To Own and not to Own

                                                          To Own and not to Own

It was a chilly windy day in the capital that made people of all ages scamper home to avoid the biting cold. I also rushed back carrying my vegetable packet along with a bag full of groceries. But at the gate a huge black station wagon was standing crosswise, barring the entrance. The wagon was parked in such a way that not even a two wheeler could vroom through. There was a queue of cars behind and in front of the wagon waiting for their entry into and exit from the colony gate. Obviously the security guard must have gone missing for a short while when the wagon owner sighted that empty space before the gate for his vehicle. When the guard turned up, there was a bedlam as the angry residents shouted at him for allowing the black leviathan to be stationed at the gate. He frantically looked for the missing driver of the wagon without knowing where to look for and then he attempted to heave the vehicle to one side to allow at least the two wheelers to pass but didn’t succeed, causing greater annoyance and frustration to the colony car owners. It was after nearly an hour, the black wagon owner sauntered in, carrying a dozen beer cans and a couple of liquor bottles but before he could open the boot to put them in, the guard stopped him and asked him how he thought he owned the place to park his vehicle there. One of the car owners- obviously an English professor called him Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant in the  Homeric epic The Odyssey who had blocked the entrance to his cave with a huge boulder imprisoning Odysseus and his men within. The guard emboldened by the English professor unleashed a whole lot of expletives at the owner, ending each one of them with an anguished and angry cry ‘Mein kya karoonga apne gaddiyom  ko? Apne gadiyom  bahar na ja sakthe ,na andhar aa sakthe? (What can I do with my cars?  Neither I can take them out nor bring them in). I heard him repeat at least a dozen times”apne gadi” as though he was the owner of all the cars he surveyed in the colony. He felt that his outburst would be bolstered by his rightful claim to the ownership of the 200 odd cars in the colony and his colony sahebs would also appreciate his shared sense of ownership.  The car owners did not object to his claim-rather it assuaged their anger. Finally without much ado, the beer-laden black leviathan moved out and the blood pressure of the car owners came down as they zoomed in and out of the gate. But the guard continued to mumble even after the leviathan had moved beyond hearing his angry shout at being blocked off his ownership rights. The servants , the colony sweepers, the working boys from the kinara shop joined him to express their solidarity with him  saying how such huge black or white or yellow  or green or any other Vibjyor -colured monstrosities can dare to infringe upon their ownership rights over cars, houses and  the neighbourhood  shops where they were employed.

I wondered about the meaning of ownership and the basis of ownership. Ownership does not come free as it carries with it a baggage of rights and duties. In an interesting article on this topic, Lars Bergstrom cites the example of ownership of a car that gives the owner the right to drive the car, the right to prevent others from driving the car, the right to sell the car etc., along with the duty to drive the car without flouting the safety norms and regulations and the duty to pay road taxes and any other taxes issued by the state. The ownership is based on execution of those rights and duties. But in our anxiety to make common cause with those we are closely associated with, we tend to usurp the claim to ownership without the duties and rights involved

The claim to ownership is genetic to all of us and is anchored in all our personal and social relationships. The parents’ claim of ownership of their children is a perennial one. The children remain children for the parents even after the children grow up and have their own children. A child is a child is a child forever for its parents. The saas-bahu clash is a good example of the mother’s insistence to have the ownership of her son that is threatened by the arrival of the bahu. Similarly when the parents get old, they surrender themselves to their children who begin to claim ownership of the elders. The parents get frequently an earful of instructions from their children about  do’s and don’ts and they are often told not to live forever in the past but move on with the times. The children- now grown up adults-tell their parents  what to eat and what not to (no salt, no sugar, no fats, no fries, no pickles etc), what to speak and what not to, what to wear and how to present themselves before guests and visitors who belong to the new generation, how not to reminisce about their glorious past and how to be tuned in with the present culture, what to read and what not to, how not to use the staid vocabulary of their times ,but get set for the use of new lingo and jargons… the list is endless. All these happen as a result of a reversal of the ownership - of parents by children. The oldies are respectfully labeled senior citizens but they have no space of their own unless they move into the homes specially made for them. Their space may be cramped in the Senior Citizens’Homes, but their personal and mental space is not cramped as they walk, talk and breathe the language, culture, trends and fashion of their own generation.

