage to stand
them. He realized, if necessity was the mother of inventions, inquisitiveness was the primary
energy behind all inventions, all creations.
He refused the socially popular notion that a question was a sign of weakness as it exposed the
ignorance of the questioner. He learnt it quite early in his youthfulness that a question is sign of
innocence and courage. It required childlike innocence and courage of highest order to rise above
the fear of being labeled an ignorant, to face the taunts of peer group and society to be a duffer,
even retarded. He had made up his mind to always be on the side of questions. He had accepted
that if something had fear in its side, it was good as it would lead to the ultimate truth.
He opted for media as a career primarily because he felt the profession would provide him a
good platform for raising his questions. He also believed media had the responsibility to find the
right answers. He thought he was naturally inclined to be in media as inquisitiveness was the
core character of a good journalist and he had it. He had also learnt that media was feared just
because of its freedom and privilege to ask questions to the high ups and mighty. He chose the
print media, a newspaper, as he always believed in the power of the printed words.
In the first three years of his career in media, he had realized the gap between the fiction and the
fact. Within media, more questions were killed than given life. Media itself killed a lot many
questions as either it would be detrimental to its own economic health or too troublesome to ask.
He learnt it later that this was not a very depressing fact. All goodness has to operate within the
confines of practicality. Idealisms too have to be sustainable. What troubled him however was
that valid questions were being shunned because of sheer ignorance and inflated professional ego
and pride of media people.
Early in his career as a journalist, he asked his chief reporter why he allowed so many crime
stories in local news. Mayank also complained to him that rape stories were being written with
unnecessary graphic details that put victim in very poor light. He showed him a story published a
day back which narrated in detail that the rapist gagged the mouth of the victim with one hand
and that of her small child sleeping beside her with another hand. He then raped her lifting her
sari to her stomach. Mayank told the chief reporter that the story not only was in very poor taste
as it unnecessarily presented graphic details of a heinous crime, it was also factually wrong as
such a chain of incident could never have happened. He reasoned that humans had only two
hands and if two of the hands of the perpetrator of the crime were busy smothering the mouths of
victim and her child, how could he get a third hand to lift the sari of the victim? And more
importantly, was the reporter of the story present at the time of rape to witness that the sari of the
victim was lifted up to her stomach and not beyond? The chief reporter got infuriated and
defended his reporter saying that it was not his fault as what he wrote in his story was the version
he found in the FIR of the rape. „If the police write illogical things in their report, what we can
do? We are only supposed to go by the police records?, the chief reporter said almost yelling at
him. The news editor had intervened and had taken Mayank away who was unwilling to accept
the answer of the chief reporter. He insisted this was not the right answer of his question. The
news editor later on reasoned with him, „Young man, you are still new to the trade. These rape
stories with such colorful details are the flavors of the day, the pick of the stories read by most
readers. These bloody cops too enjoy writing a rainbowishly detailed FIR of the rape. They
would not do it for any other crime. Everyone loves a good rape…I mean a rape story!? Mayank
asked him how was he sure that every reader loved such rape stories? Did he have any research
done or any survey published that confirmed the percentage of readers loving it? The news editor
paused for a moment and then said in an irritated voice, „No survey is required. If I love them as
a journalist, the readers would also love it; that is for sure. Don?t you know; sex sells more than
anything in this world??
Mayank regretted that he worked at a place where even seniors had such inflated sense of ego
and self- importance that they refused to see the larger questions. They could not see the
difference between sex and a rape. They were happy to demolish the huge separating line
between a crime and gratification. No doubt, the basic issue of sanity was relegated to back seat
in media. The common sense inquisitiveness was also a big casualty. Even a kid knows that
humans have only two hands but a zealous journalist has lost even this common sense.
The biggest trouble the media faced, that Mayank could realize as he continued with the
profession, despite the oddities was that most seniors passed on this sick and archaic mentality
and attitude to their juniors. Those who did not like to be part of this stupidity were labeled as
unfits.
