Scratch. To be finalized.
For about six months, since the time the noise around the Indian elections started to get loud, there's been a question that had been haunting me. Why would so many of my educated friends, from similar background, same tastes and even the same thinking till now, differ vastly on the topic of elections?Then I went to a cricket stadium recently and there I saw my country, in its full diversity, all the while searching for symptoms that will explain me the thin line that separated this crowd, that made them choose AAP over BJP or vice versa.
When I first started mentally grappling with the issue, I began by thinking that this was merely a difference of the extent of honesty a person would allow in his life's ecosystem. Beyond a point, excessive honesty can make you a Yudhishthir and he's not as revered as the not so honest bigger Hindu God, Krishna. However, we know that there's got to be a certain basic minimum shameful quantity of honesty required in every God, else you run the risk of being compared to Kansa. I'd concluded that the ones in support of AAP were on an average more honest than those in support of the BJP. This may still be true, however it was semi-convincing for myself. Honestly.
And with every passing day, around me at work, on social media, the voices on TV, in the newspapers and so on, as I saw the crowd rooting for BJP grow larger and louder, I realized that the wave took away a lot of my honest friends - the ones I grew up with, studied with and enjoyed with. They were getting attracted to BJP despite something that didn't seem right. It was surely not just honesty, I thought, because the ones who were swept away were in no clear way either more honest or dishonest that me. The discovery of honesty as the thin line was not to be my Eureka moment. I concluded and thence struggled for months to follow, that honestly wasn't alasthe most significant difference that makes the AAP and BJP supporters tear into each others' ideologies.
I kept trying to draw parallels and separate the two tribes. I kept looking for similarities and dissimilarities. The random mental sampling threw up things like AAP supporters have sharper features or maybe more likely to have a beard while the BJP guys were usually louder and did not have sharp noses. And that the AAPians usually heard rock and thus had a slightly higher rebellious streak in them, whereas the BJPians were usually at discs in the night dancing away to Bollywood and Punjabi numbers, all this while chuckling and then chiding myself that I have way too many other things to figure out in life than draw these ludicrous parallels.
Then to my mind, came the second almost convincing argument, something about which I didn't openly write about, because that argument seemed completely wrong to me myself! I'd started to think4 that the AAPians had a greater proportion of the extremely intelligent variety, knowing very well that I'm going to end up sounding a fool. Some of my friends who'd scored far higher in examinations (which is a lowest common measure of intelligence in our kickass education system) were BJP supporters. And then I concluded that BJPians were usually more aggressive, with greater ambition and far more competitive.
All these six months, knowing very well that what's different is so subtle that it's not going to come easy. There isn't much difference between me and my friend from college Kunal with whom we've shared similar passions and tastes in cricket, teamed up together and worked in tandem during table tennis and had great many laughs together. There isn't much difference between me and Devansh, a common friend of my brother in law, whom I found among the more sensible people I've met recently. There isn't much difference between me and Kashyap, having passed out from the same school, the same post grad college, working in simular jobs and having similar family set ups. It left me grappling with the question. Whenever I thought hard and discussed, it left me baffled.
Then couple of days back in that non-descript cricket match that my brother in law dragged me to at Delhi Feroz Shah Kotla. I drove down to Connaught Place, parked my car there to take an auto rickshaw that will avoid me the hassle of parking near the cricket stadium. Reached about fifteen minutes into the match and high fived my friends and sat to watch, but couldn't get a full view. There was this guy (pictured below) about whom I thought what I renamed the picture below before uploading, "The biggest idiot watching the match at Feroz Shah Kotla on 18th May 2014.jpg". The six feet few inches tall guy just won't sit, despite a dozen requests by people behind him that they can't see the match if he stands, whereas he can very well see the match if he sits.
