For learning anything, there are several stages. Understanding takes place, when one hears from others or reads the printed matter. It is simple and is completely based on the language used by the speaker or the writer and when the language is known to the listener or the reader. The spoken language is easier to understand than the written language although the latter has greater accountability and impact. From simple understanding a listener or reader goes one step further to comprehend. This would mean the person connects the new matter brought in to the matter which was already recorded in the mind and puts them together to allow the newly brought in matter to combine with what was already existing. From this second stage, the listener or the reader goes to a third stage of reflecting on what was newly brought in. Reflections would mean asking questions to the new matter in the background of what was already existing. It is here that the learning comes in. It may not be wrong to state that no learning can happen unless there are reflections. What is brought in mostly are pieces of information, and large numbers of people consider this as learning. Undoubtedly, learning should not become an end in itself, it should lead to internalising and subsequently to the development of individualswhich will result in effective functioning. So, learning presupposes understanding, comprehending, reflecting before internalising which results in the development of the individual for greater effectiveness.
However, the effectiveness of any learning can become a part of the human mind when it is applied to concepts like courage, recklessness and audacity. All three are states of mind.Courage is the most powerful among these with a definiteness of acting upon the clear vision of what would follow and the consequences too. Recklessness is a state of mind which functions with no knowledge of the consequences and a definiteness to achieve what has come to the mind and the plans associated with it. Therefore, courage and recklessness are not the same though the actions or the functioning associated with them can be similar. When it comes to audacity, it refers to a powerful daring that leads to courageous or reckless actions. Audacity makes both courage and recklessness function to lead anybody to success and effectiveness. Audacious people are likely to achieve what may look impossible for others. The state of audacity can be both social and unsocial.
There are two interesting stories that will elucidate the three concepts.
Recently, Govindachamy who was undergoing a life sentence at the Kannur maximum security prison for raping and killing a woman, escaped after being there for more than fourteen years. He has planned, according to police reports, to escape from the prison for more than three years. He arranged an axe saw blade from the carpentry section of the prison stealthily and cut the bars of his prison cells, got out in the night after keeping clothes and a bed cover to make them look like he was sleeping. He had already reduced his weight by eating less and grew his beard, so that he would not be noticed once he went out. Govindachamy got out of the prison, walked through the open space, jumped over the first wall, kept some drums that were available one above the other, climbed the outer wall, tied ropes made out of bed sheets and descended the twenty feet wall to the open space. As the television channels reported about his escape with his photograph in it, somebody noticed him and he ran away into a thicket where he hid in a well. Ultimately the police caught him.
It will be interesting to know that Govindachamy had only one palm with the other amputated even before he was arrested for the murder. While travelling in a train, Govindachamy noticed that in the ladies compartment, there was only a single passenger. As the train left, he jumped into the ladies compartment and attacked that single lady. As she resisted, she was pushed out. As she resisted, she was pushed out of the compartment, he too jumped out, dragged the wounded unconscious woman to a thicket nearby and raped her who later died in the hospital. He was arrested, the local court gave him a death sentence which was confirmed by the High Court but the Supreme Court converted it into a life sentence. It is still more interesting to know that when he was arrested first, he already had fourteen cases of theft, rape and burglary against him in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Mumbai. He had connections with gangs in Mumbai where he lived for a couple of years. His father and brother were thieves and quarrelsome people.
It is necessary to examine another story which happened ten years before South Africa became independent of apartheid. Timothy Jenkin and Stephen Lee were arrested for distributing pamphlets against the practice of apartheid. In the jail, they were joined by Alex Moumbaris who was also arrested for the same offence. Timothy, with a year’s planning, made wooden pieces of keys and all three made an escape from the Pretoria maximum security prison. After apartheid was abolished in South Africa, all three were pardoned. Timothy migrated to the US and lived a satisfactory life as a lawyer, the other two also did well in their lives.
A comparison of the two jail escapes will be worthwhile to understand the difference between courage and recklessness. Govindachamy is a clear case of recklessness and the audacity associated with it, whereas Timothy is a clear case of courage with the audacity associated with it. There are any number of incidents that can be quoted to show how courage and recklessness has its own association with audacity. The last is an associate of both because it makes people work and succeed. Audacity of imagination is considered a very powerful attitude of the state of mind for success and effectiveness.
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Prof. Sunney Tharappan, is Director of College for Leadership and HRD, Mangaluru. He trains and writes and lives in Mangaluru. Email: tharappans@gmail.com