Yet another form of ownership is with thoughts and ideas. Netizens are good at borrowing ideas from the netspace and parading them as their own. Wilson Mizner’s profound statement: “Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from many, it's research.” is another way of claiming ownership of others’ ideas.  The academics have made an art of this borrowed ownership to write their research papers that are sine qua non for their promotion. Music composers lift words from popular songs and claim ownership for the same. We come across clever people who will listen to your views and paraphrase them in their own way to make them appear as their own.

In much the same way politicians claim to innovative policies which are borrowed from others that include the opposition party members and stake their claim to ownership as though they are their own. In today’s politics, there is not much to choose between the ideology of the ruling party and that of the opposition. There is no reversal except name changing of old schemes to make a claim for their ownership. The party in opposition cries  foul on all the policies of the ruling party till it comes to power. When it realizes the dynamics of governance it strategically  retains the same policies albeit  in a different garb.  All sabre rattling prior to elections come to a standstill and old ideas are refurbished to look new with the change in the hands of ownership. When it comes to political ownership, the best way is to ensure family hold on political power. What used to be the ancient law of primogeniture that ensured the right of ownership of the throne to the eldest born is now labeled dynasty rule. The dynasty’s claim is not a right royal claim to ownership as it was the case with Monarchy, but has to be affirmed through the electoral process.  We have examples in Indian politics, however  if the dynasty does not get elected to rule, it still gives the dynasty the right to ownership of the party it represents even in defeat.

The moot question is ownership desirable? Most of us are not saints to say we own nothing and even this physical body belongs to the Almighty. In fact, the truth is we own our genes and no one else can claim to the ownership of the genes we are born with. This ownership of the self is key to self motivation. If we own something, we will try our best to nurture it, sustain it and improve it. Similarly shared ownership means greater engagement by the shared owners with the organization that they are associated with.  This is a principle many companies make to motivate and engage their employees to maintain the competitive edge over other companies. But ownership is to be earned and not usurped and has to be a rightful claim within limits. That is why a husband’s claim to ownership of his wife is fraught with dissent and unhappiness. The vice versa is equally true and the increasing rate of divorce is due to the mutual denial of space. Ownership does not confer any power to dominate over others and infringe upon others’ right to ownership of their thoughts, views, ideas and ways of living. Ownership may be notionally perennial as is the case of parents and children, but the umbilical cord has to be snapped at the right time so as to give free space to both parents and their wards who love to own it. We have to understand, appreciate and accept that every individual has the ownership of his/her self and is motivated to preserve the identity that ownership has conferred on him/her. But to stretch the ownership beyond what is one’s due and appropriate the ownership of power, position, ideas and space that belong to others is undesirable and unethical. Ownership as a desirable concept can be leveraged to motivate us to work hard and raise our bar. What is needed is the feeling of ownership rather than the actual ownership-known as the psychology of ownership that gives one a self-identity to realize and work towards one’s highest potential. The guards’ claim to ownership is an example of positive affectivity, a trait that provides him enthusiasm and desire to be fully engaged in his job. But the leviathan owner’s claim to ownership of the space at the gate is one of appropriation and arrogation, an act of actus reus -claiming ownership of that which is not his. This holds true of everything- whether it is appropriating ideas or ideology, power or leadership, right to dominance or control. With rightful ownership comes honesty, commitment, responsibility, integrity and total involvement. The best example is of the Scottish poet Robert Burns who enriched Scottish songs with his genius. But when he retained the words and the melodic lines of folk songs, and rewrote the rest, he never claimed ownership for them. All claims to ownership of what belongs to others amounts to deceit and falsity.To claim ownership of our authentic self, we need to take ownership of our life, of our tasks, of our  talent, action and also our mistakes.