Hate and Jealousy

 Not long ago I watched a movie RAAT AKELI HAI (The Night is Alone) on the Netflix. Can't but mention this epic line from the movie "People don't hate those who possess money, house, property and fame - they are simply jealous of them."

This monologue espouses a lot of truth and connotation. It aptly depicts my interactions with a highly successful individual from our village who lives outside but loves his native place from the bottom of his heart. A true son of the soil who pays regular visits to his place of birth but makes it a point to get back to his city the same day. I once asked him - "Why don't you for a change make an overnight stay in our village ?"

His answer was - "I would love to do so, but chances are in night my vehicle may be targeted and vandalized." He is a great person. Forget about harming anyone, he won't even hurt a fly. No sane person should hate him. But the village now-a-days is filled with discarded elements burning in jealousy towards their successful counterparts who live outside. This gentleman is a highly accomplished person. Success breeds jealousy and contempt, eventually creating enemies. His decision of not to take the risk of staying overnight in the village made a whole lot of sense.

Years back in the 1980s the same person on a weekend rented a VCR and a TV and took them to his village to entertain his family. Those days craze for Hindi movies played on VCR and shown on Color TV was novelty for the villagers. The news of a free movie show spread like wildfire among the thatched roof houses. Many flocked and flooded his verandah to watch the latest Bollywood movie stars in action. 

But the verandah had a limited size and could only accommodate a certain number of people. Many couldn't fit in and had to return back. Some of them vowed that if they couldn't watch the video show, no one else can. They went to the local electricity substation and deliberately blew up the fuse. The benevolent gentleman eventually managed to get it fixed, only to be frustrated again as one power outage after another followed due to persistent sabotages.

Why did these agitated village brats create such nuisance ? There is no reason at all to hate him. Rather the villagers should be proud of an achiever from their own. But they were simply jealous of him. Jealousy, same as love is a strong emotion not easy to overcome as it defies all logic.

Not long ago someone won the Mega Billion Lottery in USA. I hardly cared. I would give it a damn towards someone's success whom I barely know. But if that person happned to be a person known to me, it might have given me some heartburn. 

The reason being, jealousy is an inherent human quality. An overwhelming majority of humans harbor this feeling. The extent of jealousy varies from a person to person, but nobody is totally  immune to it. We mostly feel jealous  towards those who tend to have what we aspire for. Women are generally jealous of fellow women about their looks, cloths, jewellery etc. For men, it's mostly about wealth, career and material possessions. (It could vary though, for we live in an age where don't ask a man his age and woman her salary).

Only exception being the parents who are never jealous of their children. Their success makes the parents proud. But the same courtesy may not be extended to others children. Any other relationship on earth is not impermeable to such feeling, especially the most jealous could be your siblings, cousins and a close friends.

Reminds me of a scene from the epic Hindi movie "3 IDIOTS", where both the friends of Aamir Khan were sad as they thought their friend Rancho failed in test. And they were sadder, when they found that he topped the class. The reason being, we can very easily share some one's sorrow, but rarely share the happiness at the same breath at his success.

The pangs of jealousy can always be overcome with logic. If someone wins a lottery it is his (or her) destiny. If a person becomes successful it could be due to hard work and being at the right place at right time, when I missed the boat. My jealousy will rather give me unsolicited headaches and heart burns, with no impact on the other person. I will end up spending more on Tylenols and Antacids. So it's better make peace with life, stop burning myself and move on.