SLAP STICK

July 2010

A school student commits suicide as his teacher slaps him in front of the class.
Media raises a hue and cry… Breaking news for 3-4 days…. Astounding and articulate arguments on live TV with all and sundry pitching in with their ‘expert’ comments…. Human rights activists ready to pounce..

A school student again attempts to commit suicide as his teacher reprimanded him for coming late to the class.
Media raises a hue and cry… Breaking news for 3-4 days…. Astounding and articulate arguments on live TV with all and sundry pitching in with their ‘expert’ comments…. Human rights activists ready to pounce.. And the story continues……!!!!!!

PICTURE REWIND

July 1995

A 12-year-old nondescript boy was struggling with the Chakrasana in his Yogasanas class in school…. He was not able to do it properly… He was trying hard but somehow was not able to manage it…. Suddenly, out of the blue moon emerges the PT sir… pulls the boy’s belt up and tries to lift him up in Chakrasana…. The boy, unable to bear the pain, falls down… The Sir slaps him then uses his trademark stick and bashes him on his buttocks…. Fighting tears, the boy tries again but does not succeed…. After the Sir goes away, he shares a joke with a fellow friend about how mean that Sir was…. Both have a hearty laugh and that was the end of that…!!!!!

The 12-year-old boy did not attempt to commit suicide just because his teacher beat him… Neither did his parents bother to inform ‘media’ about it…. Although there was not much choice at that time with only the good old Doordarshan being the only channel broadcasting quality news…. !!!! But nevertheless, the boy never informed such trivial things to his parents at home… He was too preoccupied with other wonderful things in life to complain about it to his parents…. Once when he did, his parents just told him that it was part and parcel of school life and one needs to just get on with it… And that’s exactly what the boy did every time he was beaten up …!!!!!

Just imagine what would have happened if this incident took place in these times… Channels would have had a field day…. Because there would have been a suicide every day in a school like the one mentioned above where students were beaten with a stick on their buttocks…. !!!! Now let me not overemphasize on the beating part in this old school… Yes, children were beaten up but only as a last resort…

I am quite sure that people of my age would have been slapped or beaten in their schools at least once… None of us ever had any qualms about it as we never allowed that slap to affect our heart… The slap on face was never assumed as a slap on our hearts…!!!!

But things are entirely different these days…. Children just don’t listen to kind words… More often than not, they tend to misuse their freedom…. And parents have to take a major share of blame for this… I have seen many a time parents coming to the rescue of their children and fighting with their neighbors although knowing that their child is at fault…!!! This somehow creates a sense of invincibility in the minds of children…. They know that they can do bad things and still get away as their parents would be there to shield them.. !!! This creates some sort of a false sense of invincibility around the child. This makes him/her feel as though no one has a right to scold him or her…!!

In every classroom, there is bound to be a section of students who are extra-sensitive and some who would be totally thick-skinned… And it is these extra-sensitive types who are more often than not overly protected by their parents…. Parents do not allow these children to be tough… They don’t allow them to get out of their shell as they keep on being extra-protective….!!! When such children are out of their comfort zone they tend to feel that the entire world is conspiring against them… They grow suspicious of the good intentions of their teachers as well… !!!

It is up to the parents to ensure that children don’t really get bothered by all the beating that happens in the school… Yes, agreed that even the teachers need to restrain themselves from resorting to such treatment… But then, there are circumstances where it is imperative to use the slap or the stick…!!!

Even the media needs to be slightly restrained when reporting such issues… It should highlight only genuine cases otherwise people are going to misuse their power… A case in point being the innumerable cases of small kids falling in the open bore-wells… It all started with PRINCE and it just went on and on….!!!!!

I am neither a proponent of the philosophy – “Spare the rod and spoil the child” nor am I totally against it.. But only thing that is needed is a bit more tactfulness and restraint because not every kid is like that nondescript kid beaten up for not doing Chakrasana properly…. Needless to say, that nondescript boy is none other than Mr. Manish…!!!

UNDERDOG UNDERWEAR...!!!!

Well.. Well.. Well… I guess most of you must be curious about the title of this article. People who are reading this article just because of the title are in for big disappointment. That’s because this article is going to stress upon the ‘Underdogs’ rather than the ‘Underwear’.. I had this dubious title just to grab your attention…. All those filthy minds who want to read about underwear can better switch on their television sets. There you can see Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan flaunting their chiseled bodies whilst brandishing Dollar Club, Amul Macho, Macroman, etc etc… Others read on….


India won the cricket World Cup in 1983… When the world cup started, no one in their wildest dreams ever gave a chance to India… But miraculously, India pulled it off… Same was the case with Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup…. And may be, who knows, Netherlands might pull off an upset over a rampaging Spain and be the new World champions in Soccer… I am sure during most of the matches people would have wanted the weaker team to win in their heart of hearts… At least I did… There is a certain sense of romanticism associated with seeing a weaker team pull it off against the stronger team… Everyone wants to see a timid David pull it off against the mighty Goliath….!!!!!


Extrapolating these examples from the sporting field into real life would bring up some interesting observations. What is it with these underdogs that fascinate everyone? What is that extra something which catches the imagination of everyone?? What is it that makes everyone root for the underdog??? Well, the answer is pretty simple. In the heart of hearts, everybody thinks that he/she is an underdog. It can be any field. Some people consider themselves to be underdogs in studies. Some consider it in the sports world. Some consider themselves underdogs as far as financial matters are concerned.. That’s the fact of life.. Some of you may not agree with me forthrightly but I am sure there will be a tiny pulse in the smallest of corners of your heart which would agree with me…!!!! This holds true particularly with us Indians… Most of us are more emotional than practical… Let’s take the example of Bollywood.. Great superstars from Bollywood have something in common… Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan… All the three have one thing common… All the three were underdogs when they entered the industry… And look at where they are right now… Not many would have as much mass appeal as these three great superstars of Bollywood… Even down south, two of the biggest superstars Chiranjeevi and Rajnikanth were underdogs when they entered the industry… Agreed that all these individuals had immense talent but the biggest asset that these five individuals had was the support and goodwill of the masses… If it was not for the fans these superstars would have been anonymous individuals… What made the masses support them? It was the strong desire to see the underdog succeed..!!!


Most of you who are Harry Potter aficionados would appreciate this scene from the second book, The Chamber of Secrets… When Harry Potter goes to meet the Principal of Hogwart’s, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, he sees the mystical phoenix, Fawkes. Before his eyes the phoenix gets burnt and dies… But in a matter of seconds, it rises again from the ashes, ready for a new life…This is exactly how we wish an underdog to be… We always wish someone completely despondent to win against all odds just like the phoenix rose from the ashes…!!!!!


But there is a flip-side to this entire romance for an underdog… What if the Goliath is us? What if it is our team??? Well… honestly in such a scenario all this romance about underdog will go out of the window… I am sure no one will support Bangladesh to win against India in cricket.. That’s the fact of the matter… We would never sympathize with the underdog if we are at the receiving end. We would like to believe in the adage – “Every dog has its day.”. But equally true is the fact that we would never want this dog to have his day against us. So, what we can understand from this whole thing is that this basically depends on the situation. Situation is what dictates terms to us and we become slave to it and change our perceptions accordingly..

Underdog is good as long as we are not the “Overdog”…!!!!!