Skip to main content

Followers


Vast majority of people are ideal followers.  Ask them what they are following and you will get blank looks.  For example, ask a person why he believes in his/her religion or why he/she votes for a particular party.  I’m ready to bet that you won’t get satisfactory answers unless some quotidian blah-blah is enough for you. 

People want other people.  Not merely for company.  People want other people in order to get on in life.  From the simple drinking water problem to the complex games that people play, everything becomes much easier to deal with if you have other people to help you. 

Other people throw in support if you belong to their religion, political party or some such group.  Religious beliefs and political convictions are not much more profound than that.  If you don’t believe me, probe a believer’s knowledge about his/her religion.  In 9 cases out of 10, you will meet with ignorance.  Politics is likely to fare better.

Even if there is awareness, probe a little further and you will be shocked by the lack of conviction. That is, they may know that their religion teaches love and such wonderful things but they are not convinced that all those wonderful things will actually help much in the daily drudgery called life.  Actual life has little to do with all those wonderful things associated with one’s religion.  Religion is good because I can get a job with some powerful religious leader’s help, gain admission for my children in reputed schools, or even get my plumbing done without much hassle.

It is much better in politics.  When I was constructing my house last year, I got all the paper works done with the ease of wading across a shallow river because my friend had at least one party associate in every office I went to.  Life is much simple if you have political connections.  So I have become a follower now.  But I know what I’m following and how much it actually means to me.  You can call me a super hypocrite.


Comments

  1. sunaina sharmaMarch 14, 2017 at 5:41 PM

    I am yearning to see some fiction from you now. Since I am a follower of your stories.....:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 14, 2017 at 6:25 PM

      I don't choose to write stories, Sunaina. They happen. I'm waiting too for the next one to happen. :)

      Delete
  2. Saru SinghalMarch 14, 2017 at 7:41 PM

    This post reminds me of the quote, “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” Being normal is more useful in life. In your case, I think being a follower is good. I would do the same. We live in real world and have to be a part of real mess to get things done.

    It's not hypocrisy, it's street smartness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 14, 2017 at 7:59 PM

      There's no other way. The tragedy (or comedy, depending on how we look at it) is that if I had learnt this lesson earlier enough I would have been a roaring success in life :)

      Delete
    2. Jyotirmoy SarkarMarch 15, 2017 at 9:01 AM

      very much agree with your last line..."if i had learnt....success in life".

      Delete
    3. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 15, 2017 at 9:17 AM

      Some fools like me take a long time to learn the basics. :)

      Delete
  3. jayashreeMarch 15, 2017 at 10:28 PM

    True, many are just followers, but they be aware whom they are following

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMarch 16, 2017 at 8:01 AM

      Diplomacy is not same as awareness. Many follow for the sake of personal benefits.
      No harm since there's nothing more to most things followed 😀

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...
35 comments
Read more

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...
10 comments
Read more

Bharata: The Ascetic King

Bharata is disillusioned yet again. His brother, Rama the ideal man, Maryada Purushottam , is making yet another grotesque demand. Sita Devi has to prove her purity now, years after the Agni Pariksha she arranged for herself long ago in Lanka itself. Now, when she has been living for years far away from Rama with her two sons Luva and Kusha in the paternal care of no less a saint than Valmiki himself! What has happened to Rama? Bharata sits on the bank of the Sarayu with tears welling up in his eyes. Give me an answer, Sarayu, he said. Sarayu accepted Bharata’s tears too. She was used to absorbing tears. How many times has Rama come and sat upon this very same bank and wept too? Life is sorrow, Sarayu muttered to Bharata. Even if you are royal descendants of divinity itself. Rama had brought the children Luva and Kusha to Ayodhya on the day of the Ashvamedha Yagna which he was conducting in order to reaffirm his sovereignty and legitimacy over his kingdom. He didn’t know they w...
20 comments
Read more

Empuraan and Ramayana

Maggie and I will be watching the Malayalam movie Empuraan tomorrow. The tickets are booked. The movie has created a lot of controversy in Kerala and the director has decided to impose no less than 17 censors on it himself. I want to watch it before the jingoistic scissors find its way to the movie. It is surprising that the people of Kerala took such exception to this movie when the same people had no problem with the utterly malicious and mendacious movie The Kerala Story (2023). [My post on that movie, which I didn’t watch, is here .] Empuraan is based partly on the Gujarat riots of 2002. The riots were real and the BJP’s role in it (Mr Modi’s, in fact) is well-known. So, Empuraan isn’t giving the audience any falsehood as The Kerala Story did. Moreover, The Kerala Story maligned the people of Kerala while Empuraan is about something that happened in the faraway Gujarat quite long ago. Why are the people of Kerala then upset with Empuraan ? Because it tells the truth, M...
13 comments
Read more

Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan , which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state. First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end. True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burnin...
8 comments
Read more