Firstly, I am very sure that this is going to be my highest read blog ever. Why? Read more. Consider this, a girl from an affluent family pursuing her graduation from a reputed college, living in an expensive international style hostel, paying Rs.60,000 as annual college fees, probably spending more than that on herself, using air travel for transportation, buying and wearing branded products, and more lifestyle things that the girls from affluent families buy. Now, what do you expect the girl to be like ethically and morally? Decent, good, honest, right? But before you really jump onto a conclusion and be judgmental in your decision, let me tell you what this girl did which prompted me to make her “the apple of my eye” and write this. This girl was caught red-handed with money stolen from a fellow hostelite. Not only this, she was also caught with stolen undergarments. Now many of you would write this off as a clear case of ‘kleptomania’ but not me. For those of you who do not know what kleptomania is, let me give you the word web pro’s definition of kleptomania. Word web pro describes kleptomania as “an irrestible impulse to steal in the absence of any economic motive”. Now note down the last two words i.e. Economic Motive. This girl stole money so she clearly had ‘economic motive’ in her mind which technically proves that she is not kleptomaniac. So, how else do you explain the attitude of this girl who has a clear fetish towards stealing which includes monetary and non- monetary gains?
Many of you would now say that this incident was deplorable and worthy of reprehension. Very true, the incident deserved reprehension. But what actually happened is astonishing, rather than deploring the incident we made a celebrity out of this girl. How? Many of you would now say that I have erred here by calling her a celebrity and that I should rather rebuke and censure her severely in this post. True again. Yes, I should have done that cheerfully in an egalitarian and a utopian society but not here. She is a celebrity in a true sense, though, unlike other celebrities, she hasn’t killed people sleeping on the footpath, raped someone, gone topless for a movie or something else. The similarity she has with celebrities far outweigh the differences. One biggest integrating factor they have in common is the paparazzi they both get after an incident. After the stealing incident this girl got a lot of paparazzi (full of gossips) talk like a celebrity. Nobody in the college ever ever bothered to question her ethics, values and morals and what they rather did was that they made a gossip queen out of her. The reason or the explanation to this phenomenon is best put forward by Shiv Khera, a renowned motivator, in his book ‘You can Win’. In the book, he says that being judgmental is good, only if your own value system is clear. He says that one should judge the right or wrong only if one’s own conscience is sound. In this case, though, most of the people who gossip about this stealing incident do not actually ask the question whether it was right or wrong, but rather they use this as an opportunity to settle old scores with this girl. I myself don’t actually have the moral wherewithal or the value system to question or judge the sanctity of the incident. I am very much used to hearing about stealing. In fact, all Indians are very much used to hearing about stealing. There are numerous incidents to prove that we don’t really care about stealing. Election of Shibu Soren, a murder convict, as the CM of Jharkhand is a testimony to this, election of M.Azharuddin as an MP is a testimony to this,………….
This incident is only a drop of the ocean and we could very well lay bare anybody in the college if we want to, but what we should rather do is to introspect and try to find out if our own value system is clear. If we find that our own value system is clear, then we can proudly and loudly say that what this girl did was wrong, unethical and immoral. But before that happens, stand in front of a mirror and ask yourself, ‘Am I honest and ethical enough to question the right or wrong of this stealing incident???????
- Sunny Gusain
- Sunny Gusain
