Oh, they kill with kindness!
That bloke
Hamlet mistakenly clarified in the eponymous play of the bard that, "…I must be cruel, only to be
kind Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.” The chap was basically trying to dissuade
Gertrude, his mother, from having it off with Claudius, as that would be
a betrayal of her previous husband, Hamlet’s father. He was certainly cruel,
threatening her that her neck might break if she does not come to heel, but the
intention was kind to keep her from going astray. I extract this gem, by now a bodacious
idiom, from within a lot of other drivel that the mad prince utters, to heighten
the paradox therein, as it suits my purpose today. My purpose being to denounce
the whole caboodle of mankind who assail my senses on a daily basis by battering
me with Whatsapp kindness, by manipulating the idiom a bit to say
that they ‘be so kind that they are cruel.’
Whatsapp, individual, and even more so the groups,
are like the quintessential wintertime razai, which you are
reluctant to get in but too squeamish to get out, and so you endure it in the
hope that something meaningful may emerge among all the annoying kindness
disbursed inexorably, day in and day out. Your phone keeps whirring with
messages that pop up, washed liberally in the milk of human kindness.
If you
are one of those kindly inconsiderate individualities who sends greetings, beneficent feel-good or generously-preachy
messages on Whatsapp, please scoot pronto, as what I intend to write may upset
your sensibilities a great deal. Others are welcome to empathize and
sympathize.
I have
already expressed my exasperations twice in these blogs, and although there was
no advisory for the perpetrators to scram, they have failed miserably to have
any correctional or reformatory influence. So be it but here I go again, reserving my polemics only for the
beatific kind today:
http://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2020/12/hbd-forsooth.html
http://anindecisiveindian.blogspot.com/2020/10/rip-away-random-reckless-rip-routine.html
Kindness galore! Sample some of kindnesses:
Insipid festival
greetings on festivals one had never heard of, and, since we already have a
zillion, could very well do without the addition of such hooey as Akshaya
Tritiya, Govardhan Pooja, Maundy Thursday and Mariรค Himmelfahrt. These mostly
come with an image, or even a poem, which may be movingly soap-operatic to the
senders but, on me, have the effect of noisome and injurious human emissions.
Some of these come with a social message, like this one, “This Navratri, May Goddess let that no Durga is
aborted, no Saraswati is stopped from going to school, no Laxmi has to beg for
money from husband, no Parvati is sacrificed for dowry, no Sita has to suffer
in silence and no Kali is given a tube of fairness cream. Happy Navaratri,
friend, May the universe shower its blessings to you and your family!” Now, why this armchair social reformer has to wrap his
idle wish in a cloak of kindness for me is beyond my scope of comprehension.
Even worse are these kind souls who cast their net wide on the web,
extract some inanity with moral lessons, starting with
solicitousness but ending with cajoling or even threatening me to forward them
to others, or else. Hey, phone potatoes, why do you not try your preaching in
person to people and let us see how many would roll up? Are you playing a Petrucio on me, who, plans to tame Kate’s
shrewish nature and make her obedient in The Taming of the Shrew, and
says, “And if she chance to nod I’ll rail and brawl, And with the clamor
keep her still awake. This is a way to kill a wife with kindness.” Do
you think you can tame me into acknowledging your moronish kindness and reform
myself?
There are
days when there is no festival, even in India. Not to be deterred, some of
these kindness freaks have devised a way to be kind without a break. They wake
up every day, starting 3.15 AM and dispatch ‘Good Morning’ to everyone on his
list or his groups, every day. And some, who excel even these specimens, wish you
Happy Day of the week, like Happy Monday through to Happy Sunday. A good reply in the retort ‘Happy 8 AM to you’, or 'Happy whatever be the time you receive it", mitigates
nothing. Imagine, some of them actually wish you Good Friday on the Good
Friday! May the curse of Devil fall upon these bounteous types, who utter this
profanity unknowingly, but deserve a cudgel all the same.
