Soumitra
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Reality: Modi, Rahul, Tejpal, Talwars all pawns in the battle of perceptions
My teacher used to tell this story to great effect. There was a surgeon by the name of Dr Shukla. Everybody thought he was god of surgery. After 20 years of impeccable and fine work in the operation theatre, that day came in his life. He left an instrument inside a patient's body. The patient was operated upon again and the instrument was later recovered. What did never recover was Dr Shukla's image. He gained notoriety for leaving scissors in patients' stomachs. Note the plurals. As if leaving scissors in patients' stomachs was his primary skill, not surgery. Twenty years of successfully saving lives wiped out by one moment.
Nupur Talwar, Rajesh Talwar and Tarun Tejpal.
Did you not make your mind about who killed Aarushi before the court said her parents did it? Now you find yourself either vindicated or outraging about the judgment. Is Tarun Tejpal not a rapist? Of course he is, after all, all the evidence point the finger towards him. Modi may have developed Gujarat but as a person he is evil and has no idea about history and geography. That these are just perceptions make little difference to our perception of it all. We are living in an information revolution age and there is so much information that our brain finds it difficult to process them all. So we borrow processed information. We treat somebody else's opinion as information and popular opinion as truth. This is the beauty and the ugliness of how we perceive beauty and ugliness.
Take Modi for example. After his eventful Patna rally, media did not question the facts in his speech. It was rightly busy covering the terrorist attack on his rally. Then Nitish Kumar pointed out 'glaring mistakes' of history and geography, the media went to town with Modi's wanton misrepresentation of facts. Once again, the media did not question Nitish Kumar's knowledge and analysis of Modi. It received processed information and happily took it. So was Modi not wrong in saying Taxila is in Bihar? He would have been but he did not say that. While praising Bihar's historical glories, Modi said when you think of the education age, you think of Nalanda and Taxila. Nalanda is in Bihar. Taxila is not.
Now imagine someone praising India's contribution to the world saying when you think of peace icons of the modern world, the first names that come to mind are Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela. One is not saying all three are Indians. There's absolutely nothing wrong in a statement like that. Because Gandhi, one of the three, is from India. In case of Bihar, Nalanda is one of the two.
But how can you forgive him for saying Chandragupta was from Gupta dynasty while the truth is that Chandragupta was of the Maurya dynasty. Because Nitish says so? Well, Chandragupta Maurya was a great king of the Maurya dynasty but Chandragupta II of the Gupta dynasty was no less. He was called Chandragupta The Great or Vikramaditya. He won Gujarat, Saurashtra and Malwa and made Ujjain his new capital. But he was the king of Pataliputra, now Patna. So when Modi said it we believed it without questioning. When Pawan Varma-tutored Nitish Kumar questioned Modi, we accepted Nitish's questioning without questioning.
Now take the Alexander and Patna controversy. So was world conqueror Alexander defeated by Biharis in Patna as Modi claimed? Well, the answer is Modi made no such claim. He was pilloried for messing up both history and geography but his mistake was messing up poetry.
He said:
Din-e-illahi ka bebak beda,
naksha jiska aqsa-e-alam mei pahucha,
kiye paanch sau paar sato samandar,
na aman mei thithka na gulzam mei jhijhka,
Wo dooba dohabe mein Ganga ke aakar
This is a musaddas (a poetry style) by 19th Century Urdu poet Altaf Hussain of Panipat. He is known by his pen name Hali.
Woh deene Ilahi ka bebak beda,
Nishan jiska aqsa-e-alam mein pahuncha;
Mazahim hua koi khatra na jiska,
Na Amman main thithka na kulzam mein jhijhka;
kiya pashe par jisne saton samandar,
woh dooba dahane mein Ganga ke aakar
The flotilla of the religion of Allah, that left imprints all over the world, what was undeterred by danger, did not waver in the deserts nor hesitated in the rivers, which crossed the seven seas, came here and sank at the mouth of the Ganga.
Hali was not ruing the defeat of Islam. He was talking about the defeat of Islam's sword and attributing it to the land where even the marauders came to make a home and stayed.
