Praise: A Devalued Currency?

The concept of “opinion” is again creating havoc in my life.

When somebody praises or criticizes, I very well know that that somebody is just expressing his/her opinion. It doesn’t make anything right or wrong, good or bad, higher or lower. One should not get influenced by such opinion beyond certain extent. But when the opinions and the ways of expressing them of the majority of people around you tend to be drastically different than you, you do tend to feel terribly out of place.

Many talent shows aired on TV often end up in controversies. Many of my friends, relatives, acquaintances – who are good artists themselves and whose opinions I respect a lot - do express their frustration (less in public, more in private) about how the artists these days are given disproportionately greater credit compared to the skill they actually possess. And I feel that this phenomenon of over-hyping somebody is not just restricted to the reality shows, but it has widely spread among various other fields and at different levels of the society. Be it painting, poetry, literature, music, intellectual discussions, anything!

Lately I have started to get sick of it. Evaluating something has just become a social trend. Just because x number of people judge something in a particular way, the other x number of people also tend to judge it in a same way. (I don’t want to go into the examples of this, since that will start a new debate. I can just hope you understand my point based on the above thoughts.)

And what is even more depressing is that “praise” seems to have become an extremely cheap commodity. Anybody can buy it. Here I am not referring to a generally positive feedback or a simple pat on the back. I do believe that it is absolutely necessary to encourage the artist to perform better in future. But to what extent should this positive feedback be? Should one not talk about the negatives at all? Sticking only to positives and trying to glorify them – is this the modern definition of evaluation?

Basing my behavior on the above attitude, I myself do not praise people so often. If I seriously find something of a very high standard, I do not think twice about absolutely worshiping it. But if I honestly feel that something was not of a fantastic quality (of course, taking into account various factors such as the age of the person, his socio-economic background, his experience in the field and so on), I may convey my positive response by a simple “well-done” sort of comment, but that’s all. Because of this way of dealing with things, I do get a feeling that some people around me tend to think of me as somebody who thinks of himself as better than everybody around. (I have actually been told this by a few people: that I come across like this!). But what to do - That’s me. Somehow my mouse doesn’t click the “like” button on Facebook that often!

Earlier I used to feel that the reason of me not praising somebody so much could be that my standard of a good performance may be extremely high, somewhere in my subconscious mind. Or may be by nature I am not the kind of person who can openly compliment somebody. But through my experiences in the recent years, I have realized that it is not the case at all. I do have resorted to verbal diarrhea when I have seriously liked a particular poem/painting/film – so here my nature is not at fault. Neither do my supposedly high expectations seem to be the reason. As I said in the beginning, some of the people I know – who happen to be really brilliant artists (do not mistake these for popular celebrities – here, I am just talking about somebody who understands the art very well and who has proved it through his/her work) – have said to me that the person x was not exceptionally good and did need more practice to improve. But then my question is: Why not tell this to that person on face? You can give him an encouraging response but at the same time also highlighting the necessity of more practice.

Sadly I don’t see any such dialogue happening at all. Many times one just keeps on praising the other one, totally irrespective of the level of output. One of the possible reasons could be that one feels that when he/she praises the other one so much, the other one praises him/her in return and eventually everybody is happy irrespective of the quality of their work. Then they don’t necessarily have to increase their level of skill to earn the praise. Another reason could be a plain follow-the-trend mentality where you don’t dare saying something against public opinion. Yet another reason could be purely marketing-oriented, where because you are praising that other person, that other person will feel happy about it and may recommend you to some other useful contact as a return. The chain reaction will continue and you may land up having more and more lucrative opportunities. Also, this praise-game could well be an eliminate-the-competition strategy, where you make the other person more and more complacent by praising him heavily.

Here I would like to confess one thing. I myself have experienced some over-the-top praises some times in the past. Even though I very well knew that I had made grave mistakes in whatever I did – I did get on the seventh heaven even though only some random person had praised me – that too some times for such ridiculous achievements that it can be a great case study for students of social sciences! Thankfully I have realized it now; better late than never. Thankfully I have managed to meet and get to know a few people whose set standards are sky high. Thus, however hard I try, there always remains large room for improvement when I compare myself to those standards.

