‘Uneducated’ Professionals

Pride is a sickly feeling

I detest people and their views who take great pride in their degrees. They constantly sneer at less-endowed people. The scathing remarks they pass at the less-educated –these people perceive them to be– are very hypocritical. These revilers are completely wrong about their assumptions.

People being educated does not mean only the ones conferred with degrees. Educated simply means well-informed people who derive a great amount of knowledge from a wide assortment of books too. Irrespective of this, most of the legends did not have degrees and were from a humble background. People even now, take a cue from them when attempting to pursue their profession.

• Jimi Hendrix puts to rest all the assumptions of these lower rung professionals who take a dig at other people. He never learnt guitar from a school and did not even complete formal education. Great performers like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton admired his works. Needless to say, these admirers were not any Tom, Dick and Harry from across the street.
• Bill Gates never completed his degree at Harvard and came up with software in partnership with various other people, ‘prematurely’. We know that every kid in the neighborhood wants to be like him.
• Coco Chanel was never ascribed to a designer course and started her career as a seamstress. She had an innate talent for fashion designing. Such is the fanfare for her career in glitz that a multitude of people flock to her Paris apartment as a sort of pilgrimage.
• Abraham Lincoln was a self-taught lawyer and a great strategist. He put to shame many people in the race to the presidency because of his ‘uneducated’ background. They never thought that he would ‘earn the spot’.

Thus, degrees don’t make a person and everyone has to keep on learning and simultaneously proving their mettle throughout their lifetime. I hope the naysayers catch a whiff of this and be disillusioned.

Being Respectable: Secular Community Style

Being respectable in the society and among fellow community members is a very secular word. This is merely an outward gimmick, as you can observe that every person who rallies behind this term in his speech is pretentious. On digging deep into his closet, you are very likely to find a lot of skeletons that can embarrass the person who is privy to these deeds.

He is always bothered about these escapades locked shut in the closet, being discovered. His fear is understood as this prized collection –if uncloaked– can have disastrous consequences- more like a raging tempest. This guilt of self-denial every time the topic surfaces leaves a big scar in his mind: What if people uncover it? When is the best time to reveal this secret to loved ones, so that no one finds it hard to accept? What if the blow of the revelation is severe? How long will people curse me?

While this person tries every trick in the book to cloak his deeds, there is nothing in his hands to work through escaping the insults from the revelation. He always bears in mind that truth has to surface no matter what. This cloaked respectability is a very rampant persona in the society and can bog down even very clever minds as to how to deal with its side-effects such as these.

Imagine, what answer they would give to their children and grandchildren because it is very evident that these little ones hold these ‘respectable’ people in high esteem. Once they get a whiff of their elder’s escapades and wrongdoings, they surely bring the issue to the fore at the hope of getting rid of ‘misconceptions’. Finding them true, they lose respect for these people.

Later, being in the same frail canoe like their forefathers, these young ones get a taste of the ‘real’ world that beckons. After being neck-deep in filth, they realize the ‘harsh reality’ of the present world. This is an artificial issue and the very same man is responsible for boiling it down to this sleaziness because of the choices he made. His life has lost the flavor due to the absence of piety.

Piety was the lone ingredient purported to be in this world. Without it, the world is a barren and arid wasteland like these ignominious people’s lives. Never detest it!

Prominent People: A Sublime and Battered Life

The whole world talks about great and prominent people in the society. They crave to fathom what is going on in their minds; the kind of people they meet; information about their life; the sequence of events that led to make them people of grit, determination and steely resolve; the kind of mentors they had or more precisely, the kind of hardships and tribulations they faced to reach the zenith.

I think that there are answers for these questions in my mind as one of the stories have unfolded right in front of my eyes. The answer is that they really have to undergo a lot of hardships and never have to budge. They have it in them to make it to the end of the tunnel and this is the very thing called God’s grace. However innumerable pitfalls, mocking, derision they undergo it does not matter, They have to take it in their stride and move on without complaining.

