Topic : The ‘ism’ Concept.

The life of any Human Being is governed by some or the other concept. Talking about the Concept with respect to a Human Life would be similarly outlined beyond the superficial structure of the attributes and ways possessed by a human being when compared to any mathematical, statistical, or in a broader sense of the word, scientific definition, implementation and synthesis of any Concept. If we take a particular concept in Maths, the scope and variance of application depends upon the specified terms and conditions subjected to the repeated occurrence of the events or formulae. In the similar, but not the same fashion, the concept that any human being develops during his lifetime depends upon the time and kind of the experiences combined with the receptive power. Formulation of a Concept is completed by the normal observatory instances recorded into the sub-conscious mind by our daily behavioral patterns.
We come across several people during the span of our lifetime. Every person we meet to, or even get a glimpse of, will leave a kind of impression on our mind, thus helping us to form our ‘Concept of Life’. Looking around the world of today, we can derive an altogether new concept, i.e. “The ‘ism’ Concept”. When we talk about ‘ism’ Concept, it is referred to that word, or rather intention of the word, which is formed by appending these three letters at the end of any word. It would take me a book to explain all the words which end up in ‘ism’, and the related meaning-change due to modification. Therefore, we would be review the four most important words which would explain the ‘ism’ concept perfectly and also enlighten us with the 20th century rules, preferences, lifestyle, approach, or if we can call it, “The Concept of Life”.

Professionalism:-

It was only some days before that I used to think that Professionalism is a quality that you develop when you are exposed to any Professional setup. Being a part of such a setup for quite some time now, I can surely say that I have faced a miscarriage of sorts. When we talk of ‘Professional’, it indicates a person who is up-to-date, timely, sincere and dedicated in his efforts. But when we add the ‘ism’, a Professional is up-to-date, timely, sincere and dedicated only till the point after which he might face a danger to his job, or could be required to do more work without the increased pay. What I mean to say is, Professionalism is gradually becoming a synonym of what we call ’Matlabi’ in Hindi. As we tend towards getting higher on our career curve, we start increasing the ratings we have in Professionalism. So, according to the ‘ism’ concept, the better we get in Professionalism, the more we get away from the true Professional, who is sincere, ardent and ready to work.

Internationalism:-

This instance of ‘ism’ is another child of the global misrepresentation of the truly International standards and practices being degraded to a confined level. When we talk of ‘International’, the word radiates the feeling of something extra-ordinary that is accepted globally. We talk of International brands, cars, places, products and people. If any of these things from our country gets International acclamation, it brings proud to the country and its people. One example is A R Rahman getting Oscar for “Slumdog Millionaire”. Another example could be taken of Sachin Tendulkar completing 17000 runs in International Cricket. The ‘ism’ concept changes the picture substantially when it changes to Internationalism. In the generation which opened up its eyes around Laptops, Palmtops, Blackberries and what more, we consider imitation of the International approach or the way of Life to be Internationalism. This is the flavor of the GeNext where we watch shows like ‘Mtv Roadies’ which features the abusive content live on Television unnecessarily. The ‘beep’ sound which replaces the abuses is just to get a clean hit for the Censor Board. On the other hand, ‘LOC-Kargil’ receives criticism from several quarters for featuring the (necessary) abuses in the movie, though movie also had the same ‘beep’ sound which replaced the abuses. This happened due to the non- international appeal of the movie. It was not a Hollywood movie, you see. The ‘ism’ concept not only degrades the importance of the word International, but also leads us to an unacceptable degeneration of the attitude and character. This way, the closer we get to Internationalism of today, the farther we get from the truly International approach and the Concept of Life.

