Living in hope

It’s better to keep the masses hopeful rather than fill them with despair.


In the last two years ever since the prices of essential commodities, especially of food grains, started their upward march, not a week passes without our prime minister or the finance minister telling the beleaguered common man that “prices will come down in a month.” But, we only see them spiral upward. Then why should our worthy PM or FM keep on making this statement at regular intervals? Do they want to fool people?

I presume it is not their intention. Are they wrong in their assessment? I don’t think they are so naïve either. Then why should they do it? The simple answer lies in their being equipped with the worldly wisdom that it is always better to keep the masses hopeful rather than fill them with despair. Afterall hope is the elixir of life!

Emily Dickinson wrote in a poem that “Hope is the thing with feathers/ That perches in the soul/ And sings the tune without the words/ And never stops/at all...” Napoleon had once remarked that even if you had lost everything but not the hope, you could change defeat into a victory.

I read a small story about a Brahmin who was falsely implicated by his foes and was awarded capital punishment. He was not the one to lose hope even in worst situations. On the appointed day when capital punishment was to be executed he was asked about his last wish.

He looked towards the king and said, “I wish I could teach his excellency’s horse to fly before leaving this world.”It did the trick. The king, keen to see his horse acquiring an unheard of skill, gave the Brahmin a year’s reprieve.
Relieved when he reached his home and narrated the story to his wife, the wife had mixed feelings, “My dear, I am very happy that you got the reprieve but worried how you’d accomplish what seems to be impossible.” Amused, the Brahmin replied “You are right my sweet heart, but anything which generates hope for the future should be done. One year is a long period. Many things can happen. King can change. He can die and even, who knows the horse may start flying.”

All I know from my experience of last six decades is that prices would never fall, but still if statements like the PM’s generates hope in the people there is nothing wrong. Afterall good leaders are those who keep people hopeful!