A lot of these trials melt, mold, purge and refine them to such an extent that the end product or their life at the end of it emerges beautiful and triumphant. There will come a phase in their life wherein they have to decide the ideals they have to stick to all their existence- the ones they find acceptable. These are the very things that shape their future and a look at them asks one whether they were destined to be thus, or their future took its own course.

To themselves, it appears that everything in their life was predestined. They are of this opinion because a look from the future into the past leads one to believe thus. The way everything falls into place regardless of people’s opinions about them or gossip mongers having a go at them for quite some time signals that these vicious people do not have a say over what goes on in their life –or for that sake– in the entire world.

People’s life and everything in this world seems to them is controlled by a puppeteer and no one dares question him. Even if they question his actions, he declines to answer. For the very fact that this entire world is his property, he does not allow trespassers on it and usurp his authority or undermine it.

From his very throne, he has destined such prominent people a slice of paradise on this earth itself. And He has in the course of time allowed them to be posed with a tumultuous phase that wants their ideals and thus, character to take shape. This character renders them competitive and invincible even when they are faced with dog fights or challenges not easy to overcome.

Well, this world is a harsh place and the Maker has equipped these blessed people with everything they need on this journey. The only condition that he reserves them is to exercise discretion regarding vices and never let down less-endowed fellow brethren. The repercussions of these are a damnable and disgraceful life. Everyone is expected to listen to him, no questions asked!

Humility, if entertained, can surely take him places. The problem is that it is very rarely imbued in them or rather, detested by them. Well, every good thing nowadays is rejected.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/life-is-like-a-boxing-ring-amitabh/article1-713940.aspx

Televised Media: Heights of Belligerence

Nowadays, just a click over the remote to change channels can give one a vague picture of the current scenario prevailing over the globe- news channels are resorting to cheap tactics in the hope of drawing viewers. This base culture -as anyone can guess- is derived from the posse of reality shows doing the rounds on the idiot box. I never imagined this culture to plague a noble profession such as journalism.

The anchor on these shows in a desperate bid to evoke sensationalism among the viewers, takes a definitive stand over the issue being discussed. He tries to leap into arguments in order to elicit a major TRP garnering statement. This statement that can fill in the coffers of these private gossip mongers is expected to come out of the slip of tongue as a vehement reaction. Later the issue is seasoned with sesame, garlic and all other spices to bring out a mouth-watering flavor.

In a bid to be well-off financially, these rumor-mongers overdo it a bit. They put in a tremendous effort to bring out a harried look on their face that ostensibly tries to convey people of being emotionally charged. As their gesticulations and emotions don’t match, it shows that they are not actors. Actors emote because they relate  to the situation in the story. These gutless anchors need to try hard to look sober.

I will not be startled if in a few months, the televised media introduces courses among their staff over how to be better at emoting and thus fabricating. Fabricating has been in their veins since long and faking emotions was the only thing they needed to be sound financially. Are there no better genuine altruistic tactics to be competitive enough? What about striking people’s hearts through quality journalism?

These unscrupulous tactics surely portend calamitous events. If the very people who can ameliorate a nasty and disastrous situation through the powerful medium of television abuse their power, who else can do the needful? At least don’t reveal your pathetic degenerated nature publicly, so that people would still believe in doing good. This shameful upturn of events in the televised media can spread utter discord among people of various backgrounds.

Surely, the world is a stinking place, full of gnats and leeches. Annoying people and sucking their blood is fashion nowadays!

Of Winebibbers and Womanizers

One contrasting characteristic that make winebibbers and womanizers different from among the vast population of people destined to the netherworld is their non-cohesiveness when it comes to time. They do not match up to the punctuality of other hell-bound people. 

This means that people cannot expect anything from them and especially those things that are time critical. When you assign them some work thinking that they can be productive or at least satisfactory, they prove this trust wrong. If they promise one of their ability to carry out a responsibility delegated, one can only hope that there be a vanishing act from them lurking in a corner.

Such is the dereliction of duties from these vice-smitten people that one can even expect them to vanish into thin air even at a funeral of their loved one. They can escape from this homage-paying event too for a quick spin in a vehicle with their escort or for a quick peg down their sore throat enough to quench the flaming lust or fetish tormenting them.

