Just a few days ago, a young and talented actor in the Indian film industry died by suicide.
This untimely death is apparently a case of an outsider quitting the game of life after getting deeply hurt and frustrated by the dirty politics of the "insider club".
 |
| The Outsider versus the Insider Club |
His death is not only untimely but also a wake-up call for every industry and every organization.
Every organization and every industry has its rules.
Unfortunaterly, most of the important rules that truly matter always remain unspoken and unwritten.
One of them happens to be the ill-treatment, subtle or otherwise, of the outsiders.
There is this "insider club" whose membership is strictly restricted to the previleged ones.
There is a secret pact between insiders, who are the high and the mighty and the well-connected in the game!
Those who are well-connected get access to exciting opportunities and offers from the other insiders in that organziation and also that industry.
The well-connected get their first work related break and subsequent chances also quite easily without much sweat and much effort.
Eventually, the insiders become self-appointed gatekeepers and very consciously and maliciously ererct a formidable barrier for the outsiders.
The way outsiders are treated by the insiders reeks of the insiders' blatant hyprocrisy, discrimination, shallowness and arrogance.
Some organizations are infected more with this kind of sick and toxic culture.
The head of such an organization and those in the "insider club" try to create the fake facade of the organization as one big happy family.
But beneath the shining facade there are deep cracks and gaping holes.
Ultimately, it’s each to their own.
And outsiders are under constant threat for their very survival.
When you work in such an organization you know your future is at the whim of the top dog there, the proverbial ringmaster of the circus that organization actually is.
Most outsiders keep on struggling but survive and stay alive.
Some outsiders are able to withstand the discrimination and humilation and are able to make a mark for themselves.
And that happens despite the fact that the sharks of the "insider club" in such an organization try their best to stop the outsiders from moving up the ladder.
Some of the outsiders not only survive and succeed but move very high up to become an insider.
And unfortunately, they end up joining the "insider club" and start doing the exact bad things they vehemently hated when they were not a part of it.
But, come what may, some outsiders never become insiders.
They are simply shown around the inside, and howsoever talented and deserving they migt be, they are never offered a seat on the high table.
So somtimes, it is possible that an outsider might say, "enough is enough".
And they decide to "quit" the game of work they are engaged in, which is better.
Or at times, the game of life itself, which, from a philosophical, moral and ethical standpoint, is not really a good thing to do.
It hard to say whethere dying by choice through suicide is an act of strength or an act of weakness.
What is not hard to say is that the culture and work environment which led to that is certainly a sick and toxic one.
The person who has departed will never come back.
It is also true that those who were instrumental in creating a sick and toxic culture and work environment for the departed person will also not be there forever.
They will also need to depart one day.
And that day is not as far away as they think it might be.
It could be the next week.
Or the next day,
Or maybe the very next hour.
So they ought to be ready.
The famous English proverb "you reap what you sow " may or may not come true.
And the "insider club" may never get the punishment for their acts.
The departed may never get poettic justice for what happended to him and why he chose to depart the way he did or was perhaps forced to go that way.
However, those in the "insider club" will carry a stained conscience to their death-bed if that means anything.
There are many more "outsiders" out there who are struggling and still managing to survive.
God bless them and given them the stength and hope to carry on.
God bless the departed too, those outsiders who chose to quite.
May their soul rest in peace.
God bless those in the "insider club" also for they too shall pass.
And when the time comes, may their souls rest in peace too!
