Please do not insult me by insinuating that I am pretending to be a politician-historian of apparent eminence. I do not feel glorified at all by such association. I am happy to be myself and seek to be none other. If my name matches with someone else's and my looks, though vastly different, seem through your ignorance to be similar, the fault lies in your perception and not in any pretence of mine as you seem to suggest. It is a gross insult to my dignity as an individual that this should go on for years despite my protestations against the same and my public disavowal of this seeming identity on my profile features.
The way people swoon over me on account of their misapprehension that I am a renowned historian and a descendant of a certain family of eminence before getting to know that I am but a common citizen of this country is reprehensible and even worse is the way they then assume a superior stance by way of acknowledging me as who I really am, as if they are doing me a favour by allowing me to exist as myself after all and yet gracing me with their facebook friendship. This manner of continuous alternate adoration and insulting by implication is not a pleasant experience for me and goes to show the utter hollowness of our practised civic proprieties. It is also thus clear to me why dynastic politics so survives in our democracy, for people are simply enamoured of families that seemingly, and not in real, tower over the polity with descendants claiming undue advantage thereof from the fruits of independence. As such, those of you who have thus far been culpable to this offence against me, need to examine your hearts to discover to what degree you are afflicted with this servile state of mind.
I can go on providing countless individual instances of disrespect shown me by so many over the past few years but, counting myself as rather insignificant a personality, I shall desist from such an exercise in futility any further to save your precious time and attention for expenditure elsewhere in more worthwhile endeavour. I, therefore, rest my case here with scant hope of any improvement in the mentality of our debilitated population who have only servility as their civic forte and no better.
May Sri Ramakrishna bless all to see the greatness in their own beings and not indulge in such slavishness of basking in reflected glory or sell self-dignity by adoring eminence in a manner mean and bereft of beauty! May all awake to a sense of their latent divinity to shirk off all such self-debasement and humiliation of each other!
Written by Sugata Bose
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