Humility And Lack Of It

Call me naïve or a resident of the Utopian world but I have always believed that one’s personal experiences help in forming a humbler outlook towards life and others around. And by others I mean those who are facing similar hardships as you have faced at one point of time.

For instance, during my university days in Sydney, I worked at an Indian restaurant for about a year or so. It was just like any other international student, trying to earn an extra buck in order to make the burden of expenses for those back home a little less. Working there was an eye opener in more in than one ways; cleaning the toilet, picking up leftovers, washing dishes, weekend craziness and the most heart-wrenching of all…serving arrogant ABCD kids from university who for no apparent reason looked down upon us, the off-the-boat students.

I learnt two very important lessons;

a) A job is a job….is a job!

b) I always had the option of walking out since money was never an issue. But the same free will was not available to all.

I guess this experience in some ways made me a compassionate human being. At least so I would like to think. And then I met Rakhi Sawant. Nope, not the boisterous woman who dazzled us with her antics on the small screen and managed to win our hearts via the simplicity route. The Rakhi Sawant I am talking about is one hardcore bitch with a pretentious attitude deeply rooted to her soul.

Shocking! Well tell me about it. As a fan I was disappointed but on a humanity level I was thoroughly disgusted! I mean here is a woman who claims to have had a miserable childhood, equally struggling teenage years before finally fighting her way through the prejudice workings of the Hindi Entertainment Industry. And yet there isn’t an ounce of humility in this woman.

To a certain extent I can understand her throwing her weight around on those belonging to the Industry. For example, the media…production staff, co-stars, etc. One kinda needs to act pricey once in demand such is the workings of filmistan. But the manner in which she treated her very own staff was just incomprehensible. Abuses, taunts, insults were all part and parcel of being the most popular item girl’s employee.

When I mentioned the above (basically my observation over the three days of running behind Rakhi for a 20 minutes interview) to my family, my mum immediately laid the blame on her lack of healthy family environment during her early years. Simple acts of modesty, respect, gratitude are inculcated during adolescent years and not in adulthood. Some things are just khandani, a few of my friends remarked.

But somehow this reasoning is not doing much to satisfy my mental predicament. As I mentioned earlier, for me, my own struggle during my student days (be it of much significance or less) made me sympathetic and understanding towards others needs, especially the less fortunate. However this doesn’t seem to be the case with Ms. Sawant. Her experiences have only made her bitter and for some reason revengeful towards those with lesser stature.

Also personally, being someone who takes everything at face value, I find her demeanor towards other individuals, extremely mind-boggling. When in focus they talk of Jeejus…appreciation…kindness...charity…humanity. And when out of focus, “Sale kutte mera hot water glass kahan hai?”…is what you hear.

From a long-time admirer of Ms.Rakhi Sawant to 'don't know whether to be stumped or disgusted', I don't know what to make of this, do you?