Light at the end of the road

Adios, Amigos dear friends... So said a famous stage personality and gracefully exited the centerstage for his life. Going out is something anyone can do, but doing it with grace is what matters. When you leave something, incumbents should miss you, not thank god because you left. That would be a disgrace!

People join their jobs, earn fame and riches and when it's time to bid adieu, their egos do not let them to part away from what they hold. I may not exactly be right when I attribute it all to ego, but I believe winning and losing has got nothing to do with what you feel, it's all ego-consciousness that both enjoys and suffers, wisely quoted by S.Radhakrishnan.

Why does anyone fall in love with his position? Because it offers the person riches, gives the person an identity and earns him/her fame that he/she long waited for. Once they are in love with their job(this happens mostly with posts), they refuse to be 'former', they refuse to leave whenever and wherever possible.

I know success brings you name and fame and a following to die for. But, no supper is super without a proper dessert. Success and fame that you earn as an incumbent, is temporary. It can be made permanent only by a graceful exit. If you crib about losing your position and stick on to it for longer than necessary, people lose their respect for you and consider you plebeian. They forget, rightly, all your successes and contributions in that extra time you try to hold on to your position. The more you try to hang around, the more ground you are losing in their hearts.

This happens in many places. Politicians, very prone to illnesses due to old age, refuse to leave their seat to let the youngsters make a mark. While there are ministers who can't listen well and yet try to speak to foreign dignitaries, there are people like Milind Deora, young and dynamic, who are left to speak to the journalists and do nothing else. What impression does this leave of the country? US President goes for a periodic physical health check and gets a 'Fit to Work' certificate to plant his foot in the White House. Do such a thing in India and half the ministers won't make it!

Cricket! The breath of India. We made heroes of players, we made cricket a profession many youngsters are dying to get into, just to realise their fairy tale of transforming from rags to riches. Aspiring cricketers don't do it for the sake of the game, but for the social status it gets, the riches associated and the recognition earned. They just want to make a quick buck. When I say this, of course, I am not speaking of the entire fraternity but the black sheeps we must be ashamed of. Players earn coveted fame and awards, captaincy positions and do everything on right occasion, but when it's time to bid adieu, they just don't want to do it. After all the paeans all through their career, they start recieving brickbats. Media criticises them, people loathe them and then finally the selection committee drops them. Only then do they budge and stop. The last graceful exit I had seen was that of Steve Waugh, and he recieved a warm applause on his retirement. I feel Azharuddin deserved something similar, but his ego didn't let him take the plunge and the result, he is left amidst allegations and scams. No matter how rich he is, he isn't the same old 'messiah' anymore! Even his rare achievements are under the scanner to check whether they have been fixed.

Movies, the second breath of India, show similar symptoms. Heroes refuse to recognise their age. They take the phrase '18 till I die' a little more than seriously. Any one who wanna have a hearty laugh, come over and I will show you the clip of an aging Telugu Superstar trying very hard to dance, with the ravishing Katrina Kaif! *ahem* There are directors who refuse to leave the arena, even after it is tacitly told that their genre is no more accepted. Do all these people live in eternal darkness? or is it that they decide to live in the bliss of darkness when the world is revelling in the light of contemporary intelligence?

Whatever be the reason, when people are losing grace and when authorities are propelled to kick them out, an indignant being in me says they should be incenerated. Ofcourse, I don't agree to that, but there should be some ego-checking mechanism in place perhaps!