Nationalism:-

“Saare Jaahan Se Achcha Hindustan Hamara……”, I think you all remember the song at least, if not the feeling it usually carries. We had been talking about, criticizing and appreciating certain things about the National approach, or the National reaction to any particular incident. ‘National’, this word in itself represents something which links to our country. I read in our history books that it took about 200 years to get rid of the shackles of the British rule. Many people, somewhere in millions, turned up towards one goal, one aim and one and only one necessity of attaining the Freedom. Everyone from Ganges in the North and Kaveri in the South joined hands to make this unseemingly inevitable task possible. In those days, everyone’s heart was filled with the blood of Nationalism. Don’t get confused, my dear friends. The ‘ism’ concept comes into picture silently, thus bringing an unwavering and acronymical change in the word Nationalism.
When we talk about Nationalism of today, it is very sweet, short, simple and cut-to-size. What you need to do is enjoy a wonderful holiday somewhere in the hills of Khandala, or any nearby place, away from where you stay. It’s even better when 15th August or 26th January comes on Friday or Saturday. You get a long holiday, man. At the end of the day, we send some patriotic messages, or listen to some songs, or even better, watch a patriotic movie (if ever you don’t get a chance to go anywhere). This is how the ‘ism’ concept works, my dear friends. We want to criticize each and every move of the Government, but we do not want to go to caste our vote, just because you get another off from your work. “All the candidates are cunning buggers man, there’s no use voting for any of them anyways”, this is what we say to escape the cause. I would like you suggest You to stand and try getting elected. As this statement might seem a bit ‘filmy’ and over-emotionalistic statement or rather, over-patriotic statement, I would like to inform you that in every election a good percentage of Independents get selected beating the candidates from established parties. But, who cares man?? Let the ‘ism’ concept do its job and we would be fine not getting up into this mess.

Humanitarianism:-

Few days before, just flipping through the omnipresent and omnipotent crap in “Times”, I passed through news which said Salman Khan arranged a fashion show for raising a fund for his charity “Being Human”. Being in the shadowy world of Glamour from last twenty years, it seems to be a commendable initiation from Bollywood superstar, where he tries to “Being Human”. There was a huge pomp and show of splendor in the proceedings thereafter and the news moved out of newspapers gradually, as it happens with every “Baasi” stuff.
It was a bit surprising matter for me, though. According to me, Human life is the highest form of existence on this planet. If we go by our Vedas and Puranas, it takes millions of births to be born as a Human Being. On the sacred land of India, where we have taught Humanity to the World right from the times of Harappan civilization, it becomes a rather laughable point of instance when we try to “Being Human”. Though the initiation is commendable on the part of the actor, the ‘need for the initiation’ is condemnable on the part of this Human race. Humanitarian needs are required to be taken care of and this becomes the moral responsibility of all of us to help our brothers and sisters. Swami Vivekananda use to say, “give me five men like me and I will transform this universe”. Sometimes I wonder, what this great personality would have done, if he might have got five people like him. You must be wondering as to what the ‘ism’ concept has to do with the word Humanitarian. It is the whole and sole change-driver when we talk about ‘Humanitarianism’. Going by the actual meaning, it expresses the feeling of Humanitarian concerns.
But, when we talk about the ‘ism’ concept, Humanitarianism of today reflects the amount of money you spent in purchasing the golden ‘Singhasan’ for Sai-Baba or the variety of jewels you donate in the temple of Tirupati Balaji. Let us face this fact that it doesn’t matter how much you give back to Lord, because in a way you are returning the material things which you got from the Almighty. With an alarming rate of Poverty and increasing unemployment, we need to help our people in getting self-sufficient. The requirement is not of money, my frnds, what we require here is the unfathomable will to serve the fellow Human Beings. Please don’t misunderstand the statement as serving Hindus or Muslims or Indians or Asians or Americans. When we talk about Humanity, there is no such difference. Let us have the intent of helping those who can’t help themselves. Get out of your air-conditioned offices, get out of your hygienic homes, and look at the outside world. Have a look at Dharavi or just take a walk through the backward areas of you city. You will find many fellows who live a life miserable to the extremes. What a rich man spends on himself for a single day would be more than enough for about a week for our not-so-rich population. So, four days of your living pattern can make a month for them.
This must have been a truly ‘Gyan-related’ exposition of my views and thoughts. I admit the fact that I too don’t follow all the guidelines mentioned in this piece. But, it seemed necessary to me that I share my views with you guys. The ’ism’ Concept is not a newly derived concept by me. Instead, it has always existed in our 20th century approach. Just the case, that I have outlined the changes pertinent to the ‘ism’ Concept. It would be appreciable on our part, if we try to go beyond the ‘ism’ Concept and stick to the pure and true meanings and feelings that these words carry.

Let us try to use “Internationalism” in our”Professionalism” so that we get into the feeling of true “Nationalism”, just to support the cause of “Humanitarianism”.

Thank You.