This article was written in 2006-7 for our magazine in the college, UCMS Delhi when I was a senior resident. It could still inspire people.
So producing verbatim
A drop, An ocean
As I grab my cup of coffee I look at the orange tinge at the horizons. The sun is setting on this campus. Unlike other campuses, our campus has a minimum of nocturnal activities except for post-prandial walks that a few carry on. No couples sitting in the park. No movements in the coffee corner. No loud music emanating from hostel rooms. No playful activity except for few joggers. Suddenly with the arrival of dusk, the campus becomes silent to the extent of being dull and boring.
And I think as the sun moves further down. The time has passed quite fast and quite efficiently has left its marks on my temples. Like any other, I was in my teens when I entered this field. Above 30 and I am still here, still being trained.
That kind of long spending in a profession has both advantages and disadvantages. While it does offer some security as for as the settlement is concerned, on the other hand, it is quite delayed. While the entire world is merrying every day we engross ourselves daily into our books just to become better. Just to get a cutting edge from our fellows. After all they are our competitors too.
We all have long success stories behind us. From school time we have a habit of succeeding again and again. So used are we to this success that we start compromising everything including ourselves just for sake of success.
Success is fine but addiction to success is not.
Take a good look around and realize your levels of compromise. We cut on our comforts. That is okay. We cut on our entertainments. That is fine. We are not as street smart as other people because of a lack of time. That too can be fathomed.
But we compromise on our self-respect. We can stoop so low that we can do anything to get that bloody greedy success. That may be licking the boots or tolerating the injustice.
That, my dear fellows, is not acceptable.
I will discuss tolerating the injustice because the other trait is more of a personal nature. But the second is an endemic problem in our profession. We keep tolerating everything because we think that the residency is the most crucial aspect and lasts only for three years. Well, you are right. The residency will last only for three years. But the habit inculcated will last more than a lifelong (I hope you got that right)
Many of us are not even aware of what is being done to them in the name of training. Many of us do not even differentiate between reprimanding and atrocity. Many of us are oblivion and insensitive to whatever happening to them and around them. They keep walking like horses of a tonga just to get that piece of degree.
Rise and think. Are you being treated like a human should be? Is the behavior that you get every day is dignified enough for your stature. Do you have to bow yourself in front of some half-literate low-life just because you want your work get done?
Are you always being intimidated and bullied by some or other means because you are taken for granted as some helpless creature? Are you subject of official harassment by virtue of some dictum or process? Does your action empower a person who should be serving you instead of you serving his ego?
Moreover, have you become so used to all this filth that you do not even realize what is happening to you!
Not so long ago we started a move at RDA to bring in the process of transferring the post graduate residents’ pay automatically to their bank account at Canara bank. All that was expected from a resident was to open and submit the details of the account in the Canara Bank. That is all.
Under that process attendance of the PG was to be furnished by the concerned department and not the PG himself as the routine had become. As expected, this move was highly opposed by academic section in the college just in the name of attendance maintenance. To our greatest surprise, this was also the case with a few of the residents. They were more willing to run around and request for attendance verification and then manually go to collect the sum after waiting and appeasing somebody.
Come on now! Learn to live with dignity.
It would be too late someday. By that time, it would have come in your blood and gone out of your mental capacity. False egos will set in to cover your own disabilities. In the process, you will become the same as you are being governed by.
You could be ultra-successful in your life. But what that success is worth if it cannot provide you a dignified life and a head above the shoulder which will not bend every time you confront a problem.
We all are drops of the ocean. In drop lies the power to form an ocean. You need to coalesce and feel for others rather than focusing on your success alone. Together you can demand a rightful atmosphere. Together you can thwart any attempt that tries to slay your dignity.
Remember whenever the exploitation starts it starts with a single person. If others remain silent at that time, there will be continuous victims. Slowly and slowly, everybody is under the blade and whole of atmosphere is polluted and poisoned.
Let us not tolerate a single nonsense. Let us not tolerate any further attack on our or our fellow’s dignity. Remember! An oppressor is always a coward man, fearful of others. Raise your voice against the injustice around you.
You are not alone. There are many others like you waiting to come forward just like you. And when you are together nobody can pinpoint you.
A drop has tremendous power to become an ocean. Be so.
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