He was sure he wanted to confront the question which his anger kept alive and kicking. He
looked at his watch and it was 7 pm. In the balcony of his flat where he lived alone, he could feel
the evening?s youthfulness entering his breathe and he was ready to move to the next step of his
plan.
Mayank?s call at 7 pm had made him understand that he would have to cancel his next morning?s
meeting. Whenever Mayank wanted him for a talk, it would start late evening and end by the
break of dawn. He agreed on the phone that he would head home straight away. Curious as usual,
he had asked Mayank what was the occasion for celebration and he had replied, „I am quitting
my job next morning and whole night we will celebrate?. He had no choice but to rush home.
Before starting his car he called Utkarsh but he was out of town. Utkarsh, he and Mayank were
school friends and formed a trio complementing each other so well for the last 24 years. He
desperately wanted Utkarsh to be with him now and was sure that Mayank too would love to
have him with them. Mayank had indeed called Utkarsh to tell him to join them and knowing
that he was out of town, he had briefed him about his decision to quit his job.
Ashish Sinha, Deputy General Manager, Marketing, Tantra Tele Servic es. His business card
would read. On his profile, on a social networking site, he had uploaded long paragraphs about
him which he could not understand as Mayank had written them for him to attract single girls.
Being a friend of a person like Mayank was not very easy but it came as a package. Mayank
would do a lot of things for him, which he would flaunt as his own and this somehow
compensated the trouble his friendship with Mayank created for him. Five companies, four exgirl
friends and a journey from assistant manager in an FMCG company to Deputy General
Manager in a telecom company in ten years was not a bad CV for Ashish.
“So, angry young man! Finally you have found the villain of your life and you want your anger
to sustain so that you could battle it out with him. But how can your resignation do any harm to
your editor”, Ashish asked, picking up the conversation as he finished his first glass of whisky.
“Who said the editor is my villain and I?m quitting to harm him?”
“No, I mean what I perceive is that you are angry that the editor did not own the crisis and
instead of protecting his reporter he took action against him. I presume this is double
standards...stark hypocrisy.”
“I would rather say my editor is not a habitual hypocrite. Usually, he is very true to what he is; a
single personality at most times.”
“Oh, hypocrisy is out, then what?”
“No, it is not out. I am not trivializing the issue by confining it to an individual. I am talking
about the broad-based system of hypocrisy that has percolated deep down in the thought
processes and even general work culture of media in particular and all organized human
endeavors in general.”
Ashish knew it was best for him to listen as Mayank unfolded his heart and all he could do is to
pick up any inconsistency and contradiction in his view point.
“You know, hypocrisy no doubt is the greatest malaise of humanity. I mean, people of all mental
levels know well what is good, ideal and godly. It is in fact such a huge benefit for humanity that
universal goodness and ideals are so simple to see and understand that even an illiterate can
know them. The learning processes devised by humans and all acquired knowledge actually
facilitate avenues to circumvent and obfuscate the practice of good. Most men and women would
speak of good and ideal of life but they would not put them into action. As a broad rule, more
learned and academically attained a person, more skilled he will be in practicing hypocrisy”.
“Good then; the larger picture you have sketched, leaves nothing very concrete for people like
you and me to do to make a difference”.
Ashish regretted having said that. Thank God, Utkarsh was not there for he had time and again
advised him not to throw blanket statements aiming to kill a conversation when someone,
especially Mayank would be making a point. He remembered Utkarsh telling him one evening,
„When an in- form batsman is scoring runs, the batsman on the other end should just concentrate
on running hard on his call so that the in- form batsman retains most of the strike and does not get
run out before he hits a century?. Little was lost as Mayank probably did not listen to Ashish as
he continued.
