Indians' dont like to accept mistakes. That is one thing that we have to learn and learn quickly. Maybe it is something in our psyche which prevents us from humbly and sincerely tell other people, look I have made this mistake and I realize it.
One example was the match fixing allegation. Faced with all sorts of evidence, Hansie Cronje accepted his mistake and he rose in the eyes of his countrymen. But no Indian player has ever had the guts to do that. And surely it is very hard to believe that the bookies (who mostly operate from india) must have got to Cronje after they couldnt find a single Indian player who fell to the lure of easy money.
Take the recent Rahul Mahajan drug scandal. Now I am not to judge wether he did it or not. But circumstantial evidence points strongly to it. If he had taken it, it would have made surely much sense to admit it and say sorry and accept the punishment.
Perhaps that is why there are much less autobiography by Indians. There has to be so much cover up that it will become a fiction. The only honorable exception is the father of nation, whose autobiography is harshest on himself while rarely putting others in a bad light.
By accepting our mistakes publicly, not only does the individual raise himself due to his courage to say the truth. But it also gives the society a lesson and an example to other people of the kind of mistake that is possible. Which might prevent someone else from commiting that mistake.
6 comments:
haah
good thought!
But if everyone just accepted their mistakes as is...the law courts would go outta business!;-)
Very true abt accepting one's mistakes..
But cant generalise dat abt Indians.. I gues its human nature to avoid any circumstance of public embarassment..
Besides sumtimes jst as an allegation can be a public stunt, an apology can be one as well..
Dont knw mch abt the truth behind the Hansie Cronje allegation, so wudnt comment abt it.. Jst dat i dnt agree with the generalisation that Indians fail to accept their mistakes and that non-Indians do..
Pssst.. We hv begun to argue at every issue.. :D
:)
..Me
Sorry but I have to disagree with you. I don't think you can generalise Indians. Everywhere poeple try to cover up, but our legal system a little too slow that we get more time to cover up.
@ Ekta
I am not asking everyone. But we dont even have one such instance. And the law courts will have lots of other stuff to do like deciding on the reservation issue.
@ Rose
As above, I just want to see one example of an indian accepting blame. I have seen many such instances. In Japan, businessmen caught in corruption publicly weep in front of the nation and then commit suicide. But in India, once caught with irrefutable proof, they go and try to implicate someone else ala harshad mehta
BTW tis great to argue but not for argument's sake ;-)
@ Dew drops
As above, I am just looking for some signs. The only one who broke down publicly was Kapil Dev and he broke down defending himself ;-)
I jumped here through Rose's blog.
Couldn't leave your blog without leaving a comment for this post.
I totally agree with you. In France, I have seen many personalities and politicians accepting their mistakes in open. Recently, the Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, accepted that his Reform on the Youth job was a mistake and he took it back (well, actually he didn't say it was a mistake ...he said that he didn't organise meetings and debate sessions before the law and that was a mistake and he accepted it). People are forgetting this mistake little by little, and now I hear that he can be a presidential candidate for 2007 elections in France.
It is not easy to accept our mistakes in public. As the old saying goes, 'to err is human and to forgive is divine'...
@Prash
Thanks for ur comments! Yes the importance of a person accepting the mistake in public is also so that the society learns of it. In this way perhaps, the same thing would not be repeated.
As they say a wise man learns from his mistake, wiser learns from others
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