Flaunt

Ten years ago, I conducted a three day residential camp for college students. I had to go home in the night. I would leave after 10pm and return early next morning before 6am for the outdoor session. My colleagues would stay back.

In the morning, when everyone assembled, I asked who had stepped out of the campus at night. Everyone denied the transgression. Eventually I pulled up two boys for violating the basic rule. They confessed that they had erred.

Years later, one of the youth came up to me and asked me who had squealed about them going out in the night. I smiled and told him, ‘You!’

I had found out through a Facebook photo and status put by him. He had flaunted what he was doing. He was young and brash and probably did not think that I may see his post as I was not on his friend list on Facebook.

The boys were young. But grown-ups too brag about what they consider to be their feats of breaking the rules. The ostentatious display seeks to provoke envy or admiration or to show defiance. But the fall is in the flaunting!

In the lockdown, we find people showing off how they have slipped out to walk, meet, celebrate, indulge and do things which are prohibited. Though they may have treaded into action gingerly, once the act is done, they want to flaunt it. The slip shows and it is revealed by the owner on social media.

Thanks to your tendency to flaunt…

The world knows your shady jaunt!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Which side are you?

Which side are you on boys?

Which side are you on?

-      Lines from Pete Seeger’s song ‘Which Side Are You On?’ written by Florence Reece as a response to being terrorised by the mining mafia

So often, there are two sides. There is sensitivity and there is insensitivity. Selflessness and selfishness as contrasting sides. Responsibility and irresponsibility are on opposite sides as are compassion and indifference. Justice and injustice are never on the same side.

We have to decide which side we are on. The song rightly says that ‘there are no neutrals here’. We are either part of the problem or part of the solution. We are either on the right side or we are in the wrong. Nobody needs to hold a mirror to us. We have to introspect and realise where we are.

The present pandemic is a situations of extreme constraint and also a test of our true character. We must reach out to the other side. We must think of ‘we’ instead of only ‘me’. All prejudice has to be shed as we walk towards the common good for the deprived ones.   

We must be on the side of the less privileged, the marginalised and the underserved. We must feel their pain and do what we can to ease the discomfort. Our world has survived because of the responsiveness of the ones who reached out to other human beings. Now again is the time!

Keep answering the query, ‘Which side are you?’

With the ones who truly need you or select few?

~ Pravin K Sabnis

 

Doubt

The passing away of actor Irrfan brought to mind the roles he played so well. One such role was from the film ‘Life of Pi’. The storyline revolved around the protagonist Pi telling a writer about his life story and how at the age of 16 he survived a shipwreck. One of their exchanges goes like this:

Pi: Faith is a house with many rooms

Writer: But no room for doubt?

Pi: Oh, plenty on every floor. Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith, until it is tested.

In today’s world, we find ourselves in a corner of our chosen belief. And we decide to lock ourselves down in that corner. Many of us are hostile to the ones in other corners and many of them carry a similar contempt. We stick to our corners as we leave no room for doubt.

To doubt is to open minded and consider other viewpoints. It is about being ready to listen to questions and being ready to answer them. It is good to be confident about one’s perception but it is irrational to believe that belief is beyond questioning!

We stick to a corner just because we have ended up there. We defend the indefensible only because we have closed our mind to any doubts. Our logic gets perverted to the point of ‘because I believe so’ and we treat even small disagreements as enmity or mutiny.

To leave such weak corners, we must move to an uncluttered mind and be open to the test of inquiry. Answers are found when questions are asked. The Zen principle of ‘tolerance for ambiguity’ leads to a wider perspective of other possibilities. Like Pi says, ‘Doubt is useful!’  

Room for doubt is not about mutiny

Faith must stand the test of scrutiny!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Intrapersonal

Pedro’s friend was feeling weighed down due to the situation of lockdown due to the pandemic. He said, ‘I feel lonely… it is getting scary… thoughts fill up my brain… I feel hopeless with what my mind tells me!’  

Pedro asked, ‘and what do you reply to those thoughts?’

In communication, every stimulus has a response… overt or covert, openly expressed or hidden. The response will decide whether the communication moves ahead or remains stagnant. To escape inertness, we must respond… and respond positively!

It is human tendency to think, analyse and interpret things. But, in a fast moving world, we forget the way to communicate within. We ignore our feelings and thoughts. Suddenly now, we have more time with self and we are overwhelmed by the intrapersonal.