I'd come to watch the match not knowing which teams are playing and this was going to be a perfect source of entertainment. One guy besides me shouted, "Baith Jao", and whack a paper ball was hurled towards the Lambu. Good idea, we thought and started to tear and roll all placards we could find to manufacture paper balls on the spot at Feroz Shah Kotla. Soon there were about twenty people, guys, girls and children alike, all united by hatred towards this buffoon, rolling paper balls and throwing at this guy, who refused to pay attention to all who were irritated behind him. The first innings was a lot of fun. Some hit the guy's butt, others just whisked past his ear and the ones that got the bulls eye, bang on top of his head, were cheered by the crowd behind him that grew larger in bewilderment of how ridiculously indifferent this guy can be towards others for a wee bit extra fun of his own. He refused to budge, turned around once or twice, largely ignoring all the haters behind him and just turned in anger once shouting to the effect of "Ask people in front of me to sit!". The first innings was not a lot of fun, for some. The old couple who'd been sitting disquietly observing the younger generation squabble it out in the first innings left the stadium after the first innings.
I couldn't gauge the mentality of such a creature, who would go to the extent of discomforting everyone in bargain of his tiny selfish pleasure. In the second innings, everyone started off much better. Everyone was seated for the first two overs before a fat lady in a suit stood up to get a clearer view. Ready with our paper balls, we chucked for a couple of overs, only to see the crowd who were now standing and were seemingly more frustrated grew. So I decided to tackle it the right way. I jumped a couple of rows and asked the person to sit, and got the response, "Ask the person in front of me", so I asked him too, only to be led to the front of the seating area, where about 50-100 people were standing in front of those seated in row 1. So much for the row 1 tickets, I tried explaining to those people who everyone should take their seats so that everyone can enjoy it. One 20 something guy turned and uttered some explanation to me which defied any logic and I insisted that he take his seat. Everyone with the unfair advantage of having a lesser seat stood standing there together, unwilling to budge, not caring about the 20 rows discomforted behind them. They were the least bit concerned about the misery of those behind. They wanted their own welfare and the lawlessness of the land was allowing them the luxury of the survival of the fittest. We tried a few times and then gave up, and walked to the police busy watching the match and they replied, "Sir, nothing is possible here. No one will listen." We gave up and went back to watch the match behind the tall guy who still didn't care about any of the abuse he got all this while we were away.
I was convinced that no matter how much of a benefit of a doubt I gave this guy, no matter how big a rebel he was, which music he heard, whether his features were sharp or not, whether he was uncorrupt or not, whether he was Muslim or Hindu, he was not a guy who'd ever believe in AAP. There was a trait in him or the lack of it that separated him from anyone who has an inkling of liking for AAP. I'm certain that many of those who were throwing paper balls at him were also not AAP supporters and leaned towards BJP, but there was something extreme about this guy. Something, that struck me while having dinner today.
Empathy - the fine line that separated the supporters of BJP and AAP. All AAP supporters, irrespective of the extent of the honest streak that run in their blood or irreverence towards our established system, were individuals who were distinctly more empathetic than BJP supporters. Empathy, be it towards the massacred Muslims, or the poor whose money is being spent to fuel the election rally helicopters, or towards the people trying to save Narmada or towards the RTI activists murdered in their quest for information, the thin emotional line that separated the two sides of the globe was that of empathy.
Is being empathetic all that good? Well, its a nice sounding word and no one in our civilized world is that fond of ruthlessness either, so most likely people would say, yes. But there is literature of people hero-worshipped for not being empathetic, in other words, being decisive, bold and selfish (in the nicer sense of the word) like the John Galt of the Atlas Shrugged.
Not being empathetic isn't as bad a trait as some that we associate the BJPians with. They do care about the country's development, but what they don't care about it whether its lop-sided or not. They do care about the future of our minorities, but what they do not care about is what happened to Muslims in 2002. They do care about corruption, but do not feel for the plight of the common man who endures it every day. They do care about a united India but they do not care about LGBT rights. They are neither insensible nor selfish nor loud nor abusive nor unintelligent nor corrupt. They are all, just a bit less empathetic.
The fine line of lack of empathy is what separates them from the AAPians. Their decisive, bold, shrewd, unempathetic leader is Narendra Modi. He does not care about Pakistan or Muslims or the poor people whose monies are going to fill the pockets of the corporates. He will give you solid governance which will come at a cost only a very empathetic person would be able to feel.
For the majority, who're aiming to become better off than the other, who're willing to step onto the toes of the next person to climb up, who're unwilling to care whether the crowd behind can watch the cricket match or not, empathy isn't an emotion to be breaking one's head about. It's irrelevant, because if empathy comes to power, it will come at the cost of their own selfish development.
