Friend - I recently met some one who was offered Magsaysay award. He
refused and then they asked him to be part of the award comittee. He
refused that too.
when asked why he said that all these are distractions and increase the gap between the poor people with whom he works
Aparna Krishnan Yes. Tell me who.
Friend - No no lets leave it there. He is a Gandian
In the recent talk to students he said Vinoba had advised him to be always a zero. A zero doesn't have value of its own but when any other numeral gets attached before it it adds a lot of value.
The other thing he said was very beautiful - Be poor. Be always with the poor. ( ezhaiyay iru ezhaikalodu iru)
Aparna Krishnan - i am going to paste this without giving your name. ok ?
Friend - no no don't do that
Aparna Krishnan - ayyo why ?
Friend - Its a futile exercise. They will only say he had black money. hence didn't want to be in limelight
Aparna Krishnan - One in thousand will grasp. Or maybe one in 100.
Friend -if it is one in million i will be happy. Definitely not one in ten thousamd
Aparna Krishnan - all village people will understand. I wish the educated norons would leave this land.
Friend -It is just enough if they leave them alone
Aparna Krishnan - They wont. Their hands are itching to 'develop the illiterate'.
Another day ...
When someone working for social causes delights in getting an public award, something is fundamentally wrong.
Why so? The person may not have done it for the award in the first place. Isn't the positive feeling of being acknowledged a fundamental human nature?
1. The work has to be its own reward - and is 2. Unless the sense on Me and Mine becomes smaller and smaller, that can and will always distract from the essential activity.
The shepherd playing the flute will not care about being called to a meeting and awarded. It will seem silly to him and all others. Yes, I might ask him to play it again under the tree and he will do so willingly. That is all the acknowlegement that is natural. Further than that, seeking name and fame, is a perversion. Into which people are socialized.
I actually feel the reverse. I feel the more recognition a person gets, more the cause gets highlighted and spreads the message further. And how does it matter if a person did it for ego as long as the cause got served.
yes, sometimes we go ahead with some ceremony simply because it does get the cause some attention. but that essential indifference to all these distractions is important. for personal as well as political reasons.
Hmm
I think it is theoretically a correct sentence and most of the time's it is true, but their are exception's, For eg: awards to people like Kailash Satyarthi, Anna Hazare, Sunitha Krishnan will make their cause spread among the people. How many people does know that you are working in a remote village by being as one among them. An award to people like you who are completely in to community work can make your cause spread awareness and motivate people to take the path you have chosen.
no. the greatest works have been done without awards. the greatest of people i have known have ignored awards and worked day and night. and from that deep sincerity, much happens. Gandhi never needed an award to promote his cause. Nor Bose. nor Ambedkar.
awards only fuel the ego. and distract from both public work and personal growth.
True a real social worker shouldn't desire for an award rather success in their work is their true reward. Where as award's automatically come to them like Kailash Satyarthi who won Nobel prize for his work on child slavery..
i hope he was personally indifferent to it. Awards can corrupt - the human mind is such. Pride lurks around the corner unless one has seen reality and one's utter insignificance very clearly.
Shanmuganathan Subramanian waste of time. Awards themselves are a waste of time. Now you want a study on them !!
Here people are not able to understand why poor people can't use e banking , and you are talking abt all this. very tough very very tough
Another day ...
There are social work organizations that institute awards for social workers. I wish they would not.
I cannot imagine the generosity of each person in Malapalle who feeds ever begger at the hut door, even when there is neither rice nor employment in sight, being awarded or feted. The acts are bigger than any man constituted award.
I cannot imagine some close friends who have worked day and night for social causes as needing or wanting an award. Their springs of energy and joy are far higher. It is that spring that needs to be protected. Awards will destroy those life giving springs.
Paalaguttapalle (Dalitwada)
Aparna
we all have our own set of contradictions and compromises dont we ? we have our failings,limitations and one such limitation is the delight at be recognized for years of relentless effort. i have met so many social workers and one thing common is their feeling under-appreciated. afterall we are human.
also awards have their own relevance. it brings to light the issue the activist is working and helps in the tasks of advocacy. the award is not for the person but to the issue. after sathyarti's nobel, there is probably greater awareness of the issue of child labour and that opens door for him to carry out advocacy and impress upon government officials and policy makers.
The first problem it is possible to address, and the person needs to address. For one's own sake Most of my friends (and here I include a very small number to be honest) have worked away from the limelight, and with little interest in it.
The second point is a double edged sword - and I would consider it a problematic means at best.
it also serves to inspire others to act or be in solidarity.
No. the inspiration to serve comes from somewhere else.
Not from the glamour of awards.
Awards play a very important role in supporting activities and activists. Some activities do not require huge capital investment, some do. For the second case awards and the associated publicity help in fundraising.
So the purpose of awards is the money. OK.
I think nowadays there many fundraising ways, and an award is if anything a small way. And anyway the larger question of external funding is a damocles sword. Which we need to think thro'. I agree there are many issues.
Still the heart of the issue is that an award should be immaterial and of zero value, because the end of the story is to reduce oneself to a zero.
One needs to remember that even the activism of GandhiJi had the backing of regular donations from the industrialist. And the huge tilak swaraj fund.
The sages of our epics had reduced themselves to zero, but we're felicitated where ever they went. They did not refuse the honor.
To paraphrase vinoba's discussion on this topic in gita pravachane, Those who have reduced themselves to a zero accept everything things in life with "Krishna arpanamastu"
yes, with the understanding that one is a zero, or at least that one needs to work towards that and anything else is simply egotisn - it does not matter is one takes awards of not.
And yet, when one is not quite there, its best to shun name and fame maybe, as these can again trap one into that egotism.
For a good ayurvedic doctor to accept an award just so that it beings ayurveda into greater discourse, yes. But that doctor also needs to have understood that she is very small, and the work of millions has enabled her to say and do what she is. Anyway the friends I have are there, so then its ok i suppose.
But the essential idea of awards is to feed the ego. That I object to basically.
Another day ...
Sometimes, accepting these awards can create the most essential visibility that the purpose deserves. Hence, it is just my view to not discount the other lens
There is no earning an award, sincerely or otherwise. What we do is our duty. And if we happen to be part of the privileged classes like you and I, we are always simply trying to discharge our debt. And a small part of it.
As for promoting the issue, I am sure it can and should happpen without the tamasha of awards. Which simply bolster ego in overt or covert ways.
Aparna Krishnan
I agree and understand your perspective. Every child cannot be taught the same things in the same way cos that is our Masters design - embracing these differences in approach, people and their perspectives are needed cos these differences are external. I am not for any flamboyance or excesses as you said but believe moderation is key to the multitude of differences in creation.
In the village every child and adult works hard, is happy at a growing a huge pumpkin. Never considers it as due to his work. The role of the sun, the rain, the wind are understood. Never expects an award.
Awards nurture pride, perversity, ego. Wise to never participate in such activities, nor adulate.
Aparna Krishnan
"never considers it as his work" - very important and an essential attitude but if receiving an award can help another 10 more, that also can be mindfully surrendered unto Him and be considered as not his work
Good learning - thanks for replying
Receiving an award makes ten more consider an award important. Gandhi never received an award, and inspired millions. There are other ways to inspire.
In the development sector awards get far more damaging. Any social process has and should have many players, and yet the award is given to one person usually. Even if he dedicates it to the group. As the person becomes bigger, the process gets hurt.
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