(Just another related thought at this moment: I think even the greatest of artists must not be giving too much importance to opinions of the random people they come across. They must be having their set of friends/gurus whom they respect a lot and whose criticism/praise will play an important role in honing the skill. And even beyond this, they must be having their own personal standards against which they quietly keep on improving their work, irrespective of what people around them say about it.)

Here, one thing I can definitely do is to stop worrying about such thoughts any more. You can not take multiple paths in your life. You can only take one and you should ideally stick by it. Apparently I have chosen one where I do not express something unless I honestly feel like to doing so. May be that will restrict my opportunities in the so-called success-ladder of the society. But at least I will be happy that I have stuck by my own opinion.

(All of the above is just a result of my experiences so far as a simple 25 year old Mumbaiite. Any sort of the discussion on the above is something I highly look forward to.)

Music: A Musician's Scorecard

It’s approximately 2 a.m. I am finally realizing what my friend Abhir always says about the stock market, financial analysts, traders, investors etc. Often I ask him about how an investor enjoys his profits if all he thinks is how he can invest the money back in the market to make it grow further. Abhir always tells me the concept of money for an investor is like that of a growth chart. An investor doesn’t make money because he just wants to spend and enjoy that money. He simply makes it just because that acts as a standard against which he measures his own performance in the financial markets and thus, gets a great pleasure when he sees his return on investment has increased from Rs. 5 crores to Rs. 10 crores.

Not that I never understood this concept whenever he told me. I genuinely agreed with him. But the crux of it did not strike me as hard as it just did 5 minutes back. I think a concept hits you real hard when you understand it in a familiar language.

Many people consider music as a way out of daily routine and tensions. For them it’s an escape route to have some time of relaxation. But for a musician, it isn’t exactly just that. Let’s explore this idea.

Sure, just like the investor would want to have good money at his disposal so that he can lead a good life, once in a while the musician also would like to play some melodious tune which will soothe his mind and take it away from daily tensions.

Yes, it is almost every musician’s dream to achieve that moment of ecstasy when he is simply happy. Nothing more, nothing less, just happy. Some people may even consider this moment as their oneness with the god. At that point, the performer doesn’t care what audience is in front of him, how much money somebody is going to pay him for the performance etc. He is just simply plain happy enjoying that moment of satisfaction when he is hitting absolutely the right notes and his heart is nodding at every one of those. A similar situation can be observed with an investor when he finds out that while everybody else in the financial market has declared a loss, he has made a double profit.

But that doesn’t come too often, does it? That moment of magic and ecstasy comes only once in a blue moon. (And I think it should be that way only, otherwise it would not be so special for the performer any more, would it?) Most of the times, music is just routine practice for the musician. Different exercises, different ways of dealing with various rhythms, adopting different styles, deciphering various songs etc. Just another day at the office.

For the musician, the music performance is more than just a way of having an escape route from routine life, I believe. Let’s take an example. You start practicing a musical piece. You achieve fairly good amount of skill in it. Do you just stop there and keep enjoying that tune, playing it over and over again? May be for a while, yes. But then that itch inside you doesn’t let you enjoy it anymore. Having become restless, it just makes you acquire more and more skill. Like the investor’s case, for the musician the song is not just a stand-alone piece of joy, it is a scorecard. He prefers working towards improving against his past score every single day.

I believe that is a part of the deal. You may be a George Soros, but all you are thinking is how you can outperform the market the following year and in better quantities. You may be an A. R. Rahman, but all you are thinking is how you can make an even better composition next time.

One might say that all this just renders a truly magical experience useless for a musician. Well, I don’t think so. For me, personally, every small step – however basic that might be – towards learning something is a great joy in itself. As the rock guitarist Guthrie Goven said in one of his workshops: Play every single note on guitar as if it is the last note you will ever play in your life. Try to make that single sound as perfect as possible. And then you will truly realize what the real joy of music is!