The greatness of an event, a person or a monument is best understood keeping in mind the period of its occurrence. It is relatively easier, today, to stir the fundamentals of conscience and to erect a pseudo-army to fight a plausible cause... given the fact that one can reach the masses through sms, orkut and emails among others..... This is what makes Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi a Mahatma Gandhi..... He stirred the conscience of millions and fought an empire bigger than the Goliath himself..and all this, in the absence of any amenity except perhaps a telegram or a seat in the third class compartment of the railways... Hence, when we conveniently try to imagine the greatness of a person like Mr. Gandhi, we make the mistake of imagining its occurrence in today's circumstances..
Lets have a more recent and popular example. We love comparison. The greatness of a person is only as much as who he/she is compared to. Hence, Lord Ram is a hero because he defeated Ravana.... Likewise, in order to gauge the superstardom of Shah Rukh Khan, we have to compare him with Amitabh Bachchan.... But truly speaking, what is the comparison?... isn't it like comparing between apples and oranges?... What Mr. Bachchan did in 1970s may not be replicated by SRK... and the opposite is true as well... Is it really a necessity that for making our line longer, we make the other lines look shorter?...
We emulated the flight of birds in our aeroplanes.... the martial arts borrows liberally from the antics of a monkey or a snake..... but we have still not been able to emulate symbiosis.... We help our friend in studies but make sure that he doesn't score as much as us... we help to only that extent that which makes a discernible effect.... here, I have to clarify that I speak for the average, not for the exceptions.... A worthy exception to this law, according to me, are two people..... Fathers and Professors.... I have never seen, heard or read about an incident where a father was not happy when his son starts earning more than him.... In fact, it could well be the happiest day for a father when a son (or daughter) gets a starting salary more than what he might be earning after decades of experience.... the same holds true for professors too.... A professor earning Rs. 4-5 lacs per annum is only too happy to see his student go on to earn in multiples of that figure.... If only these instances were an average rather than an exception...
David Ogilvy, famously said, In an organization if each one of you hire a person who is less qualified than you, then you end up becoming an organization of dwarfs..... but if each one of you hires a person who is better than yourself, then you are an organization of Giants..... So, it is really up to us, do we want our future generation to inherit a nation of dwarfs or a nation of Giants....
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