The Devils Advocate - 1 : Humility is for Losers

“I learned a lot from him, but it is now my turn to teach him. So, it’s safe to say that I have surpassed him now””

“Age was partly a factor, but regardless of everything else, he just won to a better player”

These were the words used by the recently crowned world chess champion, the 23 year old Magnus Carlson in the post-match interviews when asked about the person he beat to win the title, the 44 year old Vishwanathan Anand in the prestigious tournament played at Chennai in November 2013. Ouch.. The full interview is here.

This interview which was published by Times of India used the headline “My turn to teach Anand now”. This is very easy to write off as sensationalism which comes naturally to the TOI journalists, but it is not. Carlsen was not asked whether he can teach Anand anything, he was simply asked what he has learned from his previous associations from Anand. No malice. So the headline is justified if anything. From what we know about TOI, they are not below posting a headline which reads “One-time wonder chess champion insults all-time great Anand”. Thankfully, the journalist wasn’t really the TOI mould.

So what if Carlsen is indeed a worthwhile winner and not a one-time wonder. What if Carslen truly surpassed Anand a couple of years back and the only reason he did not win the championship the previous year was because he choose to boycott the tournament. What if he is the highest ranked chess player ever? Does that give him the right to make such bold statements without regard to an accomplished legend? Doesn’t he know that you can only be successful in the long-run if you are ground to earth and humble like Anand? Does he understand what hardships Anand had to undergo to become a five time world champion? And yet see how humble Anand is? Why such disrespect for such a classy person? Why such inferior view on Indians?

Indeed, as can be anticipated, in the comments section of the above article - true, righteous Indians took the new champion to task and laid the lessons of humility, sobriety and what not. The comments ranged from ideas like “This guy must be suffering from Mad cow disease” to government-high-school-teacher advises like “You are young and new to all this kind of attention so first slip-up is understandable but when you are representing your country on a world stage , you need to be humble, that is my only criticism”. This was the major trend. But this one wins the prize “Anand deserves this for giving up the NATION”

No, this is exactly the fucked up shit that made me develop a complete disregard for, even become obnoxious to these kind of people. I’ll tell you what kind these people are. The one’s commenting. And probably majority of the regular people in our Indian society– whether old or young. In fact I can understand the old generation, they are idiots. What I can’t stand is that even the people born in 80’s and 90’s tend to be the same. As if education in India was a complete waste. Oh wait! It still is.

Firstly, people commenting don’t know shit about chess or the happenings in the game. They don’t care about looking up to learn about what they are about to comment on. All they know is that Anand is an Indian chess player who has been defeated by someone who said something about him. No, they don’t know if Anand is still an Indian citizen (he isn’t). And they know the least of all about Magnus Carlsen, except that he said something about an Indian. Yet they decide to take to leave their mark by making a self-righteous comment showing how ignorant and out dated they are.

Fact is, Magnus Carlsen is all that he is made out to be and more. He was a teen-prodigy and now an acknowledged chess genius. Anand of today is not the chess player that Carlsen is, to put it mildly. Carlsen has a lot to teach Anand if you look at it from his perspective. Even if you take the comments on their face value without knowing that Carlsen actually showed respect to Anand in the first instance, it should not offend you in any way. He is speaking his opinions at worst and it turns out that they are not far off from truth. Even if he made those comments in a more in-the-face kind of way, they should still be accepted on their own merits. But we Indians choose to be in the blind nationalistic spirit where there is nothing to be nationalistic about. Funnily, Anand accepted that he lost to a better player without dodging questions. Something to do with not living in India I wonder!

Even worse, some people think Anand somehow betrayed India by leaving for Spain or by not representing India. Yes, we stand for freedom, but first you must prove yourself a slave to our stereotypes.

Talking of stereotypes, Anand is again praised for his humility, which Carlsen doesn’t show, to the utter discomfort of us Indians. As if that is the prerequisite to deserve anything. We Indians are so stuck with our misleading notions of good and bad that we are afraid of thinking them through. We are so afraid of questioning whether humility is really required that we don’t even consider merit if it isn’t accompanied by humility. A winner is only truly a winner if he comes out and says “Na, I am not that good”. It so goes with every other notion that we are taught from childhood. We are afraid of questioning them so we take them as granted and defend them without doubting and we never tolerate anyone who dares question them. Debunking humility, it implies that a person is not better than others, even if he is.