Intra-personal skills include empowering self-esteem, positive attitude, open mindedness, ability to understand and manage emotions, self-discipline, self-motivation, overcoming boredom, being patient, taking initiative, being persistent and many more.

Intra-personal skills can be learned like we learn maths and language skills… by application. We must respond using awareness, thought and intentional strategy in order to gain positive outcomes. We must connect with the person in the mirror by responsive reflection. 

I get a chance to meet the real me…

Intrapersonal is a happy way to be!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Duped

Many years back, I remember reading about a man from USA who put in an advertisement in the papers asking readers to send 10 dollars to his postal address. Hundreds send him the money and when they did not receive any returns, they complained to the Police and the case went to court.

In court, the scamster pleaded innocence as he had made no promises in the advertisements. People had wrongly presumed it was some sort of an investment or purchase scheme. There was no case of misleading anyone.

So often, we find that the seemingly smartest of persons are easy to dupe. They are easily lured into shortcuts to success. They are gullible to succumb to greed without realising that they are being taken for a ride. They swallow whatever is dished out to them.

Today the internet is hunting grounds for the scamsters as they can easily single out the gullible. These are persons who carelessly forward without putting the message to the test of thinking

A friend once told me that he does not endorse what he forwards. When I asked him what could be his reason, he said just for ‘discussion’ purpose. He had no answer when I asked him how one can discuss without thinking.

The story of the US scamster tells us how people who do not think are easily dupable. A person is easily deceived when he chooses to unquestioningly serve a cause or another person without thinking about what is in store. The dupable do not need to be duped… they are waiting to be fooled!

When we evade the test of thinking

To be duped is what we are asking!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Farmer's Armour

During the lockdown due to the Covid19 pandemic, home deliveries have been a huge help. We are grateful to the doctors, nurses, police and others who are stepping out so that we can stay safe. We are also realising the true worth of the farmer who grows our food.

Goa has been noticing a coordinated effort to connect farm to home by consumers buying straight from the farmer. Interestingly, this practice is from the old days but then home was in the neighbourhood of a farm. Now it is necessary to bridge the gap between farmer and the buyer.

Over the last few years, Avertino Miranda and his team uses social media to sell organic brown rice and other local yield from the field. Proactive villagers of Saligao started local weekly markets to promote the small producers. Youth are helping farmers sell with the use of apps and technology.

The absence of middlemen ensures a win-win situation for both the farmer and the consumer. However for confirmed sustainability for the farmer, it is necessary for the people to buy from the farmer. So often, so many of us are focused only on what’s convenient for us. We must see the larger picture!

Eventually, our sentiment of gratitude must lead to a commitment to help the farmer sustain! We must choose to buy from the farmer and ensure farming remains viable. We must help save farmlands from being devoured in the name of development. We must be the protective armour of the farmer!

Food security comes from farmer

May our support be their armour!

~ Pravin K Sabnis

Dislike Hate

Pedro’s son came home from school and angrily declared. ‘I hate my Maths teacher!’ In the ensuing discussion, the boy gave various reasons for his statement. After listening patiently, Pedro commented, ‘I understand that you do not like your teacher. But surely, it does not mean you hate him!’

Hate is a strong emotion and a consuming one at that. It seizes and engulfs your thoughts literally and you find difficult to clear your mind of it. It interferes with your sense of fairness. Eventually hate drives you to do things you never imagined you would.

To dislike is less personal. It can be for any number of reasons, but it does not consume you. It is more like a preference or matter of choice that one makes and moves on. Just because you dislike bitter gourd, it does not consume your every thought.

Dislike may be discomfort, distaste, disgust, aversion, disapproval. It is often a very temporary thing. For instance, my aversion to bitter gourd gets reduced when I am told by my Doctor that its consumption is beneficial for my medical condition.

Dislike is survivable. Hate is unbearable. Dislike results in annoyance, frustration or tediousness. Hate leads to anger, despair or rage. Both can be caused by the same provocation from someone else but received by a person who may or may not be in a situation of control.

We must learn to cope with dislike without losing out to hate. Hate pushes us into a corner where we can get stuck. We must choose to be open minded and look at all sides of the situation. That will lead us to dislike Hate!

The reasons to dislike, surely we can cope

Hate engulfs and leaves no scope for hope!

~ Pravin K Sabnis