For about six months, since the time the noise around the Indian elections started to get loud, there's been a question that had been haunting me. Why would so many of my educated friends, from similar background, same tastes and even the same thinking till now, differ vastly on the topic of elections?Then I went to a cricket stadium recently and there I saw my country, in its full diversity, all the while searching for symptoms that will explain me the thin line that separated this crowd, that made them choose AAP over BJP or vice versa.
When I first started mentally grappling with the issue, I began by thinking that this was merely a difference of the extent of honesty a person would allow in his life's ecosystem. Beyond a point, excessive honesty can make you a Yudhishthir and he's not as revered as the not so honest bigger Hindu God, Krishna. However, we know that there's got to be a certain basic minimum shameful quantity of honesty required in every God, else you run the risk of being compared to Kansa. I'd concluded that the ones in support of AAP were on an average more honest than those in support of the BJP. This may still be true, however it was semi-convincing for myself. Honestly.
And with every passing day, around me at work, on social media, the voices on TV, in the newspapers and so on, as I saw the crowd rooting for BJP grow larger and louder, I realized that the wave took away a lot of my honest friends - the ones I grew up with, studied with and enjoyed with. They were getting attracted to BJP despite something that didn't seem right. It was surely not just honesty, I thought, because the ones who were swept away were in no clear way either more honest or dishonest that me. The discovery of honesty as the thin line was not to be my Eureka moment. I concluded and thence struggled for months to follow, that honestly wasn't alasthe most significant difference that makes the AAP and BJP supporters tear into each others' ideologies.
I kept trying to draw parallels and separate the two tribes. I kept looking for similarities and dissimilarities. The random mental sampling threw up things like AAP supporters have sharper features or maybe more likely to have a beard while the BJP guys were usually louder and did not have sharp noses. And that the AAPians usually heard rock and thus had a slightly higher rebellious streak in them, whereas the BJPians were usually at discs in the night dancing away to Bollywood and Punjabi numbers, all this while chuckling and then chiding myself that I have way too many other things to figure out in life than draw these ludicrous parallels.
Then to my mind, came the second almost convincing argument, something about which I didn't openly write about, because that argument seemed completely wrong to me myself! I'd started to think4 that the AAPians had a greater proportion of the extremely intelligent variety, knowing very well that I'm going to end up sounding a fool. Some of my friends who'd scored far higher in examinations (which is a lowest common measure of intelligence in our kickass education system) were BJP supporters. And then I concluded that BJPians were usually more aggressive, with greater ambition and far more competitive.
All these six months, knowing very well that what's different is so subtle that it's not going to come easy. There isn't much difference between me and my friend from college Kunal with whom we've shared similar passions and tastes in cricket, teamed up together and worked in tandem during table tennis and had great many laughs together. There isn't much difference between me and Devansh, a common friend of my brother in law, whom I found among the more sensible people I've met recently. There isn't much difference between me and Kashyap, having passed out from the same school, the same post grad college, working in simular jobs and having similar family set ups. It left me grappling with the question. Whenever I thought hard and discussed, it left me baffled.
Then couple of days back in that non-descript cricket match that my brother in law dragged me to at Delhi Feroz Shah Kotla. I drove down to Connaught Place, parked my car there to take an auto rickshaw that will avoid me the hassle of parking near the cricket stadium. Reached about fifteen minutes into the match and high fived my friends and sat to watch, but couldn't get a full view. There was this guy (pictured below) about whom I thought what I renamed the picture below before uploading, "The biggest idiot watching the match at Feroz Shah Kotla on 18th May 2014.jpg". The six feet few inches tall guy just won't sit, despite a dozen requests by people behind him that they can't see the match if he stands, whereas he can very well see the match if he sits.
