Combating conscience with reason

On 17th of March 2006, Shrenik wrote,

This is a story of my dear friend Raghu and his long standing conflict with his conscience. I know Raghu since the time we were in nursery. He comes from a Gujrati family and is brought up with true Indian values like see no evil, say no evil, hear no evil; doing something evil is unthinkable. This story is about how he fought such deeply ingrained notions with a potent weapon of “reason”.

It all started on that eventful history period of standard IV class B in Palm Beach High School. Mrs Khatri with all her extra pounds of fats walks into the class. The classroom is buzzing with the rumor that Mrs Khatri is going to correct our homework. Like many of his class mates Raghu also hadn’t finished his homework. Raghu’s worst fears came true when Mrs Khatri announced “By lunch break everyone should submit their History notebooks to the class prefect. I will check all the question answers up to Mohenjodaro and Harappa Civilization”. Hell broke loose. Cursing his luck he thought to himself, “how can this happen, she never checks our homework and this is the first time I have not done her homework on time”.

Everything seemed to be lost till the time his friend, Nitesh Jhaveri, got hit with an ingenious idea. He said, “Why don’t we borrow history homework books from the neighboring class and give them for correction by changing the name. When they will want their homework to be corrected, we will complete our history notebooks and give them for correction.” Brilliant – that’s what the idea was.

In the lunch break Nitesh with all his accomplices went to the neighboring class for homework shopping. As Raghu stood between the doors separating the two classes, life asked him a question, probably for the first time, should I do something wrong to save my butt? He said to himself, oh lord, what a bizarre problem I am stuck into. On one side there is punishment from Mrs Khatri and on the other side is the guilt of doing wrong. At this point of disarray “reason” came forward. Reasons argument was, by doing a wrong thing, no one is at a loss. I will be happy because I will not get any punishment and Mrs Khatri will also be happy, because she will find that I have been doing my homework. Then, in the interest of Mrs Khatri and me, the decisions out, reason wins; I will get homework for myself. But what about my values; well, their definition got changed a bit.

Little did the little Raghu know that in the years to come, he will be confronting such problems daily. And reason, like a faithful dog would always come forth to bail him out.

However, of late, he is worried about the overwhelming influence that reason has over himself. He prays to god to give him the power to do what is right; isn’t it something that we all should do.