I have
many who send me an inspirational quote, a maudlin story or a feel-good parable
because they say that either they have a special love for you or they proclaim that they care about you. Unlike the lamebrain Benedick in Much
Ado About Nothing, who thinks that Beatrice
is a swell girl and if she is moronish enough to love him, then he must return
it, “…It seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? Why, it
must be requited! I hear how I am censured…”. Not me. I deal these missives
with total indifference although my impulse is to tell them that they may love
me or care for me but there is only so much of their bullshit I can tolerate.
Wine has more merits,
even virtues, than demerits. The bard propounds many. In The Merry Wives of Windsor, as Anne is readying to serve wine,
after a disagreement with Slender who is unable to keep his new vow for
long, her father, Master Page, famously says, “Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all
unkindness”.
Berated by this thoughtless benevolence every day,
I too need something to palliate my agony
so, bring the wine, friends, let me
do the opposite and drink down all the kindness. Wine? It
can do a lot, so even Brutus, a murderer, a fugitive, calls for wine as
a means to forget his troubles in Julius Caesar, saying, “…Give me
a bowl of wine.—In this I bury all unkindness…”
I am a follower of my chฤchฤ Ghฤlib who taught me:
Dฤซvฤr bฤr-e-minnat-e-mazdลซr se
hai แธณham
ai แธณhฤnumฤรฑ-แธณharฤb na ehsฤรฑ
uThฤ.iye
(bฤr-e-minnat-e-mazdลซr: weight
of the kindness of the laborers, แธณhฤnumฤรฑ-แธณharฤb: one whose home is ruined,
ehsฤรฑ: obligation. The weight of
obligation is so burdensome that even the walls of your house have become bent
under this load of kindness (of the workmen who built the house). O, One whose
home has been ruined, don't carry the burden of anyone's kind favour, take a
lesson from the walls of your wrecked house that even such strong objects get
bowed down in keeping a stony burden lifted up.)
And
therefore, while I disown all this kindness here today, I will continue to monitor
these perpetrators of decorative clemency:
Banฤkar faqฤซroรฑ kฤ ham bhes Ghฤlib
tamฤshฤ-e-ahl-e-karam
dekhte haiรฑ
(faqฤซroรฑ:
dervishes, vagrants one who lead mystic life, bhes: disguise, tamฤshฤ-e-ahl-e-karam: spectacle, exhibition of the people of kindness.
I put on the guise of a vagrant mendicant and witnesses
the spectacle of the conduct of the people of generosity. I do this not because
I need of their generosity but with a view to determining the virtue in the
so-called kind people; after all genuinely-generous
people go through their kind deeds privately without a fanfare.)
Mani, why don’t you transcript the verses in Devanagari? I think the software would allow it. Thank you
ReplyDeleteWill try...you see, I am aware of the Roman adapted with modifications for Urdu so find it easier to use it.
ReplyDelete๐
ReplyDeleteVery well expressed. There is no cure for the affliction called Whatsapp. Mir says: เคเคฒ्เคी เคนो เคเคँ เคธเคฌ เคคเคฆเคฌीเคฐें, เคुเค เคจ เคฆเคตा เคจे เคाเคฎ เคिเคฏा, เคฆेเคा เคเคธ เคฌीเคฎाเคฐी-เค-เคฆिเคฒ เคจे เคเค़िเคฐ เคाเคฎ เคคเคฎाเคฎ เคिเคฏा ।
ReplyDeleteKabeer Ahmad
๐ ๐ boss, thanks
DeleteHilarious. Painfully true though. :-)
ReplyDeleteRegards. Sathya
Thanks
DeleteHilarious, well expressed
ReplyDeleteI too dread every festival. But I am well prepared. I copy a message like 'Happy Hanuman Jayanti to my clipboard and the moment a greeting arrives I shoot back by clicking the paste button. Greeting ka jawab greeting se! This Golabari continues till nightfall.
ReplyDeleteVery nice
ReplyDelete