Of admirations..

Have you ever wondered why we keep going back to the people we admire again and again? What is it in someone that actually attracts us to them? A dashing personality, the attitude with which they carry themselves, the amount of care or respect they show you, a few characterestics that make them irresistible, like Sachin's batting, and many other factors. But what is it that excites us within? My friend Shruthi might have some half-baked hormone vetti biological answer. My sister Veena might have some pucca vetti biological answer good enough to publish a research paper. But still, I don't buy these arguements. What is it in the person that attracts us, don't talk about magnets and polarity though..

When I talk about attraction, it need not be based on basic goodness, buy that first!! Coz I like Hitler, I like the Corleones, and I like gang wars too. It might all be evil, dangerous, but there is something fascinating in all this. Hitler had an admirable quality of some commanding leadership, the Godfather was everything a ganglord had to be, all powerful, strong allies, the strength of the people, inimitable wit, and some scintillating leadership.

Back to the good people, what do they have to fascinate us? As Vivek says in Anniyan (Aparichitudu for my gult friends, Aparichit for my hindi ones) , it should actually be 'Nallavanna Pidikkathu, Rules pesina kasakkum', but no, there are a few qualities which one can admire among the good guys too. We see so many guys, so good at what they do, around us, everyday. One likes a cricketer like Sachin, because he is simply the best in the cricket field, the fascination of having watched a Michael Corleone on screen translates into action when someone watches Sachin bat in full flow, or for that matter a math wonder like Abhishek Dang solve his sums. Similar is with Gandhi, though people talk about the non-violent part of Gandhi, I guess that was the less spectacular of Gandhi's personality, his spectacle was actually when he took to Indianness like a fish in water after arrival from the Tolstoy farm. Here, he started his masses pulling act. Trust me, Amitabh Bachchan and my Thalaivar Rajnikanth together couldn't have pulled that many people at the same time. This was where the charisma of the man called Mahatma lied. He was not a coward, nor was he weak. He was a person with as much aggression as that of any average Indian citizen, in fact even more. But, he put it all into constructive use. It is said, the British could not answer Gandhi's questions, and had no answers to the extremism in Gandhi's case. You can prevent someone from planting bombs, but you can't possibly get someone determined to break his fast, can you? It is not to be forgotten that the Mahatma has also been considered for so long a time now, the epitome of goodness.

Now, why do we admire people? Why Hitler, why Corleone,why Sachin, why Dang, why Gandhi? I have one reason, emulation. Admiration is the result of trying to emulate someone. You are not able to achieve the perfection someone else achieves in something, then you want to try to equal their position in their own fields, but you know that is kind of impossible, then they end up becoming your idol. You start looking up to them, and eventually admiring them. It is inevitable, that you don't admire anyone. Or rather anyone's characterestics. If such a situation does arise, it does mean only one thing, your the biggest ego maniac the world has ever known. 

So, I personally feel its a great thing to admire someone, so lets continue admiring and being admired.

Ever yours,

Without wax

Chappli/GV..