Stereotypes

Stereotypes, the dictionary meaning is something or someone, who is like or is akin to something/someone already known. Or it conforms to an oft believed description.

The term evokes negative connotations first. It means something/someone who has no original content or personality or style…usw.

However, you ask a software developer, the person would talk of stereotypes with respect, sometimes reverence, if she/he is an expert on ‘Object Oriented’ programming.

But my thoughts today are not on whether stereotypes are good or bad. I am only looking at the possibility of stereotypes outnumbering the normal (original) people or (to be cruel) people with original thought.

When a child, I believed that my parents were the best people in the world; that the police (or any uniform of similar hues) are to be feared because they catch people and Bapu Gandhi’s dictum to speak the truth is truthfully followed by all human beings.

As a adolescent, I believed that cramming school books was the only way to grow into an adult and that after graduation in commerce (B Com preferably), a bank job was the ultimate salvation for any human being. Becoming a doctor was a pious achievement in the service of mankind and if you become an engineer, you will finally land up doing nuclear research.

Nearing ‘settling down’ after I had spent about five years as an air force officer (that by the way is a strong stereotype showing that I am patriotic), I expected the most accomplished girls to line up in front of our main door as the astrologer predicted. When I finally got married (thank God for that girl, who came over), I was not sure whether I was accomplished enough.

Life has rolled along for many years. We have seen many a changes of Governments in power at the Center and state. It was believed that the people who make up these governments are called ‘Leaders’, that means that they know more than us, the lay people and they ‘lead’ us to whatever the right place for us to be in. We also knew that when you wear a ‘Gandhi’ cap. That means that they will live frugal life like ‘Mahatma’ and follow his tenets too.

I could have gone on. But I am already struggling with reconciling the above-said beliefs to reality I see today.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. Not the world. I am talking about my beliefs in the stereotypes.

So why would I be handed over wrong beliefs by all those well meaning people like grandparents and parents.

Let me try a hypothesis. Initially, a child learns by copying. The child copies parents or other family members, then peers and teachers at school. So it is useful to be handed over readymade well defined models (our stereotypes) to copy. This is the necessary first easy step before graduating to the more sophisticated though tedious learning by written or spoken word.

However, most of us refuse to grow up beyond stereotypes. It is easy and does not require intellectual effort of logical thought for each situation and endeavor.

Unfortunately, in the topsy-turvy world that we live in, stereotypes do not suffice. The problems and challenges are not like what they were 25 or 50 years back. I don’t want myself to limit myself to any behavioral ‘recipe’ books or standard political ointments. I want me and my country to be progressive and innovative.

I refuse to be led up the garden path any more. No stereotypes political, economic and social patterns or beliefs for me. Innovation, free thinking, effective education, economic freedom and social support are what I recommend for all my fellow countrymen or countrywomen.