I know these stereotypes and superstitions exist the world over, but I speak mainly about the Indian context because this is where I am, I know so much about it now, I’ve spent my whole life escaping these lies.

Die, please.

My Grandmother (Father’s mother) lived a life in which she will be remembered fondly for her reproductive functions. She will be remembered regretfully for almost anything else – if she is remembered at all. Even the reproduction was overdone. She produced six children, all of whom are burdens to earth (maybe an exception is my Dad, who is the most sensible of the lot, which is saying something about the lot). Let me not start off on my dad now, my grandmother retired from doing part-time work at about the age of 35-40 when she had a source of income in form of rents from her house and she had four daughters-in-law from four sons. Her most productive period was when she gave these in-laws the gift of hatred. She hated them so much and tortured them in so many ways that the in-laws (incl. my mom) made hating her back the purpose of their lives. After my grandfather died 12-16 years back (I don’t remember) she made some dumb decisions and started living on the mercy of the people who hated her (in-laws). She lived like that all these years. She is still living.

The reason I hate her is, she is a hindrance, and she is a bag of emotional and sentimental stupidity, gathered throughout her TV serial kind of life. She expects pity from people who hate her - like my mom, people who don’t care - like me and people who just want her dead so they can forget that she existed - like everyone. The tragedy is, she gets it. She sits on a sofa, and asks stupid--meaningless-redundant-old people like questions when I pass her by (Did you come home? Did you eat?). Thing is, she isn’t concerned whether I eat or die, it is just that she has nothing else to do the whole day. What ever comes out of her mouth is utterly pointless anyways, but her tone makes it worse. I lost my sense for pity long time back but I have to give her some response, yes? This just kills me. I can’t give stupid responses to stupid questions by stupid people. To solve this, I started acting like there is empty space on that sofa. It works but I can only act, right? I still have to bear the thought that she is there, with her stupid face and stupid thoughts. And that my mom will have to nurse her for half a month, every two months. My mom, who hates her with all the energy she can conjure, has to get sick, serving her, that’s torture. Every time our turn of half a month is over, I just hope that she will be dead in the next one and a half months so that I’ll not be required to look at her again.

My grandmother should have died long back. She claims she wants to die, but never does anything towards that direction. She almost died two months back but survived (which wasn’t so bad because it was a busy time for me and taking a leave for the celebrations would have disturbed my schedule). She somehow carries on living, like that is the achievement she will be remembered for – living on people for so long that it got to their nerves and they all started hating each other.

No, I don’t have a problem with the oldies, they should be looked after and all. I am going to be old one day and my parents too. But, ‘BUT’ they should have earned it when they had the chance. I know my parents earned it and so will I. People can’t just expect love and respect just because they are older. Being older doesn’t translate to wiser automatically.

I win or lose today.

Games and wars are not decided on the day they happen.

They are decided well before in small cabins and on rusty pages.

Games and wars are won in details, so is an exam.

They are won in the endless preparations and the tireless efforts.

They are lost in fear and compromise.
 
As I wait here waiting for the day, I lose today by doing just that.

I'll not wait for tomorrow or wander in the past.
 
Here is my goal, I have to reach it.

This is going to be bloody mess, but I will slug it out.

No excuse is good enough, I will make none.

"There is magic, but you have to be the magician. You have to make the magic happen" - Some author.

This Festive Season

Let the colors come live. Let the lights burn, let’s celebrate.

Let’s swipe our credit cards and be grand.

Let’s watch Krissh 3. It is rated 4.5/5 by the fair TOI.

Let’s get a little less corruptive. Let’s only bribe if required and take bribes safely.

 Let’s expand within ourselves. We have enough demand thanks to our enthusiastic mating habits.

Let’s be patriotic. We are not a developing country anymore like we were in 1990s. Thanks to our efficiency, we are developed.

Let’s embrace our traditions and values for betterment of lives, for a change. We have been neglecting them too much for the sake of efficiency for long enough.

