Doubting Thomases
In "Accursed House" a story by the
French writer Emile Gaboriau, the tenants one by one desert Vicomte's house
doubting his good intention of lowering their rent by one-third. After the
death of his miser uncle, Vicomte decreases the rent out of sheer generosity.
He is, however, misunderstood, and before long a rumor goes rife that the house
is haunted, which in turn makes the tenants leave the house. Certainly, the
writer is not only trying to show the funny side up but also lashing the very
human nature of doubting others' benevolent intent. Who is to blame, one can
question. Aren't we all nonetheless doubting Thomases? Haven't we doubted our
friends, husbands, wives and children? Haven't we tried to discover ugly designs
in the works done by our fellow beings in good faith?
Othello and King Lear serve as fine examples of
heroic and famous Doubting Thomases we have heard of and read about. The
undaunted warrior Othello sets his own doom driven by his infidelity to doubt the
fidelity of Desdemona, a wife so faithful to him. Likewise, we know of King
Lear's pathetic end precipitated by his act of doubting the genuine filial love
of his youngest daughter, Cordelia. In both these plays, Shakespeare, with a
real understanding of human weaknesses, portrays these characters that seem to
be more like human nature personified.
Why are people so skeptic? Why do we believe in none
of our leaders and bureaucrats today? Perhaps, we haven't come across people
who have sincerely tried to work for the country putting aside their own
interests. Is it the world that makes us Doubting Thomases or we are born
skeptics? These questions are difficult to answer. Nevertheless, one thing is
sure: we grow up to be better skeptics as we live longer in the world devoid of
faith. In offices, pubs, schools, colleges and even temples people's talks,
curiously, feature mainly on how they are aware of others' mistakes (and, of
course, they think that they are always right). The sense of complimenting others
for even little things and praising others' sincerity make your demeanor
pleasant, which is, however, lacking in us.
Just the other day, we were having
'aalu chops' in the college cafeteria. It was a cool morning and hot chops were
all our never-satiating guts desired. One of us was serving the rest, for
self-help is a custom in our cafeteria. The prowling demon of doubt suddenly
sneaked into our joyous gathering: 'Oh, those must be yesterday's stale chops,'
came the hasty remark leaving everyone startled for a while. Mind you, those
chops were steaming hot, and the young man who gave the verdict wasn't the one
who was going to pay for the breakfast. It had but only given a hiatus to our
jokes and laughter for a couple of seconds, which had been going on for quite a
long while.
Such is our plight. 'Doubt
everything and everybody' has been the worldview of people. Old habits die
hard. But you must make a beginning. You must pluck some courage to break away
from this tradition of doubting. It's time we began recognizing goodness latent
in others and be especially careful about not penalizing someone's good intent.
Else, we will unfortunately be adding to the catalogue of uncountable Doubting
Thomases.
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