Good Apple Bad Apple

When I was in school, we all had a "Moral Science" subject - which was more about idiocy than morals. I acutely remember one story in which a boy falls into "bad company", and his father shows him the "correct way" by giving him the example of how a good apple placed among rotten apples also goes bad.

I realized something immediately on reading it - that this is a very poor and weak analogy.. comparing ourselves to a bunch of apples! Why the hell then do we need brains? Do we as humans have any say or free choice? Are we a bunch of apples who cannot protect ourselves against getting rotten? Surely there's a BIG difference between being human and being an apple... unlike apples, we can choose to do what we want to do or not. Quite a few of my friends/acquaintances smoke and do/did consume alcohol.. but I simply didn't want to go that way, and I didn't.... it is a matter of choice and remains so and it was clear…so much for the so-called "bad company" and me being an apple. Those were my feelings on reading the story.

But much later, until I returned to India and saw an entire generation paralyzed by the curse of the American Call Centers and running bare-footed towards all the worst the West has to offer. It's then when I realized I was wrong...in a manner of speaking - that people generally ARE like a bunch of apples. The same person who performed the Morning Aarti or Faatar ki Naamaz has suddenly turned into Vodka guzzling dame just so that she can blend in with the peers. Even Mike (read Manohar) who’s father still works 14 hours at the yarn factory parties all night just to be a part of the cool-crowd. The general feeling (and I can only guess) must be, If everyone in my (bad?) company is like an (rotten?) apple, I better be too, or else I won't be part of a crowd, and be accepted. That's what frightens a lot of people…the need for social acceptance is an intrinsic part of being human. But that doesn't mean we don't have the power to think, decide and more importantly choose what is in our best interests. Imagine if everyone starts thinking “I choose to do what I want to do. And not just because "everyone" is doing it”. For that, we sure have some way to go because the youth has been pulled right out in the middle of their educational voyage. This generation is in peril of losing it’s own identity and is being led to the middle of nowhere.

Reminds me of one of the beautiful poems by Rabindranath Tagore (Where the Mind is Without Fear) which now merely has taken safe shelter in prose text books. The fear to emulate it is just a distant dream and I can’t just help but pray that “Into that Heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake!


Bhavesh Lakhani