COMMON MAN

After high school, Laxman applied to the JJ School of Art, Mumbai hoping to concentrate on his lifelong interests of drawing and painting, but the dean of the school wrote to him that his drawings lacked, ‘the kind of talent to qualify for enrollment in our institution as a student’, and refused admission.

R K Laxman, died today at the age of 93 at Dinanath Mangeshkar Hospital in Pune. The JJ School and every Art School uses his cartoons as a learning tool not just because of his unique style but because he was able to say things matter-of-factly without ever becoming disagreeable.

And that indeed is a lesson worth emulating. To say what we ‘want’ to say but saying it in the way that it ‘needs’ to be said. Communication must not be an unbridled outlet but a responsible and responsive stimulus that keeps the scope for a continuous dialogue. And for that we must note all factors.

R K Laxman never minced words, yet he was prudent in his choice of expression. His ‘common man’ said such a lot without ever saying anything. He lives on in our collective memory as one of the finest examples of uniting indignation, criticism and irritation with the dignity of controlled wit.

‘Unite to impact’ all the factors, pay heed...

Say what you ‘want’, but do mind the ‘need’

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

OVER-THINKING

In Aesop's fable – ‘The Fox and the Cat’, the fox boasts of ‘hundreds of ways of escaping’ while the cat has ‘only one’. When the hounds approached, the cat scampered up a tree while the fox in his confusion was caught up by the hounds. The fable underlines the lesson, ‘Better one safe way than a hundred on which you cannot reckon’. 

So often, so many of us believe that the more we think about something, the better our decision will be. We ponder a decision for hours or even days. We keep pursing the identification of multiple options. However, research has shown that over-thinking a dilemma can actually result in a poorer decision.

This does not campaign for a spur-of-the-moment whimsical resolution. Instead, we must use the process of unconscious thought... we give the problem time to be mulled over in the back of our mind, yet do not actively think about it. In situations involving complex decisions, unconscious thought is found to outperform the more logical and analytical counterpart.

We must avoid wasting too much time going over the same points again and again in our heads. Instead, we must bring key issues to mind, and then relax and give ourselves some time to absorb it. Many of us do this already - we are often reluctant to rush into a decision before ‘sleeping on it’ - however we also waste a lot of time agonizing over the pros and cons.

Our unconscious mind is better equipped to unite the various considerations, implications and solutions. However, we tend to consciously dig up a wealth of options and often lose focus from identifying practical solutions. We must remember the famous maxim – ‘too much of analysis causes paralysis’!

Over-thinking often creates a defeating paralysis...

The unconscious mind will ‘unite to impact’ analysis!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

RETALIATION

One of our school teachers had a weird method of enforcing discipline in his classroom. Every time, a back-bencher would say or do something that would infuriate him, he would shout at the one who committed the mischief and… and strike the head of the boy sitting nearest to him.

In the case of our weird teacher’s unfair retaliation, all would find it funny except the one who was unfairly penalised for somebody else’s mistakes and the others sitting in the front row who would be on the edge fearing that the odd predicament would come their way, too. The rest of us were detached because it did not affect us.

It is this detached indifference that provides bizarre logic for the indefensible. How can anyone justify the inhuman killings and brutalisation of innocents? However, terming an entire community, culpable for the crime, is equally creepy. Retaliation is the resort of the inhuman but it is born in negative thought and talk before the resultant regressive action.

It is in times like these that we should salvaging humanity by choosing resolute and steadfast solidarity of tolerant living over bloody killing. It is the battle for reclamation of humanism under attack by various arguments for retribution. We must strive for desirable peace instead of allowing the vice of retaliation to strangulate humanity.

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.

Participation

Pedro would shy away from participating in meetings or activities of the organisation he belonged to. He would rationalize away his discomfort, saying that, ‘Participating in everything is unnecessary. I am committed to be sincere and hard working. Why should I do this silly stuff?’

So often, we hear similar justifications from those who need to operate outside their comfort zones. The refrain is: ‘connections do not matter; what matters is the value of our work,’ or ‘People who network are grovelling or full of themselves, and who wants to be that.’ These statements camouflage the actuality of the situation: that we are afraid of networking or public speaking and that we refuse to accept the real reasons of our non-participation.

Surely, if we our chosen situation was free of all anxiety and stress, it would be exhilarating to do that very thing. Fear is the hurdle that limits our belief and behaviour. It is pertinent to note that acceptance of the fear that engulfs, helps us move onto the next step in the process, which is to use our power of justification for instead of against participation.

We must stop tricking ourselves. So instead of finding reasons why something is not worth performing, we must find reasons why it is worth performing.  We must step out of the comfort cage and work on activating this tough, but important paradigm shift that will provide opportunities to grow and show exciting ways to move forward.

After all, acceptance of our comfort cage, moving to finding positive motives for involvement and eventually proactively participating will unite to impact the possibilities of success to our true potential. For the limits in our mind will limit everything we do, never mind our capability!

Recognize fear; find reasons to pick proactive participation

‘unite to impact’ the escape from comfort cage limitation!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Goa, India.