On Being Human When I was in Class-XI (Pre-University) in 1976-77, Cotton College a teacher asked all the students one by one what we would like to be (aim in life). Many of my classmates gave answers like, “I want to be an IAS officer to serve the country.” Many wanted to be Engineers or Professors etc.(It was a statistics class, so no one wanted to be a doctor!) When my turn came, I answered, “I want to be a human being.” Everybody laughed and one friend, who is now a very big boss of a reputed company, commented, “Hiranya, are you a monkey now?” I replied back, “I do not know.” Till now I am asking myself, “Am I able to become a human being?” However, now a days, I have seen many youngsters are using T-shirt with an imprint ‘Being Human’. I am happy that at least somebody has realised-what I meant to say in 1976-77? Last year, I was sitting with one of the senior most officers and requesting him to do a favour to some of us (a group of officers who were similarly placed). His driver, who was also present, all of a sudden, requested our boss, “Sir, help him as far as possible. Because, he is a god-like man (devata jaisha admi). If you help him, God will definitely help you , sir.” Afterwards, I asked the driver why he had said so. He replied, “Sir, we have seen lots of officer who are queuing up to donate blood to the boss or his/her relatives. But I saw you the only officer, who went to donate blood to a daughter of a group D staff.” I did not say anything to him. It reminded me one of the most important incident of my life- I could not attend last few days of my mother who was on her death bed during 2005. Therefore, I had to ask again myself the same question, “Am I human being? Forget about the demigod status!” In my assessment, our misdeeds may be much more weighty than the one or two good things, we used to do during our life time. We may have more vices than good habits. Mostly, we boast our vices as our heroic activities. Knowingly or unknowingly, we may have done more harm to humanity than good things for the society, which are the main obstacles for person to become a ‘human being’. One of our relatives once said, ‘You are a very successful father and a husband. You have done so much for them. Your children and your wife should be thankful to you, whatever you have done for them.’ I simply replied, ‘Better you ask them (about it).’ I know that, like most of the spouses, my wife also, during her outburst, used to say, I have spoiled her life/career. Occasionally, like most of the children, my children also compare with some more successful fathers. It is always a comparative world. We always, back pat ourselves for any small good thing we have done for others and always justify our misdeeds with strong arguments. I am no exception to that. I think, to become a god is easier than to become a human being. Sometime we extend helping hand to the needy- is it for nothing or to satisfy our own ego? I always ask this question to myself without a concrete answer. During my hostel(college) days, I alongwith some of our classmates used to stay overnight with our hostel-mates who were hospitalized for some illness. Still, I am not sure, whether I helped them or I just want to avoid my studies and running away from my studies with a noble justification. My above activity can be seen two completely diametrically opposite perspectives. One- I extended my helping hand to a hostel mate when he needed it most. Therefore, I did a good job and I can pat on my back. Second perspective is completely opposite to that. My parents sent me to the hostel with their hard earned money to study so that I could have gotten a better job. But what I was doing! I spent whole night without any sleep and thus putting pressure on my heath and study at the cost of a hostel mate, who after his release from hospital, gave a mere ‘thank you’. Can I justify my wasting of time if I consider the hope of my parents imposed on me? So while doing something good to some one, I was probably doing injustice to my parents. Actually where I was standing? Can anybody enlighten me on this account? On being human, I find lots of difficulties in this type of balancing act. You may find some very good persons who have done lot of good things for the society. But ask their near and dear ones about them, they may have diametrically opposite opinions about them. There is a proverb, ‘Charity begins at home.’ If we have to follow that principle then, those persons(socially highly appreciated persons) may not get good marks- some may not get even pass marks. In a charted bus, in 1995, I have an argument with an elderly lady when she claimed that she had never indulged in any corrupt practice in her entire life. I asked her one simple question, ‘Madam, when do you come to office and when do you leave?’ She replied, ‘I reach always office by 10 O’clock and leave by 5 PM.’ ‘What is your office timing?’ ‘9AM to 5-30 PM.’ ‘That means, you are getting extra salary for 1-30 hrs daily which is almost 20% of the working hours. And if we count for entire month it is about 30-36 hours. For the whole year, it is 400 hours and for whole service life (about 35 years) it is whopping 14000 hours. If you are given even Rs.100 for each hour work/available for work, then you are getting roughly Rs.14,00,000/-. If you put in recurring deposit scheme, it will be more than Rs.50-60 lakhs. Is it not a massive corruption you are indulging.’(Figures are given as per present salary structure). ‘Everybody is doing that.’ ‘That is true, but that will not make you a spotless person.’ Should I request my National Accounts Division, CSO to estimate this amount for entire country since independence? It may exceed the largest scam amount of the whole world- let alone India. Are we not part and parcel of this loot? Why I am telling this? Because, we can not see our face-we can see only the image of our face. Similarly we can not see our own personality - we can see our personality in the reflection of the society. It may also so happen, one tells you in the morning that you are like a god and in the same evening somebody else can say you that, you are no less than a devil. Nobody will say you in the whole day, that “You are a human being’. That is why I wonder when I shall be a human being. Even for the same action, you may get kudos and brickbats from the same persons after a period time. One of the best example is about( somewhere I read or somebody told me) a Japanese spy who was condemned to death for passing information to the Allied forces. Whole family was subjected for all humiliations for his unpatriotic action. But after few days of his death, he became a National hero as he was doing all the ‘so called espionage’ as a part of greater plan to mislead the Allied Forces. This is one of those examples, where time changes the perception of good and bad works. Probably, all of us know about the role of legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali during Vietnam war! There is a Russian story(I heard from a very senior officer during an open speech) which goes like this: One landlord brought one beautiful horse for his young son. On the very first day the son fell down from the horse and broke his leg. Everybody in the village, cursed the horse. But on the next day, there was decree from the king that every abled bodied person should join the army and would be sent to border. Everybody in the village opined that the horse was indeed a lucky one for the young son of the land lord as he need not have to go for the ensuing battle. But after one month, all the villagers had come back from the frontier unscathed as battle did not take place. However, all were given certificates alongwith monetary benefits from royalty for their loyalty and bravery. Then, everybody blamed the horse again. And the story goes on. Therefore, to identify good luck/good work and bad luck/bad work is real tough. So, every day, I question myself, ‘Have I done any good work? How many bad works I have done in last 24 hours? How many hours, I remain idle? Have I done enough work to become a human being?’ Normally I do not get an answer. Is it that difficult to become a human being? Perhaps yes. When we say a person is mentally ill? If the person is not normal, we call him/her mentally ill or more rudely call him/her ‘Mad”. When we call a person normal? If the behaviour of the person is in conformity with most of the people, we call him/her a normal person. Upto this point, hopefully everyone will agree with me. As a corollary to this assumption, if any person does not fall within the 3 sigma limit or 5 sigma limit(as you decide) for any attribute associated with ‘human being’ than he is not a normal person. So if a person fail to perform any of the normal duties of a citizen, son/ daughter, husband/wife, son-in-law/daughter-in-law, father/mother, father-in-law /mother-in-law, brother/sister, brother-in-law/sister-in-law, senior/junior, boss/subordinate etc., he/she is not normal as far as that attribute is concerned. Some of us, we perform our duties of a father/mother better than an average father/mother, but we may fail to perform duties of a son/daughter towards our parents. List is endless. Now, hopefully you understand, why I fail to become (normal) human being, despite of my best efforts to become a ‘human being’. But my pursuit to become a human being remain as strong as a small kid, I did have. Dedicated to all the teachers on teachers’ day, who always try to make their students good ‘human being’.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 03:57:31 +0000
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