Staying away from rat races

WITH EYES WIDE OPEN
D. N. Bezboruah
It is interesting to see how in certain cases the associations formed with a word in any language become as important as the idioms of that language. And quite often, such associations tend to become idioms on their own. One can provide innumerable examples of this, but the constraints of space and time restrict me to just one example for the present. I notice how the word rat that the dictiory defines as ‘a rodent resembling a large, long-tailed mouse, typically considered a serious pest’ has acquired different and interesting associative meanings. And because the rat is considered a serious pest, in informal usage the word rat means a despicable person or an informer. In north American usage, the word rat means a person who is associated with or who frequents a specified place. One could thus talk about a ‘mall rat’ to mean a person who is very often seen at the mall. As an informal exclamation, the word rats would express mild annoyance. However, it is as a verb that the word rat gets more interesting. Rats, ratting or ratted would refer to hunting or killing rats. An informal meaning of rat as a verb is to desert one’s party, side or cause. Rat on would mean break (an agreement or promise) or inform on (someone). While looking at the meanings of the word rat, it occurred to me to look up the meanings of the word mouse considering the close resemblance of both the rodents. Apart from the literal meaning of the word mouse (‘a small rodent that typically has a pointed snout, a relatively large ears and eyes, and a long tail’), the others are ‘a timid and quiet person’, ‘a small handheld device which is moved across a flat surface to move the cursor on a computer screen’, ‘a dull light brown colour’ and ‘a lump or bruise on or near the eye’. It was interesting to see the differences of the two words in their associative meanings relating to human beings. The human being referred to as a rat is such a different kind of person from someone referred to as a mouse. 
What I really intended to talk about today was neither rats nor mice, but rather about rat races and how pointless they really are despite all the importance that we attach to them. In an idiomatic manner of speaking, a rat race is a way of life in which people are caught up in a fiercely competitive struggle for wealth or power. This is something that is only too visible in our quotidian lives. One of the most outstanding motivations of present-day existence is greed. Most of the time it is the kind of greed that has to do with being an equal with one’s friends, relatives, adversaries and professiol or business associates. Quite often, there is very little of any worthwhile value or ambition associated with the kind of greed that one encounters every day. More often than not, people are driven by a desire to be as wealthy, powerful or popular as the next man without having to put in too much effort to arrive at the destition that the other person is heading towards. And that is the reason why the usual motivations of greed leave me completely uninterested. What does interest me is the kind of greed that is related to major intellectual achievements. For instance, I am impressed by someone’s greed to be as qualified in his or her profession as the person who is at the top of the ladder at a given point of time. Stated in simpler terms, I am far more impressed by someone’s greed to excel in whatever the person is doing and to put himself or herself beyond the reach of other competitors. I have been fortute to have a large number of students who have proved themselves to be exceptiolly bright and to match up to people in their profession anywhere in the world. One of them was the late Dr Jitendra Gopal Barpujari who was picked up by the World Bank immediately after he had finished his Ph.D. in Cambridge University in the shortest possible time. His passage to Cambridge had not been easy, given the gging delays caused by bureaucrats at Shillong, the capital of Assam in those days. And had it not been for the intervention of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Fince Minister of Assam at that time and later President of India, Barpujari might not have made it to Cambridge University at all. His subsequent passage from World Bank to IMF where he filly became a director, is nothing short of wonderful for someone without a godfather. 
Another brilliant son of Assam who has done all of us proud is Dr Vikram Phookun, an Astro-Physicist and Professor of Physics at St Stephens College in Delhi. When he returned to India after his studies in the US, there was a veritable scramble for him among the institutions of higher learning in the country. He was with the IIT, Cheni (if I am not mistaken) and eventually joined the faculty of St Stephens College. Such is his reputation in his chosen field that he can just walk into any major institution of learning in India as Professor of Physics.
I mention these two mes because both the persons med were free from any urge to join any kind of a rat race. It has been my experience that only those who can keep themselves free of an urge to be part of a rat race can really excel in their chosen field. A rat race represents a struggle—quite often a totally undesirable and unhealthy struggle—to excel in what does not really count except in terms of power and wealth. What ought to determine any real and worthwhile achievement in terms of excellence (rather than wealth and power) are the parameters of achievement in terms of the field of activity. There has to be a deliberate effort to rule out power and wealth as the arbiters of excellence when we think of genuine achievement. That is perhaps the true means of ensuring that success in a rat race does not represent true excellence in one’s chosen field. And that is precisely why the task of avoiding any rat race ought to determine all efforts directed at professiol excellence.