Controlled Aggression

                                                     Controlled Aggression

Nearly four weeks have passed since I wrote my last blog. It is not as though nothing happened that called for a response; on the contrary, these weeks have seen a lot of happenings that merited blogging but I chose to remain impervious because I had learnt that my blog was not going to alter the events. Four years into Modi rule, it  is increasingly becoming evident that blog or no blog, expressing one’s views or not expressing made no difference and one has  to come to terms with the almost fatalistic recognition, que sera sera, whatever will, be will be.

Yet during these four weeks, two things stood out in the midst of the daily drama of political slugfest over many contentious issues, chief among them being the annual budget, the reopening of  the case of the mysterious death of Justice Loya in 2014, PNB fraud, Nirva  Modi’s impromptu disappearance besides the prospects of elections in advance of the next year schedule.  The news of the U-19 team winning the world cup in New Zealand and, Kamal Hassan’s(the new kid on the political block) response to the Supreme Court verdict on the sharing of Cauvery waters between Tamilnadu and Karnataka were notable for being free from political bitterness. These two events revived my hope  for  India’s Generation Next which, for me is Gen 19+ ...  For selfish reasons, I have added the dots  after 19+ without signifying  any number, since I do not believe in any kind of ceiling on upper age, rendering people like me as Margdarshis. After all, the older the wine, the greater is its taste.  

The U-19 victory coming on the heels of the senior team’s recent  defeat in South Africa in the test series was for cricket aficionados like me a pleasant  change from the lingering sourness of Indian senior team’s winless returns from foreign soil to agreeable sweetness of the younger team’s win in New Zealand. It was indeed a great victory, showcasing the superiority of the young players and holding out bright prospects for more victories in the coming years.  In fact, U-19 victory seemed to have had a catalytic effect on the seniors who dusted off their  rustiness and won the one day series in South Africa after being winless in the test matches.

U-19 had the good fortune to have Rahul Dravid as its coach- a brilliant and astute player, endowed with cricketing brains, intelligent and wise beyond his years, solid like a wall ( he was nicknamed  ‘wall’ during his playing days for his tenacity to stay in the crease), whose fluency with the bat always  matched his fluency with words. He was to the young team a mentor, friend, counsellor and guide who was a 24x7 coach both on and off the field.

The young team was understandably euphoric at holding the coveted cup that had slipped out of its hands in the previous year. They followed Virat’s style of  punching in the air when they crossed a landmark or jumping on to the players back at the fall of a wicket or making the hi-fi over every big or small success. These gestures are no doubt expressions of excitement and an outlet for the flow of the adrenalin but they have to be limited to the playing area and not be allowed to cross the boundary ropes.

 Dravid was as delighted as were the boys, his face beaming with pride over their achievement. In the midst of the joyous celebrations, he spoke to them about the need to erect a wall between euphoria on the field and uncontrollable exuberance off the field which he, in a professorial language termed as ‘controlled aggression”.  Aggression on the field is essential as a motivating force. The army on the battlefield marches forward to the battle cry of the commanders. It inspirits them to cast off fear and nervousness and focus on the enemies with the single-minded purpose of destroying them. But once off the battlefield, we see them like any one of us-enjoying life, singing and dancing to the Bollywood numbers and meeting the film stars or cricketeers like Tendulkar and Dhoni and acknowledging their contribution to the glory of India. In their camps, there is no discrimination in the name of caste or class or religion. In their admiration for the Bollywood heroes and heroines and for outstanding sportspersons, we notice their humility and cheer , almost minimizing and even forgetting what they  endure in their unenviable task of guarding the security of the nation. This is what Dravid meant by controlled aggression where aggression and the tempering of aggression have equal space in our lives. The problems that we face today are due to the blurring of the line between aggression and the tempering of it. The newspapers are full of pistol and gun wielding bad characters who shoot at will with no rhyme or reason. Though we are a few years behind US where shooting children in schools has become a frequent occurrence, we are all set to go the American way as evidenced in the recent shooting of a principal by a student, the killing of a young boy by his senior in a prestigious school in the capital, the raping and murdering of young girls by young adolescents who invariably are school drop outs. Road rage is increasingly a common happening, often with fatal results. Acts of aggression have become a daily affair.

Aggression is usually associated with acts of hostility, often leading to abhorrent violence towards weak and innocent people. Alexander Dumas wrote that we should make war with aggression, but aggression has to be used only when it meets with an equal and opposite force of the same degree in a combative field.  Shakespeare’s Polonius in Hamlet advises: “beware of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,

   bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.

But all forms of aggression off the battle field,  with the intention to assert and impose one’s arrogant and egoistic superiority, amount to inhumanity. It is one thing to play with aggression to win, but since it is a game, once it is over neither the victor nor the vanquished shall have any use for it.  Dravid’s advice to the young team during their hour of celebration is a lesson for life. It is the absence of control over one’s emotions that turns positive aggression to brutal hostility leading to mindless killings, rape, mad rage snf vengefulness. The Ecclesiastes says:

    There is a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
    a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,…
    a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

 Let us in the modern context add:

There is a time for aggression, there is a place for aggression;

there is a time for celebration, there is a time for moderation.

It is this controlled aggression that Dravid spoke that is reflected in Kamal Hassan’s response to the Supreme Court’s verdict on Cauvery water sharing. While the verdict reduced water to Tamilnadu so as to benefit Bengaluru which is currently experiencing drinking water crisis, the Tamil political parties vied with one another to agitate against the verdict. It is clear that any order from the highest court  pleasse one side and disappoints the other. But those who are disappointed with the verdict agitate and even advocate violence thus making a mockery of the highest court’s judgement. In recent times despite the judgement of the Court with regard to the screening of Padmavat, the defiance by a few states of that order  is a clear indication of frenetic passions overriding rational and legal pronouncements. One can sense the same unease with respect toAyodhya Ram janma Bhoomi verdict likely to be announced in the next few months. Politicians on either side will ignite the passions of their respective groups and precipitate a bloody crisis. None of the politicians will ever ask himself/herself about the rightness of stoking communal fire.

Thus there was a creeping fear that the Tamils in frenzy, instigated by one Dravidian party or the other would turn violent over the reduction of Cauvery water and take the agitation beyond the Court.  It is in this context, Kamal Haasan’s mature response to the Cauvery issue merits special recognition. His response has a double effect- safeguard the supremacy of the highest court of the land and promote civic awareness among his people. He said that they should respect the Court’s verdict and take this opportunity to conserve water, as water is a precious commodity. When Arvind Kejriwall issued the new tariff for water consumption in Delhi two years back, he gave the Delhi citizens the option to choose between judicious use of water or pay higher tariff for consuming beyond the ceiling fixed for free water. Most of us opted for the former. I have had no water bill for the last two years. The conservation of water by Delhi citizens with civic awareness has helped Delhi Government to supply water to colonies that had till then a parched existence. Kamal Hassan’s stress on conserving the water and not go in for agitation had its salutary effect both on the people and the political leaders. This is yet another example of controlling aggression through channelizing angry passions towards a constructive way – to conserve water, a precious but an increasingly vanishing commodity  without which we are in fear of parched extinction.

Gen 19 + must salute the two mentors for their invaluable and most pertinent advice for our times:  “ Practise Controlled Aggression.”