I'd come to watch the match not knowing which teams are playing and this was going to be a perfect source of entertainment. One guy besides me shouted, "Baith Jao", and whack a paper ball was hurled towards the Lambu. Good idea, we thought and started to tear and roll all placards we could find to manufacture paper balls on the spot at Feroz Shah Kotla. Soon there were about twenty people, guys, girls and children alike, all united by hatred towards this buffoon, rolling paper balls and throwing at this guy, who refused to pay attention to all who were irritated behind him. The first innings was a lot of fun. Some hit the guy's butt, others just whisked past his ear and the ones that got the bulls eye, bang on top of his head, were cheered by the crowd behind him that grew larger in bewilderment of how ridiculously indifferent this guy can be towards others for a wee bit extra fun of his own. He refused to budge, turned around once or twice, largely ignoring all the haters behind him and just turned in anger once shouting to the effect of "Ask people in front of me to sit!". The first innings was not a lot of fun, for some. The old couple who'd been sitting disquietly observing the younger generation squabble it out in the first innings left the stadium after the first innings.
I couldn't gauge the mentality of such a creature, who would go to the extent of discomforting everyone in bargain of his tiny selfish pleasure. In the second innings, everyone started off much better. Everyone was seated for the first two overs before a fat lady in a suit stood up to get a clearer view. Ready with our paper balls, we chucked for a couple of overs, only to see the crowd who were now standing and were seemingly more frustrated grew. So I decided to tackle it the right way. I jumped a couple of rows and asked the person to sit, and got the response, "Ask the person in front of me", so I asked him too, only to be led to the front of the seating area, where about 50-100 people were standing in front of those seated in row 1. So much for the row 1 tickets, I tried explaining to those people who everyone should take their seats so that everyone can enjoy it. One 20 something guy turned and uttered some explanation to me which defied any logic and I insisted that he take his seat. Everyone with the unfair advantage of having a lesser seat stood standing there together, unwilling to budge, not caring about the 20 rows discomforted behind them. They were the least bit concerned about the misery of those behind. They wanted their own welfare and the lawlessness of the land was allowing them the luxury of the survival of the fittest. We tried a few times and then gave up, and walked to the police busy watching the match and they replied, "Sir, nothing is possible here. No one will listen." We gave up and went back to watch the match behind the tall guy who still didn't care about any of the abuse he got all this while we were away.
I was convinced that no matter how much of a benefit of a doubt I gave this guy, no matter how big a rebel he was, which music he heard, whether his features were sharp or not, whether he was uncorrupt or not, whether he was Muslim or Hindu, he was not a guy who'd ever believe in AAP. There was a trait in him or the lack of it that separated him from anyone who has an inkling of liking for AAP. I'm certain that many of those who were throwing paper balls at him were also not AAP supporters and leaned towards BJP, but there was something extreme about this guy. Something, that struck me while having dinner today.
Empathy - the fine line that separated the supporters of BJP and AAP. All AAP supporters, irrespective of the extent of the honest streak that run in their blood or irreverence towards our established system, were individuals who were distinctly more empathetic than BJP supporters. Empathy, be it towards the massacred Muslims, or the poor whose money is being spent to fuel the election rally helicopters, or towards the people trying to save Narmada or towards the RTI activists murdered in their quest for information, the thin emotional line that separated the two sides of the globe was that of empathy.
Is being empathetic all that good? Well, its a nice sounding word and no one in our civilized world is that fond of ruthlessness either, so most likely people would say, yes. But there is literature of people hero-worshipped for not being empathetic, in other words, being decisive, bold and selfish (in the nicer sense of the word) like the John Galt of the Atlas Shrugged.
Not being empathetic isn't as bad a trait as some that we associate the BJPians with. They do care about the country's development, but what they don't care about it whether its lop-sided or not. They do care about the future of our minorities, but what they do not care about is what happened to Muslims in 2002. They do care about corruption, but do not feel for the plight of the common man who endures it every day. They do care about a united India but they do not care about LGBT rights. They are neither insensible nor selfish nor loud nor abusive nor unintelligent nor corrupt. They are all, just a bit less empathetic.
The fine line of lack of empathy is what separates them from the AAPians. Their decisive, bold, shrewd, unempathetic leader is Narendra Modi. He does not care about Pakistan or Muslims or the poor people whose monies are going to fill the pockets of the corporates. He will give you solid governance which will come at a cost only a very empathetic person would be able to feel.
For the majority, who're aiming to become better off than the other, who're willing to step onto the toes of the next person to climb up, who're unwilling to care whether the crowd behind can watch the cricket match or not, empathy isn't an emotion to be breaking one's head about. It's irrelevant, because if empathy comes to power, it will come at the cost of their own selfish development.
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