“I can say with lots of confidence that hypocrisy is the mother of most ills of our society. It is
hypocrisy that breeds crisis of faith among men and women. It is this huge gap between what we
say and what we actually do that creates the first seed of mistrust. The seed of mistrust bears the
fruit of anger, rivalry, jealousy and a spectrum of negative feelings. It is a vicious cycle; anger
and rivalry in turn feed the mistrust and growing mistrust forces people to become greater and
smarter hypocrites. I am not blaming anyone. My generation is bigger hypocrites than previous
generation because they bequeathed us greater mistrust than what they inherited from their
previous generations.”
Ashish made second glass of whisky for himself as part of his resolve to be a supportive nonstriking
batsman and keeping quiet, he kept his eyes fixed on Mayank?s face.
“You know, sundry hypocrisy that many people often practice because of sheer foolishness is not
dangerous. What I am angry about is the street-smart cunningness of people, especially those
who are authoritatively positioned in society. It is tragic that most people practice hypoc risy on
the name of being practical and in the name of practicality become cunning and justify their
wrong actions. It angers me no end when people boast of being practical and use it as a license to
unleash a series of wrong against humanity and society in general.”
“And the bigger trouble is that such people often land at top positions in society and even the
society makes them its idol”, Ashish added making a philosophical face in an attempt to match
the countenance of Mayank and continued, “Most often, such people become your bosses; my
boss, the general manager is also one such big cunning fox. The amount of intentional lies he has
told in his career so far should be more than the GDP of USA.”
Mayank could not resist a smile and quipped, “What about you?”
“Lo..! What about me! And what can I do? You know it?s a lateral stupidity.
I mean, it?s like
driving on an expressway and you have to drive to the prescribed high speed. You stop and your
ass-bone is splintered into smithereens. It?s a war out there and you make a killing for surviving
and not for fun. You said it yourself that it is a vicious cycle; why blame me?”
“Ashu, I?m not blaming. I understand we all need to be practical. However, just open up to my
humble request that please be alive and alert to each compromise we do. It is practical to make a
compromise out of compulsion but often, people make compromises out of sheer convenience.
And this people make a smart habit and try to sound virtuous, the society very willingly tailing
up to stamp its seal of approval. I firmly believe, if we prune them on the basis of sound moral
auditing points, half of the compromises we make will be found as being made as sheer out of
convenience and not compulsion. If we do away with it, much of the lost faith will be restored.
All we need to do is stop being self-possessed and be open to questions that others have for you.”
There wasn?t much for Ashish to say as he knew it well that Mayank was right. He felt
uneasiness at his heart. This was not unusual as being with Mayank often unleashed such
feelings as he would instill a conflict in him. He wished Mayank would end the conversation or
at least change the topic. That was not to be as Mayank was preparing to deliver more.
“You know Ashu; hypocrisy hits hard the sanity of the system. In the media, we have a crisis at
hand. Why media, all corporations are facing it. Media faces it the most.
We are besieged with
the shortage of good human resource. There are few good hands who know their work well and
they are assets. But they keep moving. Rival houses lure them with better salaries. So, we have
serious sessions on building what they call institutional loyalty. Sermons are issued and
workshops are conducted on enhancing loyalty of human resource towards the company. And on
the other hand, high ups treat them as disposable syringes. Worse off, talent and work
commitment has become cheaper than loyalty. Personal loyalties start getting preferences over
institutional one. And still workshops on loyalty building and enhancing human resource quality
go on. This hypocrisy is so manifest, so crudely and cruelly practiced that all employees can
understand it and that is why they work in complete mistrust. The faith over goodness, especially
at the work places has been lost ages back. Worst still is that there is a reactionary reluctance
among the leadership to the admittance that this trend is annihilating the basic premise of human
resource and sanity of institutionalized work processes.”
Ashish could not resist himself, “You know Monku, I cannot express myself well but I actually
understand this trend better than you. Actually, economics is far greater congregation of idiots
than politics or society. Someone had told me that wherever eight economists would gather, there
will be nine opinions. And if these economists were Indians, you never know; worse off it they
were Americans. I can tell you with conviction because I am also part of the idiosyncrasies of
economics.”
