Not heard!

In my various training interventions with the deaf and mute, I observed two distinguishing characteristics. Firstly, they were good at grasping my communication. Secondly, all the ones I met looked half their age! Persons who were forty years old looked just twenty. The faces of parents looked young enough to be teenagers.

While the first seemed logical the second seemed intriguing. But, over the years I realised that the reason was that they had ‘not heard’ a single negative comment or discouraging statement or a humiliating condemnation. Hence they had lesser reasons to frown, sulk or get angry. This resulted in a less strained face.

Now look at the children who can hear. They hear a lot of negatives and judgemental statements. They hear more ‘don’t’s than ‘do’s. They keep hearing unfair comparisons with others. Such, damaging talk leads to negative self-esteem or doubts in self-worth. Just imagine if children had ‘not heard’ undesirables.

The spoken word can be a severe blow. Hence sages have recommended restraint while expressing the negative. Of course, it is pertinent to note that besides the word, the tone too carries the potential to undermine the recipient. We must choose to ensure that the regressive is ‘not heard’!

Self-esteem helps soar like a bird…
When the judgemental is ‘not heard’!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Defeat Death

A young man was seized by an existential dilemma. He felt life was futile since death was not in his control. He believed that every effort of his would be in vain if death were to make an unsolicited occurrence. Hence, he decided to commit suicide. 

As he walked to a cliff edge, past memories kept flashing in his conscious memory. Eventually, his mind moved to the future. He began visualising the reactions of people to his death. His imagination projected a refrain, ‘he killed himself!’

He realised that his demise would be of his chosen method and at his selected time and place. Obviously, he had a say over his death. He turned back from his tracks and moved on to take head-on the challenges of life… and death!

So often, we give up on doing things we like to do just because we are convinced of the certainty of failure. This is similar to giving up on life, just because death is a certainty. Let’s not worry too much about defeat or death and the uncertainties that surround them. We must overcome the negative to nurture positive possibilities.

Bhagat Singh wrote, ‘Jeena hai toh marna seekho yaaro’ (to live well, learn to die). At the age of 23, he happily walked to his gallows along with his colleagues and he showed us how to embrace life by defeating death! Even though his death day was advancing, he did not give up on life, putting every minute to appropriate use.

Defeating death is all about moving beyond the vice of ambiguity. When we defeat diffidence we discover possibilities. The one who is halted by the sceptre of death will always be blind to the ways to be alive. The glorious uncertainties of life are far more empowering than the destabilising certainty of death.

Life is full of possibilities fresh…
Choose to defeat death’s crash!

- Pravin K. Sabnis

Holi

Leaves sprout… flowers bloom
Trees smile and chase the gloom
Spring is here to spread the cheer
Shed your inhibitions, have no fear!

Here’s the flavoured milk, say cheers
For the veterans, open the bhang & beers
The fire’s going down, bring more wood
There it lies where once the tree stood

A full moon looks on as winds stoke embers,
in the season of spring, trees get dismembered
Wood chars, so does the plastic trash
flowers singe smearing earth with ash.

Next we get to spray the colours everywhere
Made from mud, paint and chemicals not very rare
But don’t you mind the itch and the stains
It won’t happen till spring comes again!

(a poem written on 3 March 2007)
- Pravin K. Sabnis

Circulus In Probando

Last May, I saw a video by a teenager daughter of a martyr soldier. I was all choked up by the predicament of a two year old child who grows up to hate an entire community and an entire country because she believes that they killed her father. However, her mother makes her see the larger perspective and Gurumehar Kaur grew up to be a soldier of peace.

One of the lines, on a poster that Kaur holds in the silent video is now being put out in isolation of her larger cry for peace... of course the twisting of truth is a reaction to her current opposition to the student union politics... but the majority of the trolling is carried forward by those who had not seen that particular video. Some have insisted that she be punished, banished and a few want her brutalised.

The trolls are using a method used in arguments - called ‘Circulus in probando’ (Latin for 'circle in proving) – actually, a logical fallacy in which the reasoner begins with what they are trying to end with. The components of a circular argument appear logically valid because if the premise is true, the conclusion must be true.

For instance in the case of the young girl, the ‘Circulus in probando’ goes like this
She said the enemy country is not guilty of the crime.
We know that the enemy country is guilty of the crime.
Hence, she is guilty of supporting the crime!

It is pertinent to note that the first line is a twisted fact if you check out the video where the teenager blames the leadership of the other country too ... but if you accept the premise as true, the conclusion appears true too...

On social media, the use of ‘Circulus in probando’ is common. In fact, even decent disagreements with the girl’s stand evoked similar methods of trolling. It is hence necessary to examine the primary statement to escape the vicious vice of the logical fallacy of circular reasoning. What seems logical may well be falsehood if the foundation of an argument is an untruth or a misrepresentation.

If premise is faulty, inference may well be tragic
We must not yield blindly to the circle of logic!

- Pravin K. Sabnis