MADRASSIS , MAHARANIS AND METAPHORS
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MADRASSI, MAHARANIS,,METAPHORS
Did you notice this phenomenon a day after the Union Budget?
MADRASSI, MAHARANIS,,METAPHORS
The budget announces concessions to the rich [ example reduced corporate tax] ,the middle class[example IT exemptions] and the poor[example subsidy on kerosene ].
At the office and in the media the talk is as follows:
The well off people talk about reduced corporate tax as a justifiable ‘incentive’ for hard work and enterprise.
The middle class will claim that I.T. ‘ relief’ was overdue what with inflation.
The rich and middle class will agree that the FM had given ‘ sops’ to the poor with an eye on elections!
You can see how we use different words to describe what may be virtually identical phenomena .The words we use betray our value judgement without us being conscious of the ‘ mental leap’ we take.
Look at another situation. When members of a particular community resort to violence we say they are terrorists but when members of another community do the same acts we say they are insurgents!
Not only words but metaphors betray our thoughts.
During the second world war when US government agents questioning the loyalties of Japanese Americans would ask ‘Who do you want to win this war—Japan or America?”Finding this to be causing pain—Japanese Americans loved both countries—some Japanese Americans switched frames from a ‘Military’ to a ‘family frame’. Thus they responded—‘Who do you want to win when you see your father and mother fighting ? The answer—you just want them to stop fighting!
Mischievous Politicians and regressive priests have known this all along. Even managers tend to do this deliberately or otherwise. My CEO friend who runs a foreign Exchange bureau describes his competitors as ‘ enemies’ presumably to mobilize his staff into rigorous competition. Communalists have resorted to the following metaphor—if you see a snake and a member of so and so community kill the snake first .I have heard this said of every community in India !
My US based NRI friend asked me why we in India encouraged a feeling of ‘ entitlement’ by means of reservations in education and government jobs. I suggested that should he change the word from ‘ entitlement’ to ‘compassion and compensation’ for past abuses maybe he might change his views.
In order for us to be creative we might usefully deliberately change the words and metaphors we use in any situation. Thus should India face Pakistan in the Cricket world cup finals we can choose to see it as a ‘ war’ [jehad in the jargon of some people] or call it a ‘ test of skill and temperament’.
I remember legendary singer Md. Rafi refer to every duet between him and Lata Mangeshkar as a ‘ mukabla’ and even privately sarcastically called her ‘ maharani’ .Is it any wonder that the two fell out to the eternal loss of people like us who loved them both? No doubt Rafi saab was probably only half serious but metaphors do great damage even when used jocularly.
Doubt it? Call your friend Subraminiam a ‘ madrassi’ jocularly and see his reaction!!
K.R.RAVI
WWW.KRRAVI.COM
