second opinion - Sensitive Indians
Jug Suraiya
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We as a nation are becoming more and more thin-skinned
Are we Indians the most sensitive people in the world? Every other day, and sometimes twice on Sundays and other public holidays when there isn't much else to do, one lot of Indians get their religiousculturalmoralpoliticalideologicalnone of the above sensitivities hurt by what another lot of Indians are doing, or not doing. A non-meat eating community gets its sensitivities hurt because other communities want to eat meat on days which the first community considers to be auspicious. No one is asking the non-meat eaters to eat meat. Indeed, no one is asking them to eat anything, should they exercise their right to go on a fast-unto-death as sanctioned by their faith.Sensitivities also get hurt by books, and by films, and by paintings, and by rationalists who argue against religion, and by questions like whether Subhas Bose diddid not die in that plane crash in Taiwan.
Sensitivities get hurt by how people, specifically people who belong to that suspect minority called women, dress and behave in public, if they wear what is deemed to be `immodest' clothing or drink alcoholic beverages.
How did we develop so many sensitivities which are capable of getting themselves hurt by all manner of things? Some people are said to have a low pain threshold; they tend to feel physical pain more than others who are, figuratively , less thin-skinned than them.
Are we Indians genetically predisposed to have a low sensitivity threshold, so that our sensitivities keep getting hurt all the time?
Medical science claims that Indians are genetically programmed to develop diabetes and heart disease. Are we also physiologically programmed to getting sensitivism, a unique malady that manifests itself in hurt-prone sensitivities?
The curious thing about this condition is that the more one lot of sensitivities get themselves hurt the more inured these same hurt sensitivities become to the hurt they might be causing to another and opposing lot of sensitivities.
Sensitivities are tricky things, to say the least. And the less said about them the better because you never know which sensitive toe you might inadvertently tread on. Ouch!
Sensitivities get hurt by how people, specifically people who belong to that suspect minority called women, dress and behave in public, if they wear what is deemed to be `immodest' clothing or drink alcoholic beverages.
How did we develop so many sensitivities which are capable of getting themselves hurt by all manner of things? Some people are said to have a low pain threshold; they tend to feel physical pain more than others who are, figuratively , less thin-skinned than them.
Are we Indians genetically predisposed to have a low sensitivity threshold, so that our sensitivities keep getting hurt all the time?
Medical science claims that Indians are genetically programmed to develop diabetes and heart disease. Are we also physiologically programmed to getting sensitivism, a unique malady that manifests itself in hurt-prone sensitivities?
The curious thing about this condition is that the more one lot of sensitivities get themselves hurt the more inured these same hurt sensitivities become to the hurt they might be causing to another and opposing lot of sensitivities.
Sensitivities are tricky things, to say the least. And the less said about them the better because you never know which sensitive toe you might inadvertently tread on. Ouch!