Modi may have remembered it from his favourite historian Sita Ram Goel's notes or from RSS shakha meetings. But the poem wasn't about Alexander but about Islam. Now knowing Modi and his popular image, could he say anything about the defeat of Islam? Hell, no. So he brought in Alexander but with the same intention as that of Hali.
So was he criticised for misquoting Hali? No. Because bringing Hali will make the processing of information difficult for everyone, so even his critics chose the easier way. Did we even think for a moment that critics could be wrong? There's little chance of thinking Modi can be right. He can't be because he's Feku, right? That's the image now, cleverly created, not by him but by his detractors. For others, it is slip of tongue. For Modi, it is lack of knowledge.
So anything to do with facts, if it's wrong it sticks on him. Like anything stupid, incoherent and illogical sticks on Rahul Gandhi. Because he's the Pappu of our times. So even when he says poverty is a state of mind, he is pooh-poohed by all and sundry. If an economist said it we would go ooh! By the way everybody loved it when writer Bernard Hare said it: "If you think you're poor, you're poor. If you think you're rich, you're rich. Poverty is a state of mind." But Rahul cannot. He is the Pappu of the narrative where Modi is Feku.
So it is with Tarun Tejpal or Talwars or UPA2 or BJP. Once we form our opinion based on opinions we will make you God or Satan and then treat you as such. Tarun was the darling yesterday. Today they are claiming he has been a devil all this while. UPA has destroyed the country and Manmohan Singh is the weakest prime minister ever, but we voted the same UPA to power based on Manmohan Singh's performance. Talwars have divided us in two camps, but both sides have the adamantine, to use Tejpalese, outrage. Both absolutely sure of his innocence or guilt.
Do we need to worry? No, but we need to be aware of it. It's Sachin who needs to worry. He has tasted the bitterness of our sweetness when he was not in form. But not the holy motherload of it. Now he's a Bharat Ratna. He needs to tread very carefully. One mistake and he will be fallen. He is God. It takes just two letters to swap places to have an entire nation hound gods to ignominy. We are a lynch mob.
Read more at: Reality: Modi, Rahul, Tejpal, Talwars all pawns in the battle of perceptions : North, News - India Today
My teacher used to tell this story to great effect. There was a surgeon by the name of Dr Shukla. Everybody thought he was god of surgery. After 20 years of impeccable and fine work in the operation theatre, that day came in his life. He left an instrument inside a patient's body. The patient was operated upon again and the instrument was later recovered. What did never recover was Dr Shukla's image. He gained notoriety for leaving scissors in patients' stomachs. Note the plurals. As if leaving scissors in patients' stomachs was his primary skill, not surgery. Twenty years of successfully saving lives wiped out by one moment.
Did you not make your mind about who killed Aarushi before the court said her parents did it? Now you find yourself either vindicated or outraging about the judgment. Is Tarun Tejpal not a rapist? Of course he is, after all, all the evidence point the finger towards him. Modi may have developed Gujarat but as a person he is evil and has no idea about history and geography. That these are just perceptions make little difference to our perception of it all. We are living in an information revolution age and there is so much information that our brain finds it difficult to process them all. So we borrow processed information. We treat somebody else's opinion as information and popular opinion as truth. This is the beauty and the ugliness of how we perceive beauty and ugliness.
Take Modi for example. After his eventful Patna rally, media did not question the facts in his speech. It was rightly busy covering the terrorist attack on his rally. Then Nitish Kumar pointed out 'glaring mistakes' of history and geography, the media went to town with Modi's wanton misrepresentation of facts. Once again, the media did not question Nitish Kumar's knowledge and analysis of Modi. It received processed information and happily took it. So was Modi not wrong in saying Taxila is in Bihar? He would have been but he did not say that. While praising Bihar's historical glories, Modi said when you think of the education age, you think of Nalanda and Taxila. Nalanda is in Bihar. Taxila is not.
Now imagine someone praising India's contribution to the world saying when you think of peace icons of the modern world, the first names that come to mind are Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela. One is not saying all three are Indians. There's absolutely nothing wrong in a statement like that. Because Gandhi, one of the three, is from India. In case of Bihar, Nalanda is one of the two.