Mayank knew that after three glasses of whisky Ashish would start talking nineteen to the dozen.
As he would start calling him Monk or Monku, it was sure sign of his inhibitions waning away.
He was usually all ears to him on such occasions as he would say things others may label as trash
but Mayank knew, he talked straight out of his heart. He encouraged him to take the crease and
was pleased to see him bat from the non-striker?s end.
“Monk dear, you are a journalist but you are a good man. I am not, I am a beast. I have to be. I
have to see things differently. You have to see things only this way in corporate jungle to
survive. You know, when I see a beautiful woman, I fix my target. I approach her, make all right
investments on her; may be, use a bit of tricks and manly pranks on her and I am not even
ashamed to admit that some of them may not be morally as correct as a man like you could
approve of. But, my target is to take her to the bed as early as possible.
And, I am not bothered
about whether I can do that or not. I can do that and that?s why I am in the business since all
these years. I?ve done that often. However, my success rating depends on how much time I save
reaching the target. This is naked economics. Do it whatever way it takes, but do it fast. You
must have heard, in economics they say, all realities exist in short run only as in the long run we
are all dead.”
Mayank wanted Ashish to play some more swashbuckling strokes and continue his joy at the
non-striking end of the batting pitch.
“Ashu, you are jumping your lines. Are you okay? Take a break. Take some fresh air.”
“No, I?m fine…I am fine”.
“I appreciate your approach to the idea but you need to take one step at a time”.
“Yup Monku…I realize that. See, my point is; we are here for making profit and it?s a hugely
competitive stuff out there. In economics, all realities are countable and we run our companies
on the clear cut operative philosophy of counting it faster than others. We cannot afford long run
aims and ambitions. That is where society and economy see differently.
Human Resource
idealism and institutional ethics etc are all long run things. But in the short run you have to
ensure that you survive to remain alive in the long run.”
As Mayank did not interrupt him, Ashish felt encouraged to go ahead with his views.
“That was why I used this beautiful woman analogy. What society thinks as proper is that the
father of the woman will find a suitable boy for her and he will spend unnecessary money on her
dowry and marriage. And what the suitable boy will do is finally take the woman to the bed. Or,
the woman would waste her youth days finding a lovable guy and struggling to get her family
accept him and the vice versa. After big trouble the love will result in a marriage and even then
the woman would land herself on the bed. Even the law admits that a ma rriage is de jure and
complete only when it is consummated. The countable reality, the pragmatic exactness is; though
it sounds offensive, that the beautiful woman has to be ultimately taken to the bed. Economics
sees the countable end and does not waste time and energy on those processes which society
prescribes as human and just. So, if you see from a different point of view, the hypocrisy has its
origin and support in society. Economics does exactly what it thinks, sees and says. But then,
within economics there is a small society and whatever hypocrisy is being associated with
economics is actually because of this small society within. This human resource bullshit is
actually a confused society within.”
Mayank did not wish to bat longer. He had already decided to declare the innings. He only
wished Ashu could see the larger picture. But he understood that mindset issues were hard to
trickle down fast on the perceptional platform.
Economy globally was facing new process benchmarks and operative principles. Liberalization
changed everything fast. Survival in the open competitive environment was tough and often
cruel. This toughness and cruelty percolated in the work environment within.
He remembered, when he had joined media, both technology and profits were in bad shape but
the work environment was great. Within two-three years, investment made everything at par with
global benchmark but then, the mood and work milieu in the newsroom worsened. The joy of
work was squeezed out gradually even as sales and profits touched new heights. Ashish said it
right. Economics found its short-term agenda and happily buried the long-term issues of human
resource. Who cares! The girl after all had to land on the bed and it happened fast. Quite as what
the operative prudence of economics prescribed!
**