(I have recently joined ToastMasters. The basic aim here is public speaking. There are different speech projects which one has to deliver, with each project focusing on certain public speaking fundamentals. This is my Project Speech 2 - the emphasis was on organizing the speech into different sections, transitioning smoothly across sections and to capture attention through proper introduction and conclusion. This is what I wrote, I may have skipped a few points during the actual delivery .... all the nervousness)
"Mr. Dawar, even today I do not accept money thrown at me". This is Amitabh Bachchan's famous dialogue from the 1975 movie 'Deewar'. It is one of many such dialogues which ushered in his image of the 'Angry young man'. His fans have worshipped that image and it has silently made its way into their hearts and brains not escaping immitations. While we understand that the dialogue itself depicts a lot of anger of a suppressed, wronged young man, there is neither much in his facial expressions nor is his voice loud. He seems rather calm. Mr. Bachchan's dear friend, Mr. Dharmendra though, does not hold back in that area. In the movie 'Sholay' of the same year, he yells out "Dog, I will drink your blood". Anger in his voice, his expressions and his whole body frame. The words he used, amuse me. "Why blood?, why dog's blood?". With his hands tied up and his dreamgirl being harrassed, isn't he better off wishing to drink some milk or eat some spinach like Popeye and break open his chains? The words he used, illogical that they may seem, do a lot to communicate his feelings to the audience and I am sure to his nemesis. Angry people, today, are an essential part of a Bollywood movie, but its not uncalled for as you look around and you see people angry everywhere, everytime and angry with everyone. People are angry with the politicians, the bureaucrats, the police, the bus conductor, the rickshawallahs, their neighbours, their parents, their spouses, their bosses, their colleagues and more. People are angry at home, at their workplace, during their travels and people are angry 24 by 7. India is angry with Pakistan, Apple is angry with Samsung, Anna is angry with the government and people are angry with Anna.
Toastmaster of the day, fellow toastmasters and guests 'anger' is a human emotion much like 'happiness', 'sadness' or 'love'. It is an emotion that one reflects due to a feeling of being overpowered, offended, wronged or denied. In some cases, however, it is just a tendency to react through retaliation. Psychologists recognize three types of anger and these help us understand anger. The first form is 'hasty and sudden anger' which is connected to the impulse for self preservation, something which we share with non-human animals. The second form is 'settled and deliberate' . It is a reaction to preceived deliberate harm or unfair treatment by others. These first 2 forms are cognitive and include some level of thought processing by the person and then the anger follows. The distinction between the 2 is the reaction time. The third form called 'dispositional' is, however, related to character traits.
Irrespective of the form of anger, it is an emotion that evokes response. Sometimes when a person gets angry others may try to irritate him further. Sometimes a loved one would reciprocate that anger with empathy. An angry person often, however, is feared by others. This fear is due to the potential that the anger carries. Anger can mobilize psychological resources and boost determination towards figthing injustice, correcting the wrongs. History shows us that our national heroes channeled their anger to do brave, daring acts. The enlightened souls were able to spread the message of love and peace because of their anger and because they knew how to use its potential. On the other hand, anger tends to be destructive. The Hindu scripture Bhagvad Gita rightly captures this destructive nature of anger. It says "Anger leads to delusion which leads to bewilderment of memory which leads to loss of intelligence which would lead to fall". The occurences of shooting sprees across the world are on a increase today. These are instances of uncontrolled anger. Angry person, often loses his empathy, prudence and thoughtfulness and causes harm to others. I would like to believe that Hitler did what he did, because he was angry about something. What he did may never be justified, but to imagine that his acts were not out of any anger would leave this world without reason and logic. I similalrly like to believe that the perpetrators of 09/11 and 26/11 were angry about something.
Last year a simplistic song, with not much to show in terms of lyrics and not much in terms of music barring the 'hummability', took the nation by a storm. The words were as simple as they could be 'Why this anger?' Whereas anger being an emotion may not be easy to avoid, I think its essential that one learns and strives to control and channelise it. Today, if Moses, who gave his people the ten commandments from his Lord, were to revisit Mount Sinai, he would have asked his Lord for a eleventh commandment and that could only be "Thou shall not be angry". Which tablet the God would then prefer to write his commandment on is a different thing altogether.