When asked about their whereabouts and status of their delegated responsibility, they change colors like the chameleon in order to blend with the surroundings. In most cases, the excuse is provided beforehand so as to convey a false sense of care or affection. The moment you have a vague idea of their business, all hell breaks loose.

The most intriguing aspect of these subjects’ life is that they know they are doomed to perdition. Though they know themselves as being entrapped in the maze which is tantamount to self-inflicting wounds, these can do nothing about it and give out a vehement cry when questioned about it. This sure is a worthless, aimless, pointless, shameless, disdainful, disgraceful existence.

The very mention of these lives can remind one of a dog or a bonded laborer. Both of these cannot disobey their master as they are bound to him. He lords over them only because they are doomed to follow him. There is no way out! 

Shifting Sand Dunes

It is very funny and at the same time amusing to the intellect the way people change over the course of years. People’s priorities during early adolescence are so nubile and after a period of time they get seasoned. After this time, they take a more structured form. The qualities of a rave kind take the form of a behemoth that threatens the very innocence in them. 

All of the qualities which were very harmless coalesce to bring about a very drastic change: a harmless young man who used to leave no stone unturned to remain civilized can become a violent individual and not even a wee bit hesitant to kill or maim people; a person who was not very welcoming and abusive in his words can take a retrograde course, exhibiting a pleasant and benevolent quality later in life; a people who were very backward and supposed to have an unpromising future can become very diligent and promising in later stages. 

Hence, it is very advisable to discern these formed qualities in people of every type you met in your life. You should not be hesitant to learn a lot about them through various sources that are at your disposal. A careful and surreptitious recce can help to gather the needed information about them.

I can relate to this from an incident in my life and a brief account of it follows: I was wanting to make efforts to seek the long lost company of a formerly pleasant individual. This person recently shed all his image of a gentleman and a violent streak could be found in his talks. Without even making an effort to see changes in his demeanor, I put all my fingers in too many a pie and without introspection sent him my residential address and contact details.

Later, after making the call, I realized that this person was very much in the eye of a storm that even uprooted his career prospects. But, it was very late to look back and I had to stick with him for a few years. Fortunately, I shifted to my new house and this headstrong person got out of my life. This was possible only because I did not reveal to him my house address.

Hence it is very essential to be watchful and never entertain lost pals.

Trust at Your own Peril

There has been a mention of uncouth and treacherous people in the Bible. The treachery can reach to such an extent that people have a eerie feeling after they encounter these misfits. These people usurp the choicest of treasures by malice and nurse a lot of grudge among their fellowmen who did not aid them during perilous times. Always at their wily best, they look forward to devour valuables of the uninitiated.They imagine themselves to be a heart throb in the community and dream lofty things of sitting atop a huge mound of the heathen’s favorite- money.

A careful look at these people antics can reveal about themselves a lot of things and can help the uninitiated save a dime or two. Once a wad of notes catches a glimpse of their gleaming eyes, it should be noted that the huge bundle of paper has vanished into thin air, the very next moment. Apart from all these traits to look in them as a cautionary measure, a very glaring one is mentioned by the wise men of the biblical times.

This glaring aspect of these treacherous personalities is that they tend to be very shifty with their eyes- always bowing their heads a little and constantly shifting eyes. This very thing is the hallmark of their nature and a cautionary advice related to these crafty people can be found in the book of Proverbs of the Bible. It warns people not to believe in these foxes as they do not keep their promises.

I came across a friend of mine, who mentioned an encounter with this type of crafty individual. An elderly version of this stereotype demanded he be given a sum of money my friend had in his pocket and promised that it will be kept safe. Out of respect for this elder, he entrusted the money to his care. The next day -as expected of his nature- the old hag denied about the whereabouts of the money entrusted to him and even reprimanded my friend of lying.

It is very enlightening to read this holy book that has locked in it a lot of ancient wisdom. Truly, this book is full of warnings and advice about the vagaries of life. All people have to do is be diligent in following the rules and regulations laid out for their perilous journey through life. Adhering to these rules can make one’s journey worthwhile. Life is surely an entrapping facade holding the power to lure many in its net. 

