BOON
OR A BOONDOGGLE?-4
Dr.
Yerneni Venkateswara Rao
M.Sc., Ph. D
Retired Principal
GUDIVADA-
A.P
yernenivrao@gmail.com
Every public function /office is divine by
virtue of its being a public trust and as such public functionaries—ministers,
bureaucrats , judges et al—should perform their duties with worshipful attitude
without ever forgetting that they themselves continue to be human with their
petty egos overriding everything else including their integrity of character
and basic human decency. Trouble starts when they begin to succumb to the
temptation of thinking that they have become divine by virtue of the functions
they happen to perform or the public offices they happen to hold at the moment.
And this aberration, once set in , inevitably shows up in their failure to play
fair by the society , that has placed them on a high pedestal reposing all its
faith and hopes in them and expecting rectitude and competence in return from
them.
Now
the question is, what is the prevailing situation in our society? How impervious
or other wise are the functionaries to this aberration and how pervasive or
otherwise are its disturbing consequences to the society? Sad to say, the
aberration has already become a deep seated melody afflicting public
functionaries/ office-holders at every level, and the scenario of society’s
dashed hopes, unredeemed promises, unfulfilled aspirations, frustrated
expectations and unrealized dreams is what is being played out endlessly
everywhere in the country today.
What will the situation be in our society? In other words, how pervasive or otherwise will the
aberration be and, if pervasive, how deeply disappointing will its consequences
be to the society? This futuristic question can be answered in the present perfect
because the very depressing consequences of public functionaries being
afflicted by this deep-rooted melody have already become an integral part of
everyday life of the society and the tragic drama of society’s forlorn hopes,
unfulfilled expectations, broken promises and forsaken dreams is what is being
enacted endlesslessly everywhere in the country today.
Instances of persons committing the crime of abusing public office,
betraying the trust and belying the hopes of the society and enriching
themselves with total disdain for moral concerns are legion while in, contrast,
instances of those that have been brought to book are few and far between, and
the consequent disillusionment and frustration arising out of an acute sense/
feeling of being let down have already assumed menacing proportions; the all
enveloping gloom, despondency, apathy and cynicism need hardly be mentioned.
How
well demarcated is the distinction between the divine function and the human
functionary and yet, how often and how easily is it lost sight of! And again,
how very clear and unambiguous is another equally cardinal proposition that
holding a position in public life brings with it a need to live up to standards
, not ordinarily expected of others and when such constraints are accepted
voluntarily and adhered to scrupulously, the position provides exceptional
opportunities to serve the community and the nation, which too is as often and
as easily overlooked! Why? Why does this happen when things are so brilliantly
luminous/patent as to be obvious even to the meanest intelligence? Shouldn’t
the public functionaries, almost all of them, pause for a moment in their
insane pursuit of/mad rush for power and pelf and ponder over the paramount
importance of the not so subtle distinction between themselves as human individuals
and their functions as divine duties , on the one hand, and the utter folly of
bartering away a unique privilege to serve society in exchange for narrow
personal gain, on the other and act according to their conscience through self
imposed ineluctable restrictions on their baser instincts and appetites if for
no other reason than that of saving their own humanity, the most precious
possession we all are born with? Indeed they should and in all probability ,
they would too, for otherwise they would be overtaken by the events of the fast
emerging environment of greater transparency and accountability in the
governance of the country , thanks largely to the ever rising levels of public
awareness, keen vigilance , possibly giving birth also to vigilantism and media
alertness.
Afterall, what can be more reasonable than to expect that just as they
were quick to grasp an opportunity to stray from the straight path with
impunity in a permissive milieu, so too would they be smart enough to know how
to fall in line the moment the warning bells ring as they seem to have already
started doing. He who knows how to fish in shallow waters knows how to avoid
the perils of deep waters. Even if as little as a tenth of the concern and talk
about these compulsions of the moment get translated into concrete reality in
the form of built in checks and balances to ensure clean, hassle-free public
life, which by no stretch of imagination can be dubbed as a cry for the moon,
it would mean a tremendous boost to the sagging morale of the people and a grand day-break after a
long night of darkness. This is quite feasible since they are amenable to self
correction as they should be , with the advantage of their educated background
and privileged position in the society more readily than other sections of the
society.
The
question, therefore, is not whether it would happen but when it would happen?
We would succeed, our dreams , hopes , expectations and aspirations would soon
come to fruition yielding a rich harvest and, more fundamentally, we would be
wrong not to try sincerely enough.
