HAVE YOU READ ‘PLAYBOY’ MAGAZINE LATELY?
As a young boy I was perceived by my parents as a truant kid – forever playing cricket, bothering the neighbours with my pranks and above all not caring to join the family during prayers. As I grew up I was constantly goaded to read Holy Books while my interests lay elsewhere like Sherlock Holmes for instance and later James Hadley Chase and yes at one stage ‘Playboy’ magazine. To avoid undue attention to what my parents considered my ‘wayward’ ways I used to place my favourite book inside a Holy book like the Bhagvad Gita and delight in the adventures of Holmes or ogle at the bunnies in Playboy even as my parents thought I was headed finally to a life of saintliness — a family tradition!
Touch your heart and tell me if you have NEVER done something like this.
Psychologists tell us that many people do in fact indulge in such ‘pleasures’ or do worse things BUT ARE BRILLIANT AT RATIONALISNG THEIR ACTS.
These psychologists say that reading Playboy is one such act that men seek to rationalize by saying that they read the magazine not for the ‘dirty’ pictures but for the brilliant and insightful articles that it carries. I feel that editors of such magazines know more about human psychology than we credit them with — they place a few ‘insightful’ articles between lurid photos precisely so that readers can rationalize their actions!
My mind raced to these thoughts in view of the election season now in India. Pranab Mukerjee,Vyalar Ravi [no relative of mine] among many other politicians have desired that very close relatives of theirs be given ‘tickets’ to contest elections. Try and accuse them of feudalism, nepotism, and dynastic rule and their reactions and justifications may range from the hostile — so what is your problem? – to the apparently reasonable rationalization — my son / daughter is a social worker / dedicated to people’s welfare etc. The less tactful will point fingers at the most important dynasty of them all.
A classic example of rationalization from an otherwise accomplished man torn by the demands of loyalty from his party is that of Abhishek Sanghvi, the Congress party spokesman. It is well known that Rahul Gandhi tried his best to dislodge Nitish Kumar in the recently held elections in Bihar. It is part of contemporary history that Rahul failed miserably. That is nothing noteworthy about this but what was remarkable was Sanghvi’s reaction to the question posed by a TV journalist. This TV guy had the ’temerity’ to ask the accomplished lawyer how he felt now that Rahul had come a cropper at the Bihar hustings.
This is where Sanghvi’s capacity to rationalise was in full view. The great lawyer and ‘loyal soldier’ of the party replied without batting an eyelid ‘Rahul is a youth icon and as such he is beyond victory and defeat’.
Had we been less cynical we might have heard bugles in the background and been reminded of Lord Krishna’s exhortation to all people to do one’s duty without regard to the results. But we live in skeptical times and despite my preference for ‘Playboy’ rather than the Bhagvad Gita I cannot believe that it was the Gita that Sanghvi was alluding to!
K.R.RAVI
WWW.KRRAVI.COM
P.S. My relatives suspect that I have mellowed with age and now, when I am seen reading ‘Playboy’ I am actually reading the ‘Bhagvad Gita’ carefully concealed inside in order not to let people know my change in preference. I let them rationalize!