Modesty-wodesty and all that jazz

Whatever happened to honest-to-goodness pride and joy?

Is this a Pune phenomenon alone, or a pan-Indian trend? I’m guessing the latter, but I’ve been witnessing it in Pune a lot.

     If at one end of the spectrum there is brashness, showing off and self-promotion all around us, there is equally bugging behaviour at the other end of the spectrum: the modesty and humility posture.

     People accepting awards and other recognition, people about to embark on a music concert or reading from their writings to an audience, or talking by invitation about an achievement or a discovery…all of them today find the need to weave in the world ‘humble’ and ‘humbled’ or its equivalent in Marathi, or Hindi. Even when they are crowing about something on Facebook, they will put it as “I am most humbled that I have been named the musician/scientist/birdwatcher/teacher/whatever of the year.”

     Don’t get me wrong – humility, even when one has won accolades, is a genuine feeling, and not always a stance. Some people’s achievements rest lightly on them, and they steadfastly refuse to get pompous and self-important. I can understand a great feeling of humility, of feeling humble, when one works in a certain field of life, does well, and yet recognizes how much bigger than oneself that particular field is. People working in medicine, science, poverty alleviation, disaster relief, music, art…and a hundred other fields, have all encountered the immensity and greatness of the field itself, of the human beings that they intersect with, and the great work done before their time.

     However, to throw around the word ‘humbled’ when one has been awarded/felicitated/decorated, is to my mind a bit of a stance. Especially when you put it out there on FB – you want the world to know, you want those 126 fawning and overawed comments and 144 likes with the thumbs-up sign; and yet you want to simper modestly while doing it.

     In Marathi (and I’m sure in other Indian languages), there is, traditionally, a lovely and brief way of announcing, before presenting a music program or any other endeavour in front of an audience: ‘Whatever you like in this, is by the grace of my guru; anything that does not work, is because of my failings.’ I think this is appropriately-pitched humility.

     But in recent times I hear people simply going on about how infinitesimally small and insignificant they are, how the performer/speaker is a mere speck of dust in front of the august assembly of listeners, how he/she has only gathered the courage to present their art because he/she is aware that the esteemed audience is tolerantly indulging them and so on and so unconvincingly forth.  

     “Oh just can it, and get on with your performance, which we are pretty sure will be of a more-than-decent caliber, given your pretty good CV that you have taken care to list in the pre-program publicity material, ya?” is what I want to shout out loud.

     Moreover, if the person talking humble-humbled-humility is accepting an award, it is amply clear that they are good at what they do, and can we put a lid on the ‘undeserving’ ‘just lucky to have great parents’ ‘a mere student-of-life myself’ bit?

     I would love to see someone who has won something, simply exult and revel in it. Not shout and chest-thump Tarzan style, but definitely rejoice that their fellow-humans like and appreciate what they do, and are saying so in the form of an award. I would love to read on Facebook, something like this: “I am very chuffed/thrilled/proud to announce that I have won this year’s Award for Excellence in Somethingortheother. I worked hard for it, and I deserve it. My fellow competitors too worked hard, but the point is that I am holding this award in my hand haha! My crew/parents/accompanists/guru/spouse all had a huge hand in my winning this award no doubt, but the award belongs to me, and it feels right. Bye bye.”

     But we are unlikely to hear or read anything of the sort. All we’re going to see and hear is the self-conscious whisper of humbleness speaking sanctimoniously!

     Poet and Mathematician Piet Hein pitched it perfectly in his pithy way:

AN ODE TO MODESTY

Talking of successful rackets,

Modesty deserves a mention.

Exclamation marks in brackets,

never fail to draw attention.