Finally to say all this is not to imply that every public functionary is
a compulsive sinner or a personification of unmitigated evil. Far from it. The
performance of a few of them is nothing short of admirable, marked as it is by
such shining virtues as probity and honesty, impartiality and objectivity, and
diligence and hard work . But the pity is that their number is so small as not
to inspire hope and instil confidence in the country’s future. Hence the
prayer, may their tribe multiply many fold.
B1-105
A relationship grounded on mutual trust and
love knows no rights and duties, for in an environment of spontaneous love and
trust, rights and duties cease to be, yielding place to mutuality of interests
which reigns supreme.
B1-107, 108
Entered after 71.
B1-109
Maturity is when you know what you are
without reference to what others think or say about you.
B1-110
To say that rhetoric rarely, if ever , is
grounded on real intentions is much too self evident even to need mention. Yet,
in a society steeped in illiteracy, ignorance and poverty, it is the common
currency of political discourse and ready money of the politicians.
B1-111
Rigorous research, acute observation,
brilliant analysis, persuasive arguments, precise presentation and lucid
writing are the hallmarks of a good book. If in addition , the narrative style
of the book is ‘hauntingly original’ and the writing idiomatic and copiously
sprinkled with ‘luminous metaphors’ and telling phrases besides being permeated
with “enduring fragrance of rich experience”, the author can look forward to
wide readership , rave reviews and undying fame. It needs hardly be mentioned
that irrespective of its success or failure in the marketplace to the extent to
which one or the other of these ingredients suffers, to that extent the book is
deficient.
B1-112 (B 2-14)
Fame is an enchantress that lures men to
scale higher and higher peaks until they reach that peak that they take to be
the tallest or the peak of the peaks, not knowing how it feels like to be
there. And yet, their search for still loftier peaks goes on relentlessly. It
is as if they feel impelled to press onwards and upwards until they find
themselves on some precarious/precipitous pinnacle teetering with terror at the
imminent prospect of being toppled down any moment only to be confronted in the
end with an unexpectedly frightful feeling of loss and loneliness on the one
hand, and a shattering sense of utter futility and pointlessness of the whole
exercise on the other. Presumably, their predicament will be no different from
that of a man standing on the verge of a precipice or the edge of an abyss,
constantly struggling to steady himself lest he should fall , for he knows that
if he falls, he dashes himself to pieces/ or he will be smashed into
smithereens. Often times, they do indeed go over the cliff edge with their legs
pumping furiously in thin air and with no escape from their imminent
vertiginous plummet to earth to meet some grizzly end.
That the iconic or the near iconic status is fraught with frightful
perils is known to so few that many pursue it with single minded devotion only
to realize in the end how huge a price they have paid and rue the consequences
flowing from the undue demands that it continues to make on his
resources—social, financial and psychological. They feel that they are isolated
and alienated and find themselves trapped on all sides. A prison is a prison
even if it be a golden one and the fact that it is entered into out of free
choice does not make it any the less rigorous.
“Fame is a very odd and very isolating experience…and people crave it.”
One finds that very hard to understand. (Add B1-116)
B1-113
The true worth of money is known only to
those few that have just enough of it to take care of their needs, the vast
multitudes that have scarcely any money with the lessons of hardships and
privations of poverty etched deeply on their psyche and those that have a
little more than what they need with their dreams of imminent prosperity and
plenty seemingly within reach of fulfilment tend to grossly overestimate its
worth while the miniscule minority that have it in abundance are incline to
treat it either as dirt or God according to their temperament , attitude of
mind and outlook on life.
No
wonder the world is full of rupee chasers , profligates / wastrels and
worshippers of wealth as an end in itself engrossed in their favourite pastimes
hardly paying any heed to the wise few who know its true worth.
However, far from the madding crowd, sitting in an obscure corner that
one in a million mahatma is quietly paring away items from his already brief
list of needs in his attempt to abbreviate it to the absolute /irreducible
minimum, thereby eliminating the raison d’etre of money itself so he may devote
himself totally to the perennial quest for the preternatural truth.
Even from a purely worldly point of view, one should have just enough
wealth to lead a comfortable life. Wealth being only a means to a happy life
and not an end in itself , what matters is not how much money we have but how
well we manage it. Extremes like poverty and luxury distort life and bring only
problems with them; the former by making one a slave of one’s circumstances,
and the latter by actually holding one in its thralldom, either alternative
being equally degrading and dehumanizing.
(to be continued)
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