It was raining heavily. I was standing at that wretched bus stop for more than an hour. And eyes were fixed at that ‘Red’ bus of PMT. But it was not to be seen!
At last one arrived after some good tadasan for legs. But this one was crammed with people. In fact the bus was so loaded that it precariously tilted to one side :). I decided to venture in. But the moment I stepped in I could see the resentment on the face of people inside. They were all making long constipated faces at me. As if they did not want me in, as it is the bus was loaded to its fullest capacity. I kind of ignored them.
At the next stop, another horde of office goers made their way in. Phew! I was taken aback. How can they enter this jammed bus? It is as it is full to its capacity. Now I was the one who was resenting the new comers.
Above mentioned is not my story alone. Even you might have experienced this. This is what I call “Insider-Outsider dilemma”. A moment back I was the outsider, but after sometime I was promoted to be insider (or rather got promoted to one).
Every now and then we hear opportunistic popular leaders making the son-of-the-soil, Marathi manoos (in Marathi), Manning Maga (in Kannada) etc their election hot topic. And I have seen good educated people falling in to their charisma defying all logic and human values, and thus supporting the belligerent attitude of these leaders.
Who decides who is insider and who is outsider? Can such a distinction be made? Given the fact that place of one’s birth is a sheer accident, to which you absolutely don’t have any control. Migration is out of necessity- a means to survive when conditions for living become hostile at the place of birth. This is some kind of natural instinct, which is there even in animals, who migrate freely from place to place. So logically speaking there can be no insider-outsider, as no one can claim to be an insider.
To emphasize my point, let’s go back to Geology. Geologically, humans are the last species to have appeared on this planet earth. If complete Geological time is represented on a clock showing time in 24 hour format, then it can be said that humans appeared in the last two minutes!
So now can we, as humans, when compared with other species, claim to be insider? Certainly not! In spite of being an outsider, we had the audacity to threaten the insiders, drive them away from their home, and become de-facto owners! Good for humans that animal kingdom never had the leaders like ours :D
At last one arrived after some good tadasan for legs. But this one was crammed with people. In fact the bus was so loaded that it precariously tilted to one side :). I decided to venture in. But the moment I stepped in I could see the resentment on the face of people inside. They were all making long constipated faces at me. As if they did not want me in, as it is the bus was loaded to its fullest capacity. I kind of ignored them.
At the next stop, another horde of office goers made their way in. Phew! I was taken aback. How can they enter this jammed bus? It is as it is full to its capacity. Now I was the one who was resenting the new comers.
Above mentioned is not my story alone. Even you might have experienced this. This is what I call “Insider-Outsider dilemma”. A moment back I was the outsider, but after sometime I was promoted to be insider (or rather got promoted to one).
Every now and then we hear opportunistic popular leaders making the son-of-the-soil, Marathi manoos (in Marathi), Manning Maga (in Kannada) etc their election hot topic. And I have seen good educated people falling in to their charisma defying all logic and human values, and thus supporting the belligerent attitude of these leaders.
Who decides who is insider and who is outsider? Can such a distinction be made? Given the fact that place of one’s birth is a sheer accident, to which you absolutely don’t have any control. Migration is out of necessity- a means to survive when conditions for living become hostile at the place of birth. This is some kind of natural instinct, which is there even in animals, who migrate freely from place to place. So logically speaking there can be no insider-outsider, as no one can claim to be an insider.
To emphasize my point, let’s go back to Geology. Geologically, humans are the last species to have appeared on this planet earth. If complete Geological time is represented on a clock showing time in 24 hour format, then it can be said that humans appeared in the last two minutes!
So now can we, as humans, when compared with other species, claim to be insider? Certainly not! In spite of being an outsider, we had the audacity to threaten the insiders, drive them away from their home, and become de-facto owners! Good for humans that animal kingdom never had the leaders like ours :D
A famous( rather eccentric) Malayalam novelist Vaikyom Mohammed Bashir once revealed, in an article titled bhoomi yuday avagaashigal meaning “The inheritors of the Earth”, that he never disturbed the hordes of insects like cockroach, lizards, etc living in his residence, as he believed they are the true inheritors of the earth, and it would be injustice to drive them away!
Hey..this is another great blog from u..really liked the way you have presented it and the way it goes from a bus scene to the much deeper meaning of the term 'insider-outsider'...really nice..
ReplyDeleteIt is so true........We all come across this Insider-Outsider dilemma in life quite often, yet never change our way of life. God might be real sad that despite the fact that he made us superior to animals in ways of thinking and the sensibility he has provided to each one of us, its very rare in us to change the fault in us rather than fighting for it
ReplyDeleteThought provoking article !!
ReplyDeleteI learned from this article how one can see things behind the bar.
-Swapnil.