Feet of clay: atone, allay?

For many their world came crumbling down like a pack of playing cards, or was it quicker, as nine pins? It was the last straw on a camel’s back and in a manner of speaking, the last bastion fell too. The speed, with which it has been crashing down of late, is indeed amazing, annoying and yet intriguing. But, the latest news to hit the headlines, literally hurt below the belt (in more ways than one).

The ball/balls (not many have them though), was set rolling years ago, in the Indian firmament, when a super cop was accused of misdemeanor by a lady officer. There was official brouhaha and many a bureaucratic eyebrows and other unmentionables were raised. He first blatantly yet majestically denied it, and then subsequently apologized. Appalled were some in the set-up and many felt that it could/should have been overlooked or ignored by the aggrieved party. Who is to decide that and what exactly is infringement, always remains a debatable question in a lopsided society.  

When the pages of newspapers and the waves on news channels are rife with talks of stalking in another part of the country, with a prime ministerial candidate being defended by one and all, and justifications and clarifications emerging from all quarters, it did not stir too many emotions. It really was brushed aside by most thinking individuals as a part of the political jamboree, in the build-up to the elections. A mindless eyeball snatcher, they felt, as there was murkier stuff in all their closets. So though it did send shivers down many a spine, and perhaps sent the poor father of the girl being ‘watched’ scurrying for cover, many issues are raised in the case of TT.

TT who, well Tarun Tejpal, for the uninitiated, the person who had taken on bigwigs, as an investigative journalist of great repute, having started a parallel paper to counter the so called ‘biased’ mainline papers and magazines, by starting a third T-tehalka ! But, what literally took the cake was the tehalka he himself created recently, by forcing himself on a junior female journalist. His very well worded and pointedly juicy apology to another upholder of human, particularly women’s rights, Shoma Chowdhary, the managing editor, seemed like a true confession of one who has sinned! Something as school boyish, as one would expect from a 15 year old, high libido boy who would want to atone for things happening to him that are way beyond his ken, yet not excusable in a social domain (read juvenile crimes in the recent past of utmost cruelty).  

In his book, ‘The difficulty of being Good, Gurcharan Das, cites the example of ‘dharma’, the right thing to do and talks about the right thing by whom? In his explanation of the much talked about and dissected Draupadi derobing episode, from the Mahabharata, none of the upholders of righteousness are able to answer her question which she pointedly asks to one and all in the hall that epic day, (where she had been dragged in as a wager, lost or forsaken by her husband, in a game of dice): What is left of the dharma of the kings?   

This question crops up glaringly many a time again today, what is left of the ideals, the idols that we have around us?  Do we put them on a pedestal a little too soon or do we expect super human stuff from them. Whatever be the case, they are fallible and have feet of clay, in the debris, that thus accumulates from time to time, perhaps, will emerge a more dependable hero.

P.S. For me personally this was a painful episode, as I am certain it would be for all who have known him and looked up to him as a hugely intelligent and sought after young journalist in the days when I myself was a trainee with Indian Express. But who are we to condone and is he justified in atoning in this manner by stepping down are questions I am at this point unable to answer. But in more ways than one I lost faith yet again, in my hero…

©Copyright Suverchala Kashyap