With the recent allegations of misconduct and corruption against the very famous Chanda Kochhar, former CEO & MD of ICICI bank, shook the very foundations of the word ‘inspiration’ or ‘motivation’. A quick Google Search of “inspiration from chanda kochhar” gives the following results —
Search results for “inspiration from chanda kochhar”
Guess how many number of times the word ‘woman’ or ‘women’ is mentioned in the search results for “inspiration from chanda kochhar” ?
A quick ⌘+F showed me 12 times on the first page itself.
Now, guess how many number of times the word ‘woman’ or ‘women’ is mentioned when you search “allegations against chanda kochhar”?
A quick ⌘+F showed me 0 times on the first page.
First woman President in the history of India? Pratibha Patil was famous for using hard-earned public funds to take foreign trips with her family. The first opinionated result after a search for “Pratibha Patil” finds https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Pratibha-Patil-widely-hated-and-disrespected-despite-having-held-the-prestigious-office-of-the-president-of-India-Is-she-Indias-worst-president-ever-What-are-the-reasons-contributing-to-this
We have a tendency to link ourselves to the famous and cut all ties with the infamous. When we link ourselves with the famous, we have the tendency to fan-worship, to think of our idols as utmost bodily incarnation of perfection, to think they can never do wrong, to defend their wrongs as overall-rights, to over-praise their struggle, to ignore their shortcomings, to not be objective and ‘factful’ in our opinions, to think of them as some superman or superwoman — forgetting in the process that they’re only humans like us. It is us who have taken them to a pedestal too high. We are not connected to them closely in real but we feel connected to their perceived self in our mind. In our hero-worshipping mind, we forget to worship the work and worship the person instead. At some point, we even forget why we initially started worshipping a particular person. We should focus on the work and not the person or any particular outside trait of a person which cannot be changed by the person. As the nondiscriminatory policy say —
“Do not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, height, weight, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations, and marital status.”
We should take a person for whom they are and what they have accomplished. If I ever win, let’s say, the Best Employee Award, I would not want to be congratulated on being female or 23 years old or dressing up good because none of these contributed to my winning the award. There are many other females 23 years old with good dressing sense who didn’t win the award. I would want to be congratulated for working hard and having a good understanding of concept. I would want suggestions to improve my speed, if I think thats something I should improve on. I would not want to be taken on a pedestal of ‘being awesome’ because I do not know how to handle it humbly. Whenever somebody used to tease me for my good grade in college, saying “dude, why do you even need to study, your grades are anyway amazing” — I want to stay away from that fan-worshipping. I want to be around people who care for me honestly and tell me “Good job there but still a long way to go”. It would make me humble and feel confident — not over-confident to think that I can misuse my excellence.
IF the allegations against Chanda Kochhar are true, she have definitely had a lot of admirers but maybe she had lacked someone to say — “Hey, what you have achieved is no doubt amazing, but to be humble and not misuse your power is what makes anyone amazing. What is the point of throwing away the glory build over years for huge amount of money when you have all luxury you need to last on this planet”. (A BIG ‘IF’ there because the allegations have not yet been proven or disproven yet).
When the Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan received so many emails from fellow Indians, he seemingly wished the people congratulating him would at-least understand his work a little bit. He did not want to be congratulated to be born Indian which he never thought as a very integral part of him. There are a billion Indians out there, not everybody wins an Nobel award. There is more to him that being Indian. I urge you to read https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/A-little-less-nationalistic-hero-worship-please/articleshow/5129529.cms
I have always been taught to respect adults but I generally respect anyone of any age unless I am convinced otherwise. Respect is not a factor of age. Age is external. I have seen 18 year old mature people and 50 year old immature people and vice-versa too. People say respect women but again, respect is not a factor of gender. Gender is again external. One can sympathise with someone of their own nationality, gender, cast, creed because they may have emerged a winner out of a dire struggle despite of their situation but what makes them a winner is their internal traits like humility, confidence, kindness, hard work, calmness, decisiveness etc. Chanda Kochhar should have been worshipped for her finance knowledge , consistency and people worshipping her for it should try to understand finance to understand how great she is. The character of marvellous Mrs. Maisel was a woman in stand-up when no women were in stand-up, but I respect her for her wit, humour, confidence and an ability to fight — come what may. I have respected a lot of people I know for a lot of amazing qualities — the same people have some not-that-amazing qualities too. I am not going to ask them what flavour of lays is their favourite but try to adopt there amazing qualities. I have loved J.K Rowling for her amazing imagination and an ability to pen her thoughts — not because she was a woman. I have loved George Carlin for his amazing stand-up material which used to be deep on a philosophical level and his delivery — not because he was a very old man in stand-up.
I have seen so many amazing people in my college do amazing things. If I worship them, I may end up feeling bad about not achieving what they have achieved, after having equal opportunities as them. Instead, I respect Person A for not over-stressing on syllabus but getting concepts right, while managing their personal lives and scoring good. I respect Person B for their simplicity and unflinching ability to stay calm in dire situations. I respect a lot of people for what they did and how they did what they did and wish to adopt their best practices.
In conclusion,
Criticism is crucial. There is a person behind every category (male, female, old, young, Indian, non-Indian) — appreciate the person and their deeds rather than them. Appreciate the effort. Appreciate the work. Try to adopt their good qualities in yourself. Help them improve. Do not herd-follow. A thought-out “I have always admired you for your conceptual knowledge and ability to explain anything in the most simplistic manner. I wish I imbibe that in myself someday” is better than a hundred “Congratulations for being first woman to achieve the feat!”. Fame is short-lived, so is public memory. Don’t make people idols. Make the lessons they teach you your idols and carry forward these important lessons all your life.
Search results for “inspiration from chanda kochhar”
Guess how many number of times the word ‘woman’ or ‘women’ is mentioned in the search results for “inspiration from chanda kochhar” ?
A quick ⌘+F showed me 12 times on the first page itself.
Now, guess how many number of times the word ‘woman’ or ‘women’ is mentioned when you search “allegations against chanda kochhar”?
A quick ⌘+F showed me 0 times on the first page.
First woman President in the history of India? Pratibha Patil was famous for using hard-earned public funds to take foreign trips with her family. The first opinionated result after a search for “Pratibha Patil” finds https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Pratibha-Patil-widely-hated-and-disrespected-despite-having-held-the-prestigious-office-of-the-president-of-India-Is-she-Indias-worst-president-ever-What-are-the-reasons-contributing-to-this
We have a tendency to link ourselves to the famous and cut all ties with the infamous. When we link ourselves with the famous, we have the tendency to fan-worship, to think of our idols as utmost bodily incarnation of perfection, to think they can never do wrong, to defend their wrongs as overall-rights, to over-praise their struggle, to ignore their shortcomings, to not be objective and ‘factful’ in our opinions, to think of them as some superman or superwoman — forgetting in the process that they’re only humans like us. It is us who have taken them to a pedestal too high. We are not connected to them closely in real but we feel connected to their perceived self in our mind. In our hero-worshipping mind, we forget to worship the work and worship the person instead. At some point, we even forget why we initially started worshipping a particular person. We should focus on the work and not the person or any particular outside trait of a person which cannot be changed by the person. As the nondiscriminatory policy say —
“Do not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, height, weight, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations, and marital status.”
We should take a person for whom they are and what they have accomplished. If I ever win, let’s say, the Best Employee Award, I would not want to be congratulated on being female or 23 years old or dressing up good because none of these contributed to my winning the award. There are many other females 23 years old with good dressing sense who didn’t win the award. I would want to be congratulated for working hard and having a good understanding of concept. I would want suggestions to improve my speed, if I think thats something I should improve on. I would not want to be taken on a pedestal of ‘being awesome’ because I do not know how to handle it humbly. Whenever somebody used to tease me for my good grade in college, saying “dude, why do you even need to study, your grades are anyway amazing” — I want to stay away from that fan-worshipping. I want to be around people who care for me honestly and tell me “Good job there but still a long way to go”. It would make me humble and feel confident — not over-confident to think that I can misuse my excellence.
