Keep you critics by your side and you will never fail
‘Nindak Niyare Rakhiye…’ advises one of the old Hindi sayings.

 
Honest ‘Nindaks’ (Critics) who have no personal ax to grind are soon going to be extinct. People take criticism as a personal affront. They see conspiracies behind it. They prefer to rely more on their sponsored public relations stories than on an honest critical assessment of their lives and deeds.

The new Rajas and Maharajas who get drunk on the praise heaped on them by sundry sycophants, do not want to face the realities of life like an Ostrich. They revel in a make believe world.

It is not that critics are always right. Nevertheless, the most important fact about them is that they dare to criticize and antagonize you. This is a big favor they do to you and instead of finding meaning in what they say, you banish them. As a result, you are left with no mirror to see your real self.

A critic may use most offensive and blunt expressions to drive his/her point home. He/she can also criticize you in a diplomatic sort of way. Much depends on his/her personal style. However, the discerning ones should not be bothered by this personal style. They should look at the content of the criticism rather than the form.

However, there are some who believe in the Sanskrit Subhasit that one should not speak the truth that is ‘Apriya’ (unpalatable). In modern times it implicates that, one should not speak the truth at all because it is invariably unpalatable and people shun it like plague.

It must not deter true critics anyway because in their absence the humanity will be lost. Its face will get uglier and uglier as it will not be able to see its reflection anywhere.

When will the humanity stop behaving like three monkeys of Gandhi who could see, hear, and speak nothing bad about them? That is why they continue to be in a monkey state even today.

Let us graduate from 'vanarhood’  to manhood and develop the capacity to see and respect a point of view contrary to our own nursed beliefs and dogmas in its correct perspective.