Propensity to Be Pedantic

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 4 September 2024 Tell my mistakes to me, not to others. Because my mistakes are to be corrected by me, not by others. We don't need pedants, pedagogues and so-called perfectionists in a group. We need people who're not too enthusiastic about teaching, preaching and correcting. "To a few quixotic individuals, the whole world is a classroom and everyone is their student!" A Dutch saying Kabhi Chala Tha Duniya Ko Sikhane Main Aaj Hansi Aati Hai Apni Naadani Pe Mujhe Jamaal Shikarpuri (Once I audaciously tried to teach others/ Today, I feel embarrassed about my naivete) There're few things the ego delights in more, than correcting other people's mistakes. One always draws some kind of patronising pleasure when one gets an opportunity to correct someone. To correct means to show a defect. In fact, unknowingly most of us have been doing this right from the beginning of our social intercourse with people around us. What we try to pass off as our genuine concern for others is actually an unwitting act of correcting an individual. You immediately feel superior to the person you've found a fault with. Nothing gives us more pleasure than wearing the mantle of a rectifier. The ingrained habit of trying to correct someone is much more widespread than pontificating and sermonising. The overwhelming desire to correct others and point out mistakes is more acute and active than pontification. The former is obvious, whereas the latter is subtle. Correction has rudeness and crudeness in it but pontification is cloaked. " It's always much easier to find mistakes in others because the eyes which see you, cannot see themselves. Your eyes don't see its eyelashes. Nor does your officious and ever sniffing nose be aware of the unsightly hair in it. "Aap Ne Ye Nahin Kiya, Aap Ne Woh Nahin Kiya, Aap Ko Ye Nahin Aata, Woh Nahin Aata," life goes in vain in such petty corrections. While learning English at the age of fifteen, my every sentence had at least 2-3 mistakes. One teacher in England would always correct me. Initially, I appreciated his 'genuine' concern for correcting my Iranian English, heavily influenced by Persian, Dari and other Central Asian dialects. But it soon began to get on my nerves. He'd correct me in the presence of all those whose mother tongue was English. Luckily, a senior teacher came to my rescue and told that 'rectifier' not to correct my pathetic English in public. All these people on a correction spree deliberately correct you when you're with others or in a group! They gloat over your follies, helplessness and misfortune. This is unfair, nay sadistic. Refrain from it. We all must curb our overwhelming proclivity and propensity to correct others. When we're all more or less flawed, none of us can dare correct anyone else. An Urdu poet correctly said, "Bahut Aasaan Hai Idhar-Udhar Aql Baant-Te Phirna / Thodi-Si Aql Khud Ke Liye Bhi Bacha Ke Rakhnna" (It's pretty easy to keep doling out wiseness/ But it'll be advisable if you save it also for yourself). ------ A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/propensity-pedantic/d/133115 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism