Glorying in God

Watching tit-bits of the mega Oscar award function at Kodak Theater in California, especially the Indian fraternity, showing of all their assets, as if this is the end of the world, I got a feeling that it was time for us to cool down, and even play our trumpets a little softer. Who knows when the trumpet may start blaring and annoying the people around. But in the scene full of color and sound, one little phrase by the Mozart of Madras caught my attention. Before showering encomium on his mother, A. R. Rahman dedicated the twin Oscar awards to God, and ended his short speech with a phrase he said in Tamil, "ella pugazhum iraivanukke". I just couldn't believe that a man of that stature will say this, 'all glory to God'. To attribute such an achievement to God is no mean gesture, it was beyond my imagination.

Was it a publicity stunt, as the public figures are wont to do often? I realized that it was not, because his mother said something in the similar tone, attributing the success of her son to the work of God. It was amazing to see how these simple people see God, and find a secure place in Him/Her. Granted that is young musician had to discontinue his studies to make a living with his musical talents, he had nothing to complain, or curse his fate; nor did he make a speech saying if he had received enough support, he would have won the Oscar sever years ago! One of the greatest and most enduring virtues of Islam is submission to the will of God, and Rahman was hinting at it.

He sounded more religious than most religious do. There is a mad rush to acknowledging all achievements to individual efforts, toil and sweat, and seldom do we come across people who would give due credit to a force that is beyond human comprehension. In this world that is soaked in disbelief and questioning, we often would like to keep God as a matter of personal conviction, and would only hesitate to bring Him/Her to our public space. I would like to think of the moments during this day, when I had brought even the word God at any moment of my public life; yes, I did, but that was in acknowledgment to the belief of a gentleman who came to see me. Is it possible for me to take my (some would be hesitant to claim God with a personal pronoun; but can't I have anything personal with God?) God?

We the Jesuits have as our motto, something what Rahman has publicly proclaimed, and most of our institutions have the first letters of this Latin phrase carved on the walls, printed in block letters on the books and notebooks : AMDG (ad majorem dei gloriam - for the greater glory of God)! Each of us Jesuits are called to do exactly what Rahman had done on the Red Carpet at Kodak Theater - to attribute all our successes, achievements to God, who is instrumental in all our activities, even our very existence. I would not venture to assess if we are able to do it always, and unconditionally; that is beyond the scope of this little reflection; but one thing is for sure: in the initial stages of the Society, all made conscious effort to bow their heads with humility before God, for making use of them as His/Her instrument.

It is a common belief that God carries us along wherever He/She goes, and is present at every thick and thin of life; is it not right then that we too take him along to our offices, work places, to our markets, tea stalls, and malls? I may not be able to publicly announce that I owe everything I have and have achieved to God (because there are more than I can believe who are there to frown at me if I were to say that), but it is possible for me to pause for a moment during the day, and whisper in His/Her ears, Thank you, God! This little gesture may not make us saints, but can for sure make us human, who can bend the knees before the mighty powers of God. If I seek his glory and honor, then I will have very little to pull up my collars and blow my trumpet, so that everyone on earth hears it!

So What?

The man who made history during the last Olympics in Beijing for the maximum number of gold medals for swimming is in trouble. Michael Phelps from the United States of America has been banned in his home nation for three months for photos which showed him smoking a marijuana pipe. Glory and honor are the greatest enemies of humanity; the more one climbs up the ladder, the lower they go in appreciation of the gifts of life and a sense of gratitude to the human family for paving way for them to reach their heights. Phelps was no humble man as he gathered the gold medals and walked out of the podium; at least he didn’t seem to be so. There was a ray of pride and arrogance, that he is on the top of the world was so very evident in each of his facial expressions. The fact that he had beaten his own record during the previous Olympics put him on a higher pedestal. But that is Phelps.

But the fact is the world has its own share of Phelps, and if we look carefully we may find a dozen of them around us, with different names, shapes, goals in life, and identities. There are people who struggle hard to reach certain heights in life, but once they reach the heights, they look down upon the path they had trodden, and the many people who had pushed him up inch by inch. Every one may become irrelevant and immaterial for them, because they have achieved what they wanted, and they think they are the masters of their situations; but unfortunately nature has its own dynamics to bring down the mighty and haughty, at the same pace they had climbed up. If only the high and mighty realize that life is a not a static moment, but a continuum, where we are pushed and pulled according to different currents, and sometimes we might find ourselves helpless victims of circumstances.

Achievement is a curse on humanity; we tend to attribute every good thing that is happening in our lives to personal achievement, to our sweat and blood. Think of the boy who after doing a short errand, gave a slip to his mother, which said she owed one dollar for the errands; and at the end of the day, the mother made a slip for her son, which enlisted the moments she had carried him in her womb, nursed him in his childhood, keeping awake when he was sick, and after adding up the enormous sum, wrote underneath, Paid in full! We tend to look at ourselves, and not beyond our nose, as it were. Behind every personal achievement, we would notice the sweat and toil of many men and women, the sacrifice of several nameless, faceless persons. In fact, it may be right to say that we do not achieve anything to merit. We are given so graciously that we often fail to take them into account.

Giving due credit to the persons who have groomed and shaped us, and even pruned us in time, is no more in practice in this world of competition. If I were to take a sheet of paper and start putting down the names of all the persons who have made my day today, then probably, I need to go in for several sheets of paper. There is an army of persons involved in my wellbeing. It is because the farmers toil in rain and shine, that I am able to enjoy the fruits of their labor in the bread that eat, not to mention the men and women of the bakery who toil to serve afresh at the table. The sales persons who dare the rain and cold winter to reach it in front of my doorstep. It is an endless list that I will end with. Just think of the shirt I wear, how many people are involved in clothing me properly; but have I ever thought of these people, or have I said to myself I bought it for a price, and I don’t need to think of anyone else!

Today I take a few minutes for myself. From the moment when my parents came together and decided to give life to me up to this moment when I am a grown adult, I would like to think of the different persons who have shaped my life, and groomed me. Many of them are no more, and several others have faded away in my memory. But I do remember many of them, who are still afresh. Let me call each one by name, recollect their face, give an offering of smile, and whisper in their ears, Thank you, you have made me. It is true, a good many of the people who are at the disposal of the world, doing all sorts of odd jobs, so that we may enjoy our days, do not even expect us to be grateful; they do not even look for a nod of approval. But should it make me feel indifferent towards their valuable contribution in my life? At our every stepping stone, we can see the toil and sweat of many, and they are the bread and butter of our every success, achievement. I would like to close my eyes and stand in deep respect and gratitude to the world and her glorious children who have made me what I am. (Brussels)

The Human Audit

The title may appear intimidating, especially in the background of the crumbling markets and the malpractices which cripple many a commercial firm. As we stand at the last lap of the year, what does this human audit means. First of all, the very term needs explication and explanation, for this is not a common term that is often used to expound the evaluation at the end of the year. By the phrase human audit I mean a need to evaluate one’s performance, not on the basis of a set of criteria, but on the basis of one’s achievement as seen by oneself, without any intrusion by a second or third party. This includes basically two areas: the success and the failures, but these two are seen not as water-tight compartments, but as one flowing into the other. At the end of the year, we may find that we have so many incomplete tasks to be completed, and may realize that all our efforts to fix deadlines have failed miserably. But it is important that we become aware of our strengths and drawbacks, so that we are able to take ourselves seriously in the new year.

Very seldom do we make a self-evaluation at the end of the year; all the business firms and commercial houses undertake routine exercise to evaluate their performance. The two primary concepts around which evaluations are conducted in business sectors are : performance and achievement. But when we come to human resources, of persons we cannot force these two concepts to take top position. If we attempt that way, then we will realize that we too soon equate human persons to machines, and that may be the death-knell of the human-oriented business center. Perhaps the most effective evaluation that we can think of for human persons is the one where in they are the subject and the object. They evaluate themselves using their own norms and criteria. But an opportunity should be given to them to see for themselves how they have fared in the year that has passed away.

I would like to make five or ten criteria to evaluate my success, and another ten criteria to evaluate my failures. It is not important for me to identify the areas where I have failed, but more than merely identifying, I need to find the reasons which were responsible for such failure. It may be related to either myself or others, or even the infrastructure facilities provided by the firm. What is important is that I am able to see these for myself, and don’t require someone to tell me what had gone wrong in my sector. If I find out the lacunae in my work, that would save my face and help me to redress the lacunae without even letting others know that something had gone wrong in my area of work.

Needless to say, I need to take an audit for all the different areas where I am involved, interpersonal, academic, social, economic, religious and even familial. I cannot afford to drop any particular area, without assessing how I had fared. If I do this exercise consciously and seriously, then I am sure to make progress in the days to come; if I don’t feel the need to assess my different areas of involvement, then I am sure to stagnate, if not go backwards in progress. One may not do this officially, but it is important that one spends some time quietly reflecting about these two areas, and similarly finding reasons what had gone wrong in the process. It is important that I take forward the areas where I had succeeded and to re-plan the areas where I need extra effort to make it tick. Human mind is capable of fusing ideas from nowhere in order to provide solution to most difficult of problems. All that we need is effort to find adequate solutions.

In order to engage in this sort of human audit, I need to take time off from the hustle-bustle of everyday life and commitments, so that I can seriously enter into my inner self, pick up areas which I rarely pay attention to. It would benefit if I can go to a place where I can be all by myself without anyone to disturb me. There are two ways how I can conduct audit : I may go chronologically from the first of January last year, and go month by month, recollecting the different events and incidents which had either helped you or prevented you from carry out the task you have been given. The second way is to go in terms of area of work or involvement. In either case, one can see for oneself that there are areas which require fine-tuning, and there are areas which require rescheduling of action plans. If I am honest to myself and genuinely wish to take my life forward, then I can be sure to find areas where I need to improve. The next year provides an opportunity for me to take life forward.

Performance Paranoia

If there is one buzz word that makes its rounds in corporate houses and business centers and management schools, it is achievement. Everything in these centers is geared towards what is better known as 'performance'; naturally a better performance leads to a better achievement. Everyone today is judged on the basis of performance or achievement. While those who perform badly are given a walk-out call, while those who perform well are encouraged to do even better. It is true that in business or in academic circles one does not wish to see the performance graph turn towards the bottom; it has to keep shooting upwards, until it touches the roof. But the magic of the so-called ceiling of these performance will never take place, because of the simple reason that we live in a world where the ceiling is illusive, or to use a computer word, it is virtual. That is why the present day world has created so many burnt-out cases; and each of us wish that we don't land up in that category!

It is pity that there is very little consideration to those who cannot perform well, or cannot produce a brilliant achievement record; they are the losers in the rat-race of the market forces. Often people are reduced to mere machines that can perform without ever getting tired. In fact one of the tragedies of our times is, we are called to perform like machines, without a heart and conscience. If there is corporate gain at the expense of personal loss, that can be considered a viable option. Unfortunately if there are more unhappy people today, it is thanks to the kind of yardstick we have made for ourselves on the basis of performance, achievement.

Everyone in our society is after those who can do well, who can excel; if there are one hundred schools and institutions promoting the causes of the intelligent, brilliant wizards, there may be one or two schools for the losers in the battle. The best brains of the nation are those who would get through the National Eligibility Test or those who get easily through the numerous competitive examinations, and those who will walk through the portals of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM). This is the creamy layer, as they are labeled these days. There are all sorts of scholarships awarded to these to excel and strengthen the nation's economy.

Some days ago, I had attended a meeting where the state minister for Minority affairs came to speak about the numerous schemes and scholarships available to the Christians. The basic requirement to avail most of the scholarship is to secure at least 50 per cent marks in the preceding class. But having lived for 4 years in the rural Bengal in the recent past, I know that for most of the rural students without any chance for tuition, securing 50 per cent marks in the school is an impossible situation. In such a situation, I can hardly think of any one in the rural Bengal availing these scholarship. When I raised this issue, the representatives of the ministry said that they cannot do anything about it!

Can anything be done to remedy this situation - when those who perform well are given a boost to climb high in the ladder, while the losers are left for ever to languish in misery. There is a way out: if we can consider not only performance, but also the competence of the students and evaluate them accordingly. If a child is capable of securing 50 per cent marks and secures 45 per cent, that is much better than another child capable of securing 80 per cent but gets only 60 per cent. That means we need to devise means of measuring the capability, competence of the students; and the same thing can also be applied to companies, though that may bring down the quality of production, but we can be sure that we do justice to humanity. I am aware there may not be many takers for this proposal, but even if some people are inspired to look at young hearts not as participants in performance rat-race, but as participants in race to save their sanity and humanity!