But how can you forgive him for saying Chandragupta was from Gupta dynasty while the truth is that Chandragupta was of the Maurya dynasty. Because Nitish says so? Well, Chandragupta Maurya was a great king of the Maurya dynasty but Chandragupta II of the Gupta dynasty was no less. He was called Chandragupta The Great or Vikramaditya. He won Gujarat, Saurashtra and Malwa and made Ujjain his new capital. But he was the king of Pataliputra, now Patna. So when Modi said it we believed it without questioning. When Pawan Varma-tutored Nitish Kumar questioned Modi, we accepted Nitish's questioning without questioning.
Now take the Alexander and Patna controversy. So was world conqueror Alexander defeated by Biharis in Patna as Modi claimed? Well, the answer is Modi made no such claim. He was pilloried for messing up both history and geography but his mistake was messing up poetry.
He said:
Din-e-illahi ka bebak beda,
naksha jiska aqsa-e-alam mei pahucha,
kiye paanch sau paar sato samandar,
na aman mei thithka na gulzam mei jhijhka,
Wo dooba dohabe mein Ganga ke aakar
This is a musaddas (a poetry style) by 19th Century Urdu poet Altaf Hussain of Panipat. He is known by his pen name Hali.
Woh deene Ilahi ka bebak beda,
Nishan jiska aqsa-e-alam mein pahuncha;
Mazahim hua koi khatra na jiska,
Na Amman main thithka na kulzam mein jhijhka;
kiya pashe par jisne saton samandar,
woh dooba dahane mein Ganga ke aakar
The flotilla of the religion of Allah, that left imprints all over the world, what was undeterred by danger, did not waver in the deserts nor hesitated in the rivers, which crossed the seven seas, came here and sank at the mouth of the Ganga.
Hali was not ruing the defeat of Islam. He was talking about the defeat of Islam's sword and attributing it to the land where even the marauders came to make a home and stayed.
Modi may have remembered it from his favourite historian Sita Ram Goel's notes or from RSS shakha meetings. But the poem wasn't about Alexander but about Islam. Now knowing Modi and his popular image, could he say anything about the defeat of Islam? Hell, no. So he brought in Alexander but with the same intention as that of Hali.
So was he criticised for misquoting Hali? No. Because bringing Hali will make the processing of information difficult for everyone, so even his critics chose the easier way. Did we even think for a moment that critics could be wrong? There's little chance of thinking Modi can be right. He can't be because he's Feku, right? That's the image now, cleverly created, not by him but by his detractors. For others, it is slip of tongue. For Modi, it is lack of knowledge.
So anything to do with facts, if it's wrong it sticks on him. Like anything stupid, incoherent and illogical sticks on Rahul Gandhi. Because he's the Pappu of our times. So even when he says poverty is a state of mind, he is pooh-poohed by all and sundry. If an economist said it we would go ooh! By the way everybody loved it when writer Bernard Hare said it: "If you think you're poor, you're poor. If you think you're rich, you're rich. Poverty is a state of mind." But Rahul cannot. He is the Pappu of the narrative where Modi is Feku.
So it is with Tarun Tejpal or Talwars or UPA2 or BJP. Once we form our opinion based on opinions we will make you God or Satan and then treat you as such. Tarun was the darling yesterday. Today they are claiming he has been a devil all this while. UPA has destroyed the country and Manmohan Singh is the weakest prime minister ever, but we voted the same UPA to power based on Manmohan Singh's performance. Talwars have divided us in two camps, but both sides have the adamantine, to use Tejpalese, outrage. Both absolutely sure of his innocence or guilt.
Do we need to worry? No, but we need to be aware of it. It's Sachin who needs to worry. He has tasted the bitterness of our sweetness when he was not in form. But not the holy motherload of it. Now he's a Bharat Ratna. He needs to tread very carefully. One mistake and he will be fallen. He is God. It takes just two letters to swap places to have an entire nation hound gods to ignominy. We are a lynch mob.
Read more at: Reality: Modi, Rahul, Tejpal, Talwars all pawns in the battle of perceptions : North, News - India Today
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