Knighthood and Hoodlums

It’s very typical in my region to lavish undeserving flattery on the various sections of people in the lower rung of society. These praises are in favor of these people belonging to a lower cadre and can seem to anyone who visits these places for the first time very amusing. I’m stressing the word ‘undeserving’ because the very nature of the praise or salutation is so- the salutation used for them is ‘Sir’. Usually this salutation is for those who have been conferred knighthood by an aristocrat.

The indiscriminate use of this word reflects the mentality of the people using it. This shows that these people endemic to my region are accustomed to sycophancy and sticking their noses in every other person’s business. To make my point clear, it is wise to note that these sycophants are very community-minded and can leap into any filth or stinking mess to sort out tussles. Even the women folk do not spare the people who get into tiffs by accident.

These women are so much hell-bent on delivering ‘mob justice’ that they are constantly on the prowl for finding faults in their community full of vulnerable people. The very thinking of these people can make one detest these in the neighborhood. People envious of each other and trying to put others down is the norm here. Get past each other either by hook or by crook seems to be their mantra. Very tantalizing environment here!

Anorexic Intellectuals?

There is a common assumption among the less-endowed people that their acquaintances who exude brilliance in a profession are malnourished, sleep-deprived, etc., all for the sake of being competent. This is not the case as I have encountered such people and they are not a wee bit of what these misinformed people expect them to be. These qualities are believed to be present in them by strugglers who find it hard to catch up with them. This is because they lack the sheer competency at various levels that is found in these blessed people.

It should be noted that these minnows have a feel of these very qualities they find in their comparatively endowed counterparts: while wanting to swerve around them they try being sleep-deprived in a ‘burning the midnight oil’ type of fashion and never succeed to go past them; they try being always at it and skip a lot of meals or other nourishment giving them a feel of being anorexic. The qualities people lack in them and find hard to have their hands on are the very same ones they admire in their idolized fellowmen.

As you can see a lot of people who are at the highest echelons of society are admirable and their charisma should not be mistaken to be the result of an endless conflict with their bodies. In fact, this scurrilous remark often encountered while being with envious people or rather misinformed ones tries to take away the beautiful lives these sublime and intellectually superior people are privy to. Portraying a wise individual with dark circles around their eyes sounds rather deranged to me. Their noteworthy intellectual abilities are surely bestowed on them to be admired and not to be downgraded with maligning insults and untrue remarks.

Sublimity in the Lexicon: Is it Needed?

Even if a person has an impeccable understanding of the world around him, he lacks creditworthiness if approached with questions or solutions. A tiny mistake- typographical or in the grammar and punctuation can leave the audience he caters to in an entrapment of skepticism. These doubting Thomases can indulge in a war of words or an attack on your credibility as an educated person. This affinity of people towards skepticism is deeply rooted in the routine of life that they are accustomed to.

One of the reasons that they do not take a stranger seriously is that they have not still met a person whose intellect can leave them spellbound and mesmerized. Also, the threshold of knowledge they have set up for people of a particular race, complexion, age group and the like. This is all the product of prejudice and surely, it is the very thing that facilitates people in forming opinions. This prejudice is used indiscriminately to typecast people of different nationalities and races into a society’s stereotype.

Ethnicity should not curtail people’s ambitions, though. God showers his blessings on the people without having a regard for these. There is no one in the world who can prove that people of a certain community do not merit a fancy and lavish life, replete with luxury. This lends weight to the fact that a person should be very persuasive and presentable in his commentary or conversation. I mean, look around you. Is there not a sign of this custom?

A judge in his verdict uses all the fancy words he can lay his hands on. What stops him from being modest in his language? Even a secretary who writes a minister’s speech does not shy away from doing so. Thus, a bit of complexity in the day-to-day language is needed to impress an audience. This, is true even in the writing field- one needs to impress his audience with loads of fancy words. After all, this gibberish is the very thing that can land him with a prospective client. And this client can be anyone who is his reading audience. So, belt away all the fancy words that come to your mind, provided they are presentable.