Let’s make groups. Because of bright people, the average increases and the dull people get the opportunity to shine which they deserve.

 Let the majority win. People are always right, even if wrong. Look at Bihar.

Let’s work for the development of our country by working at the KPO’s. Let us pretend, the world is watching.

Let’s build more statues in memory of the great. Our glorious past.

Let’s vote for NaMo as a proof of tolerant attitudes. We know for sure that he is not an imposer.

Let’s fire crackers. The FB posts protesting global warming will balance the act.

Let’s pray god. He is watching our closed eyes. Hence he is there.

Let’s be cordial and grateful and humble. Let’s let the society be the judge of right and wrong.

Let’s not drink. It doesn’t suit the taste of non drinkers.

Let’s not drink and drive. Seriously, for the benefit of the drinking community.

Let’s celebrate our fashion. Let’s preach our conservative culture too.

Lets celebrate the prolonged QE. God bless America even as we don’t need them.

Let’s love less of the more. More is less and less.

My days of Dilemma - My path to Realization

I have a pretty clear idea about what my aim is in all the small interactions I have with other human beings out of my circle. To stay disconnected enough to avoid them from affecting me, unless it is someone I care about in which case I try to get them out of their misery if they let me, cause I can’t bear their suffering. This clear idea is not because I am socially awkward or something but because I believe that my happiness is my priority. And I have a very clear idea about when I am happy. The reason I avoid interaction with the other people is that they do not know what their happiness is and this renders them irrelevant and even destructive.

A persons’ philosophy is simply his principles and how he derives them. It is not just a vague theory subject which can get you a degree. It is what one believes and what one doesn’t. What one values. What one considers friendship, love and how one approaches the world. It is ones idea of what constitutes good, bad, ugly or irrelevant. And a very important WHY for all the what’s and how’s. The ground work. The basics. Everyone has an idea about this though it is not put into words usually. It is a simple enough concept. But most never have the patience, and sometimes courage, to think about it.

Many reasonable people can answer the what’s and how’s. Many can’t. But the key word in the above paragraph is the uppercase why. You can’t just give a why not or something to that affect there - that would be saying I don’t know why. You must understand the question at hand, decide its merits and virtues, decide its applicability to you, and then decide whether you accept it or not. And you must decide by your own cognition and reasoning capability. That is the only way to answer the why. And that is how you are sure. The key word in here is you. You must reason and decide.

Though I am not an expert, I’ve got a basic understanding of philosophy because I did not have it by birth and I desperately needed it at one point in life to avoid becoming a slave to the hypocritical society like most people around me. More than a point, it was a phase. I was hypocritical as everyone else, I was conflicted. I did not know whom to believe. I was better off than most at my age because I at least knew what everyone thought was right was not right. But I did not have the why. So I was somewhat doing what everyone was doing with a question mark attitude. This part of my life can be called ‘dilemma’ which had the following characteristics:

1. I was valuing what everyone valued.
2. There was no formula in my thought process to determine what was virtuous, right or wrong. My answers were always hesitant and somewhere in between. I was afraid of taking a stand. I could not judge clearly for myself and ended up feeling guilty whenever I was compelled to decide.
3. I went along believing sacrifice and charity was the ultimate goal of life.
4. I was thinking that happiness of others was my happiness.
5. I just thought beggars were very very unfortunate people who deserved to get money from others for survival. Just like I was thinking that socialism was not bad.
6. I was thinking that inefficiency is all right as long as a person is good natured and basically harmless.
7. I thought keeping in touch with hundreds of people was important. Though I never actually got myself to do it.
8. I felt guilty when I am doing something for my pleasure. Though that did not stop me.
9. I felt proud when doing something which I did not have a vested interest in even though I had no idea why I was doing it.
10. I was sometimes caring about people though deep inside I knew I could never care about them. Because I did not know why I shouldn’t care for them.
11. I was faking concern about things that did not concern me for the sake of sanction of others.
12. And even though I always knew concept of god was superfluous and the way to ruins, I was not clear on the why.

Then somehow, I started reading The Fountainhead and I knew this was the answer. This was right. And I started down this path. Now I don’t hesitate anymore to take a call. I actually know what I believe and why.