Hypocrisy is when actions don’t match words. Hypocrisy shakes up a child’s trust-system. It dents a child’s confidence especially when its on display by close family members and the kid gets affected by it. It is also easily imitated by kids, especially when they see their parents display it. Here’s an anecdote that showcases one such instance.
The occasion was Dasara, a big festival in India. A village had organized a large stage event. The organizers, all enthusiastic youth, approached the village president. They sought his help to get some items arranged by roping in a local school. The president brought them along to meet the school principal where his daughter studied. The school agreed to arrange a dance show.
The preparations began. Students were selected across various classes. One of the students was the village president’s daughter. Practice began. Two days prior to the event, the school gets a call from the President asking them to drop his daughter from the dance item. The reason cited – the girl happens to be from the same village, miscreants may cast an evil eye on her. The school insisted that there were 7 other girls from the village. Also, the school had specifically chosen students from the village as the event was being held at their own place. The villagers too would cheer seeing local kids participating.
However no amount of convincing worked and the President remained adamant. He insisted that his daughter should not participate in any event in his own village but had his permission to dance at any other event outside the village.
The dad’s stand was a shocker for the girl who had practiced hard for nearly a fortnight. She cried, tried to convince her dad but all to no avail. She just could not fathom her dad’s hypocrisy. How could all kids from her village studying in the school participate, but not her! She was too naive to understand that her dad did not want his prestige to be affected by allowing his daughter to ‘dance’ in front of an audience. Dance in many a village in India, still has a stigma attached to it. It is still thought of as something performed by people who lack ‘self-respect’.
Eventually, the school called up the President and cancelled the school’s participation in the event.
I wonder how the dad would have convinced his daughter. Will the daughter accept the reason he mentioned to the school authorities? For his daughter, he was a man whose actions did not match his words. He was OK with other girls students from his village participating, but not his daughter. He was the one who enthusiastically got the school to support the organizers, but walked away when his personal support as a parent was required.
The anguish felt by his daughter will leave an indelible mark on her psyche. When a person’s actions do not match his words, it can have a devastating effect on people at the receiving end.
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