BAD OLD JEALOUSY
“The
worst part of success is
trying
to find someone who is happy for you.”
Bette
Midler
A while
ago, a middle-aged man had come to meet me. He wanted some help, in one of the
subjects, for his college-going daughter. I knew this man’s family… Parents
were no more. He had two younger brothers. When I enquired about them, this man
became very emotional… He narrated to me, in detail, how relationship between
him and his two younger brothers had gone sour over the years. They lived in a small
chawl, barely of ten-by-twenty size. He described to me as to how his two
brothers had succeeded to bifurcate that place into three parts, and how the
conflict had been erupting over everything – water-connection, electricity,
property-tax, kitchen and, movement of people. “They have, even, poisoned the
minds of their little children,” the man said, “Little ones are not allowed to
come over to our side or talk to any of us.”
Last time I had
met this man, he had told me about a small shop (just a window counter) he had
opened on his side of the house… He sold a few necessary items like milk,
bread, biscuits, chocolates etc. So, today, I asked him about how it was going.
His face turned gloomy. “They started a similar shop on their side, too… They do
not want us to succeed… They cannot see us happy. Pure jealousy.”
Jealousy
between brothers and sisters is not a new phenomenon. I grew up listening to the story
of Cain and Abel at our Sunday school in the church. These two were the children
of Adam and Eve, the first couple who God had created. Now, the story goes this
way: Cain, the elder brother, was a bad boy, and Abel, the younger brother, was
a good boy. One evening, both brothers offered a sacrifice to God… God accepted
Abel’s and rejected Cain’s… Cain, was jealous of his brother; he was furious. Thus, he plotted to murder Abel in a lonely field. When God learnt about it, He thundered, "Cain, where is
your brother?”
To this, Cain
gave his ‘infamous’ reply: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Jealousy,
therefore, should be expected of people around us – even though those people
include our own brothers and sisters…
Am I being
pessimistic about life?
No Sir… Jealousy was
there in the beginning of life; it shall be there till the end of life!
Bette Midler was
right: “The worst part of success is trying to find someone who is happy for
you.”
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: pixabay
Video: The Ed Sullivan Show/Tom Jones
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