The color of heroes - shades of grey

‘A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself'

?     Joseph Campbell

I grew up in Kalyan, a small town [(then) - now a bustling city] back in the late 80s and early 90s listening to mythological stories from the Hindu epics i.e. ‘Ramayana’ & ‘Mahabharata’ & the vast universe of Gods that is ascribed to Hinduism (this universe is way bigger than the more popular ‘Marvel’ universe). It also helped that we didn’t have a television set at home & that my ‘thatha’[1] used to stay with us. Most of my waking time was spent in his company listening to the valor, virtue and good deeds of the heroes from these stories. ‘Thatha’ was a man way ahead of his time and wise beyond his years, who subtly drove home the message of these stories deep into my sub-conscious self. I owe a lot to him, most important of all, for laying the foundations of my value systems and for that, I am forever in his debt.

Call it the innocence of childhood or downright naivety, I grew up with a warped image of characters in my head – to me, heroes were selfless people bereft of vices, whose actions could not be even remotely be deemed ‘wrong’, who made a meaningful positive difference to people whose lives they touched and to me, represented the color of purity - white. Even when their ways were not in the true spirit of what was considered acceptable in their times (Lord Krishna for example whose deceit & cunning saved the lives of ‘Pandavas’[2] many times over and eventually won them the ‘Kuruskshetra’[3] war), the ‘greater good’ cause meant that the ‘end justified the means’.

The antithesis of these men & women were the selfish, evil, deceitful and monstrous people (some of these adjectives go well & are often used for people in my current profession i.e. investment bankers ;-)) who could do no good whatsoever and cared only about being the principal harbinger of grief to all the lives that crossed their paths. These anti-heroes or villains came in Henry Ford’s favorite color for model ‘T’- black.

As the innocence of childhood slowly gave way to the realities of growing up and life, I clearly realized the fundamental flaw in the way images were being formed in my head. It also helped that I used to read on a wide range of topics and history was replete with examples of the duplicity of human character, which repeated itself in one’s life experiences as well. At the onset, I was bewildered by the inherent paradox in people – how can people be both good and bad, for me, the word that separated the good from the bad was ‘OR’ not ‘AND’.

Slowly but surely, I began to form a more balanced view and started seeing the darker side of the characters revered as ‘heroes’. Beginning with ‘maryadapurshottam[4]’ Lord Rama, who despite being the epitome of an ideal man, couldn’t be a good husband to his wife – banishing her into the wilderness on the back of some hearsay by one of his subjects. Our father of the nation, the ‘Mahatma[5]’ is honest about his failings as a father, husband & son in his autobiography ‘My experiments with truth’ & speaks candidly about his lifelong journey to conquer his darker side. Even Diwali, which is considered to be the festival of lights, has been the reason for the light to go out in many lives in India due to the accidents caused during the revelry (playing with fire does have its consequences).

Concurrently, I also began to dig into the less-spoken yet aspirational traits of characters branded as ‘anti-heroes’. And at least for people growing in India, there is no greater ‘anti-hero’ than Ravana, considered to be the meanest ‘asura’[6] ever to have walked the earth.

The aspirational qualities of Ravana are far too many, some of them are listed below:

1. A deeply devout ‘bhakt’[7] of Lord Shiva (these days, ‘bhakt’ seems to have taken a much more negative connotation),
2. A scholar who had mastered 64 types of knowledge (from the skills of the warriors to the scriptures of the sages),
3. A master exponent of ‘Rudra Veena’[8];
4. An astrologer with no equal (Ravana is deemed the original author of ‘Ravana Sanhita’, considered to be the best work on Hindu astrology),
5. A just king (for his people), who knew the ‘rajdharma[9]’.

