Dignity in labour!
I read writer Mini Kurian’s remarks on some performers in the TOI today and her ideas that berated them were certainly uncalled for. I think it is psychological that when you berate somebody, you are actually criticizing some aspect of your self that you don’t like.
Her actual words were, ‘These illiterate people just followed the traditions.’ I know of some very resourceful people who are illiterate and just to exploit and abuse them is another Capitalist trait that needs some pruning.
I think educated people should not keep demeaning the lesser ones like carpenters, drivers, barbers, launderers etc. Because there is a certain dignity in the labour that they do. I think people like Mini Kurian live in a bubble where there is nothing but perfection and everything is hunky dory and she is the mistress of what she thinks is a perfect state.
One has to live in the real world with people and to constantly abuse them and wait for excuses to turn others into maids and servants is not the right way of looking at things. What can you expect from such an arrogant writer who has no control over her emotions?
I call them emotions, because to berate somebody and insult them is just an emotional outburst and not an intelligent or intellectual reaction to the situation.
If it were an intelligent one, she would have expressed her opinion openly and expected them to respond, but she didn’t do that, which undermines her capacity and authority as a writer.
Sorry, Mini, but you just come across as a person with no understanding of the human condition of suffering, just because, by some twist of fate, you had things better than the people you are abusing.
Any person who has real understanding will realize that the self in one is the self in others, so when you’re harming someone, you are actually harming yourself.
Having said that, I would also like to say that you have to deal with your employees firmly but with respect, which requires a lot of skill, something that Mini appears to be very short of.
Neha Singh
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