‘Nindak Niyare Rakhiye’ - Always keep a critic close by

I am not very good at Sanskrit. Never have been. But these three words, Nindak Niyare Rakhiye, from a doha by Kabir, have been entrenched in my mind. Quite possibly because the words used are easily understandable to a person familiar with both Hindi and English.

When I was a child, I read a story. Like many old Hindi stories, it featured two brothers — Ramu and Shyamu. Both were all-rounders and exceptionally good in all spheres of life. Their family members and relatives were full of praise for them. The elder brother always encouraged the younger one, but at the same time offered constructive criticism. The idea was to guide him.

One day, the younger sibling confronted him, questioning his criticism. To this, the elder brother responded, “All the relatives who heap praise on us are not necessarily our benefactors. We always need people who are frank enough and close enough to criticise us. That is the only way we can improve — and improve we must — because nobody in this world is perfect.”

When I was in high school, the cricket team of my school, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, was very much in the news, largely due to the efforts of one of the senior administrators, ML Sharma ji. During a match against another school’s visiting team, one of our players, Ashwini Sood, was going great guns. He was hitting every second ball for a six and, as expected, the entire school was cheering his heroics.

As Mr Sharma was leaving the field, I overheard him say to one of Ashwini’s classmates, “Please make him understand. At the state or national level, the boundary will not be as close to the pitch as it is on our ground. If he gets swayed by his popularity at school and continues hitting like this in those matches, he will soon get caught and never be able to play a long and meaningful innings. That will be the end of his career before it even begins.”

How often in our professional lives do we come across seniors who are open to criticism? Very rarely. Often, it is their pompous ego that gets in the way, but even more than that, it is the fear among subordinates and colleagues that criticism will not be taken in the right spirit. As a result, no one is willing to risk facing their wrath. This ultimately leads to their downfall, as they continue repeating the same mistakes time and again.

Wouldn’t it be better if our corporate organisations, political parties, and state and central governments had a Department of Criticism or even a Ministry of Criticism, where open and constructive criticism was welcomed, instead of glorifying every minor achievement and sweeping every major debacle under the carpet? Time to think and ponder.

The writer is an educator, author, and corporate coach; Views presented are personal.