In fact so much was his scholarly acclaim, that legend has it that Lord Rama sent his brother Lakshmana to sit beside Ravana, while he lay dying, to seek his counsel and request him to share the lessons on state craft, diplomacy and the responsibilities of rulers towards their subjects (which he actually did! – an example of grace in defeat). Towards the end of Ravana’s lengthy discourse, Lakshmana was so flabbergasted at the depth and diversity of his knowledge and the connections that he drew across the various subjects, that he apparently said to him, “You did all that you did, despite knowing all that you know”? (I must assume this retort would have ticked Ravana off and he gave up his life shortly thereafter).

‘Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy’

-         F. Scott Fitzgerald

A real life person whom I looked up to while I was in school was Rajat Gupta, the first foreign born person to head the coveted management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. His story is as much inspirational as it is surreal (good script for a movie perhaps!) – an orphan from a middle class family who reached the pinnacle of success in a hallowed firm through sheer academic brilliance, grit, determination and dedication only to see the tragedy unfold in his twilight years by way of an incarceration for abetting insider trading & conspiracy. Whilst the jury may have found him guilty on three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy, for which he served his time in jail, he still remains a hero to me for reasons I will explain now.

In today’s social media world, where every news is ‘breaking’, where narratives are spun across various platforms controlled by people with pre-defined agendas and affiliations, a single action (or inaction) can get one tagged as a ‘hero’ or a ‘villain’ (remember the guy from Delhi incorrectly labelled a ‘pervert’ on the basis of a Facebook post). I fear that the influence of these mediums will rob humanity of the ability to form a balanced view. The voice of reason is almost always drowned in the noise that is constantly being generated, with victory being granted to the one who is the loudest (think Arnab Goswami & his ilk). One must understand that there is a little bit of ‘good’ within the ‘evil’ and a little bit of ‘vice’ within the ‘virtuous’. I believe that a person’s character is not defined by one deed or one action but a lifetime of behavior (explicit and implicit) that can be considered consistent with the generally accepted framework of ‘good’ and /or ‘bad’. That is why Lord Rama, Mahatma Gandhi and their likes are revered as heroes while Ravana is hated as a villain. Whilst one may argue that it is imperative for people in positions of great power / prestige to act responsibly and be above board (probably Rajat Gupta erred in his judgment on that count), one must also not forget that the person who commits mistakes / errors is the one who actually sets out to do something (remember the ship that never left the harbour can never sink!!!!). Despite all that has happened, no one can deny that Rajat Gupta touched millions of lives through his fund raising, execution and devotion to philanthropic causes (across health & education). Students in India still get the benefit of a globally renowned institution (Indian School of Business) that he help co-found. In my view, he definitely made a positive, meaningful & lasting difference to a whole lot of people, most of whom, he didn’t actually meet in person.

I believe that the sum-total of one’s thoughts, words and deeds over a lifetime actually defines one’s true color – and it’s seldom ‘black’ or ‘white’ and almost always ‘shades of grey’. To me, Rajat Gupta represents a lighter shade of grey as does any other hero (each one with their own imperfections). Based on the same yardstick, the shade becomes darker (in some cases bordering on black) for all the anti-heroes that we have grown to loathe.

The bigger question, however, is “When you look into the mirror, which shade of grey do you see – light or dark?”

 (Views expressed are personal and doesn't reflect the views or opinions of my employer)

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[1] ‘Thatha’ – Tamil word for grand-father.

[2] ‘Pandavas’ – Five Sons of King Pandu [Yudhisthir, Bhim, Arjun, Nakul & Sahadev]

[3] ‘Kurukshetra’ – place in modern day Indian state of Haryana, where the epic battle of Mahabharata took place.

[4] ‘Maryadapurshottam’ – Perfect man (not Raymond's ;-) - Lord Rama is considered the original perfect man).

[5] ‘Mahatma’ – combination of ‘maha’ meaning 'great' and ‘atma’ meaning 'soul'.

[6] ‘Asura’ – Sanskrit word for ‘demon’

[7] ‘bhakt’ - devotee

[8] ‘Rudraveena’ – a string instrument used in Indian classical music.

[9] ‘rajdharma’ – duty of the rulers