#14 World Isn't What We Learn During Our Childhood...

All the principles and virtues that we are taught at school or by our elders are mere theories of Idealism. And that’s where we suffer. World works on Realism and not Idealism…

Let us recall what teachings were inculcated in our blooming minds-

• We should never lie, truth always prevails…

• We should never use malpractices like bribery or cheating

• We should be fair in our judgement of someone

• Our work will speak for us

• If we be nice to the world, the world will be nice to us

And so on…

I wonder how this world would have been if these teachings were actually practised! But alas! All these theories are too idealistic to be implemented. World will not accept it, it may even make fun of us for being so bookish!

Now, let us see what the world has taught us-

• Speak what people want to hear- if they can digest the bitter truth, well-and-good! But if they can’t, tell them what they can digest! Why would we anyways want to make enemies??? Truth is anyways a mere perspective! It changes from person to person! Facts can be twisted according to our liking and interest!

• If we want to get our work done say from a government body like getting permits for building a house legally, we ought to feed them enough that they get the energy to do the work that they are anyways supposed to do, otherwise they will sit like a stubborn cow in our way and we will never get our house built!

• I would like to share a very interesting story to understand how this world judges people… A well renowned company recruited two young boys- Nikhil and Susheel, fresh out of college. Susheel was very smart and hardworking from the very beginning, whereas Nikhil was laid back, neither was he very sharp nor was he very keen to perform well. Susheel worked on multiple projects in the very first year successfully and kept proving his worth. Whereas Nikhil continued with his careless attitude. At the end of first year, when the first increments were announced, Nikhil had received a much better increment than Susheel, who was just given a namesake increment. Susheel in his utter shock and anger headed to his immediate boss to enquire about the same. He put his points forward, enumerated the long list of projects he had done so proficiently and also mentioned how Nikhil had performed throughout the year. His boss simply replied- “Main apne gadhe ko badam khilaun usmein tera kya jata hai?” (“Why do you care if I feed almonds to my donkey?”) And after a few days, Susheel came to know that there was some sort of connection between the boss and Nikhil! Moral of the Story??? Favouritism, Groupism, and in some cases even Gender-Bias defines a person’s judgement!

• We should be nice to people, sure! But if the same people back-stab us in the future, we shouldn’t be shocked! World is mean, once their motive is fulfilled they won’t feel even a bit of shame in going against us!

I wonder why aren’t we taught all this while growing up! If we were, we would not face so much of a shock that questions our very fundamentals when we step out of our cozy environments!