The other day a student asked me who my role model was.
It’s a dangerous question if it comes from an intelligent person and this student
is indeed intelligent. Donkey years ago, when someone hurled this question at
me – with a lot of malice – my answer was Mahatma Gandhi. The questioner laughed
uproariously. He had reasons to. I was a clownish alcoholic at that time. The
questioner was trying to be my well-wisher. Those were days when the entire
town of Shillong became my collective well-wisher. One of the best things that
people love is to see you as a patient
etherized upon their counselling chair. Almost everyone I know in my life
is a counsellor. They tell you what to do and what not to. They tell you what a
catastrophe you are and how you can be much better with their help. They have
all the answers to the rigmarole that you are to yourself.
I was not really joking when I foisted
Mahatma Gandhi upon that well-wisher as my role model though I was an alcoholic
and I ate all kinds of food including beef. Rice and beef was staple food in
Shillong where I worked in those days. Gandhi wouldn’t have bothered about what
people ate though he would have suggested the merits of eating potato instead of
beef. Potato was the only edible thing that grew without too much fuss in the
Khasi Hills. But potato won’t keep you healthy on the cold hills. Gandhi would
realise that and let the people be healthy. People mattered to Gandhi as much
as cows did, if not more.
When I raised Gandhi on my personal holy
pedestal before my well-wisher, what I meant was that I loved Gandhi’s ideological
non-violence, his concept of truth and integrity, his idea of tolerance
which let people be, his attitude towards religion... My well-wisher thought Gandhi was all about
being a teetotaller. That’s not surprising. He is a good Christian. He thinks
Christianity is all about singing Alleluia to Jesus and preaching morality to
others.
Gandhi and my well-wisher are thesis
and antithesis. Gandhi pursued truth unlike his killer’s fans who now rule
India with the conviction that truth is a fabrication of a gang like those who
wrote fabricated the caste system or fascism or Nazism or anything of that sort.
My well-wisher is now a fan of Modi. He thinks Christianity in India can be saved
from Islam today only through Modi.
When my student asked me who my role
model was, Modi’s name came on my tongue instinctively. Modi should be everyone’s
role model in the post-truth world. You create truths. There is no absolute
truth. Everything is god’s leela. Maya is the only truth. Whatever. Go on. Don’t
forget to look at the teleprompter. Otherwise your truth may be lost.
“So the teleprompter is your role
model?” My student asked.
I smiled. There was no teleprompter
to give me an answer. That’s why I don’t ever dare to give a press conference.
“Shouldn’t you be a role model to your
students?” My student persisted.
“Can I be a better role model than our
Prime Minister?” I asked.
The conversation died. One good thing
about role models is that they kill honest conversations.
...there is a lot to digest here. In American politics, few role models come to mind. Absolute truth seems to be elusive.
ReplyDeleteRole models are hard to come by these days.
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteWhere are the Gandhi's and Mandela's when we need them...?! YAM xx
Since history makes heroes rather than vice versa, we may yet wait for the emergence of the new Gandhi.
DeleteThere are modelic people, but every individual person, must to walk his own personal way.
ReplyDeleteIndeed
Delete