IF the allegations against Chanda Kochhar are true, she have definitely had a lot of admirers but maybe she had lacked someone to say — “Hey, what you have achieved is no doubt amazing, but to be humble and not misuse your power is what makes anyone amazing. What is the point of throwing away the glory build over years for huge amount of money when you have all luxury you need to last on this planet”. (A BIG ‘IF’ there because the allegations have not yet been proven or disproven yet).
When the Nobel Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan received so many emails from fellow Indians, he seemingly wished the people congratulating him would at-least understand his work a little bit. He did not want to be congratulated to be born Indian which he never thought as a very integral part of him. There are a billion Indians out there, not everybody wins an Nobel award. There is more to him that being Indian. I urge you to read https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/A-little-less-nationalistic-hero-worship-please/articleshow/5129529.cms
The best way to take pleasure in someone’s achievement is to take an interest in their work and feel motivated to learn more about science. I remember reading about Gellman’s work as an undergraduate in Baroda, and, when he won the Nobel prize, rushing upstairs to tell my parents. It did not matter to me whether he was Indian or not. In my case, I am lucky to have had a combination of education, opportunities and a great team of co-workers to have made a contribution to an important problem. I am not personally that important. If I hadn’t existed, this work would still have been done. It is the work that is important, and that should be what excites people.Blind fan-following leads to people being obsessed with what Modi eats, what is the size of his chest, what is the first thing Shah Rukh Khan does every morning and what Kim Jong-un’s wife think about him. And demand is generally always met with supply. People demand it due to blind fan-following and news channel supply it for TRP and money. If only we understood that all these things are irrelevant. BS demand will ensure BS supply. (BS == Bullshit).
I have always been taught to respect adults but I generally respect anyone of any age unless I am convinced otherwise. Respect is not a factor of age. Age is external. I have seen 18 year old mature people and 50 year old immature people and vice-versa too. People say respect women but again, respect is not a factor of gender. Gender is again external. One can sympathise with someone of their own nationality, gender, cast, creed because they may have emerged a winner out of a dire struggle despite of their situation but what makes them a winner is their internal traits like humility, confidence, kindness, hard work, calmness, decisiveness etc. Chanda Kochhar should have been worshipped for her finance knowledge , consistency and people worshipping her for it should try to understand finance to understand how great she is. The character of marvellous Mrs. Maisel was a woman in stand-up when no women were in stand-up, but I respect her for her wit, humour, confidence and an ability to fight — come what may. I have respected a lot of people I know for a lot of amazing qualities — the same people have some not-that-amazing qualities too. I am not going to ask them what flavour of lays is their favourite but try to adopt there amazing qualities. I have loved J.K Rowling for her amazing imagination and an ability to pen her thoughts — not because she was a woman. I have loved George Carlin for his amazing stand-up material which used to be deep on a philosophical level and his delivery — not because he was a very old man in stand-up.
I have seen so many amazing people in my college do amazing things. If I worship them, I may end up feeling bad about not achieving what they have achieved, after having equal opportunities as them. Instead, I respect Person A for not over-stressing on syllabus but getting concepts right, while managing their personal lives and scoring good. I respect Person B for their simplicity and unflinching ability to stay calm in dire situations. I respect a lot of people for what they did and how they did what they did and wish to adopt their best practices.
In conclusion,
Criticism is crucial. There is a person behind every category (male, female, old, young, Indian, non-Indian) — appreciate the person and their deeds rather than them. Appreciate the effort. Appreciate the work. Try to adopt their good qualities in yourself. Help them improve. Do not herd-follow. A thought-out “I have always admired you for your conceptual knowledge and ability to explain anything in the most simplistic manner. I wish I imbibe that in myself someday” is better than a hundred “Congratulations for being first woman to achieve the feat!”. Fame is short-lived, so is public memory. Don’t make people idols. Make the lessons they teach you your idols and carry forward these important lessons all your life.
