Here was this word loving its holiday on earth patiently waiting for another language upheaval to came along and pick it up to place it in the ‘was used’ list… and we have all gone and messed up its sedate life. The word is now flung everywhere by almost everyone – on the short-life pages of a daily newspaper to being on blogs and social media platforms where even hibernating genes pop up anytime, riding the unhealthy decibels that TV anchors belch and shaking hands with uncouth kerb-side conversations of the good-for-nothings of our nation, on the lips of actors who pretend to be one-up on wily politicians to becoming a part of the breakfast menu of even students in their hostels. Yes, the nation is invaded yet again – by a word that probably isn’t sure if even renouncing the world is any longer the right solution now.
No one knows where this drama began, or when. Was it some sadhvi or sadhu or imam or priest who said something that the nation debated? Was it a mistaken identity of a few pieces of meat in a refrigerator? Was it another version of con that we concluded to be conversion? Was it the unlikely mating of jehad with love? Was it all about private conversations finding their way to a stray paragraph in a newspaper? Was it some av-bytes that no one really remembers now? Whatever was the origin and wherever… we are all now in this whirlpool pushing each other into what is sure oblivion. What we should instead be doing is finding a way to pull ourselves out of it, but no, pushing the other nearer the eager epicentre seems so much more enjoyable.
But let me come back to this simple word called ‘intolerant’. Nothing wrong with being intolerant to certain actions, I guess. The other day someone tweeted: ‘This is the limit of tolerantation.’ I guess it is only fair if I am intolerant towards such tweets because I tweeted back:
‘You are asking me to tolerate ‘tolerantation’
And all I return is intolerant indignation!’
I know there are many who are intolerant towards my rhyming tweets that keep gyrating in the virtual space, but we really need to find the right reasons to be intolerant about. I mean, look at the authors marching in and out of TV studios announcing their award-wapsi. Come on dear authors, your job is to write and if you see things around you that need to be written about and communicated to everyone, do that. This is almost similar to what I keep telling authors on my Facebook group for bloggers where hordes of them from all over the world keep throwing ugly sounding updates like: ‘I have written a book. Buy it now!’ It is as if everyone on the social media is waiting to click on that Amazon or Flipkart link to buy a book without knowing anything about that author. So I tell them to share posts and make others fall in love with their writing style first and that the sales of their book will automatically follow. They are writers and not salesmen. So all the creative souls who are on their award-wapsi spree need to understand that they can reach out better if they write about their indignation or create short films on whatever it is that bothers them. To communicate well is better than creating a ruckus. And anyway, why bother a poor self-conscious word like ‘intolerant’ and make it do things that are so alien to its nature? I mean there are many other aspects where being intolerant helps.
So it is true that being intolerant helps?
Yes, I have mentioned about my being intolerant to non-words like ‘tolerantation’. The funny thing about being intolerant is that the word effectively cuts through actions that reek of intolerance. We must be rightfully intolerant if any Indian is asked to leave any other part of our country because some people ganging up want it to be so. So must I tolerate the dictates of Shiv Sena when they ask North Indians to shoo away from Mumbai? Why must an artist suffer the act of seeing his paintings being destroyed? Why must women tolerate being forced to stick to a particular dress code? Why must couples be thrown out of public places just because they are holding hands? Why must we tolerate dolts defacing our monuments… or breaking traffic rules… or driving on footpaths… or asking to be let off by paying money… or wanting to carry the office stationery home… and there are innumerable examples where intolerance needs to be directed. Why must any citizen tolerate public funds be misused by public servants? Why must government servants call kick-backs ‘dasturi’ and pretend that it is fine to accept it?
All that I am saying is that it pays to be intolerant towards actions that may end up ridding the country of corruption. Religion isn’t corruption… but corrupted minds misreading religion is corruption. Fight politics that incites people to fight. Be intolerant to divisive ideas. The day we understand this we will keep our focus intact and not a single fight shall go unrewarded. To fight and to be intolerant is fine but the way we are flinging such beautiful words at each other, they will be thoroughly messed up and probably end up in some psychiatric ward somewhere.
.
.
.
The truth behind intolerant India
.
This post was first published in MarketingBuzzar:
2015_11_25_MarketingBuzzar_published Intolerant – another word messed up
.
.
Arvind Passey
25 November 2015
