CHARACTERS WHO WANTED TO BUILD CHARACTER.

They were just an old bunch of fuddy- duddies or so they seemed so for they were all past sixty and therefore appeared as if they were from an earlier era. These old fuddy- duddies did not seem to understand that change was inevitable and that change was the norm of the world. They believed that the world had lost its values and that an erosion of character had set in. These old fuddy-duddies were not normal people but were the so called high achievers of society who had ushered in an era of prosperity and growth to the society wherein they lived by and through their outstanding contributions of creating wealth for themselves.

These old fuddy-duddies did not realize that they too had changed and what had appeared as graying strands of hair had ultimately turned to baldpates of maturity and wisdom. In their fervor to maintain their world as they saw it they had all united to provide what they considered values and character to their society at large. Unfortunately these fuddy-duddies did not realize that values and character too changed with the times as much as their own appearance and their countenance did change. As such they constituted what they considered to be a special team on character building and value inculcation in society.

I should mention here that all these old gentlemen who constituted the so called special team on inculcation of values & character building were all above sixty and therefore their relevance to the world at large had lost all meaning. They believed that youngsters of the day had lost all respect for elders and all that they stood for.

Before I proceed further, let me elaborate on each of the members of the so-called special team on character building & value inculcation. This team comprised of six individuals each of them a specimen of the values for which they stood. The eldest of them was one who had created a company, which had specialized in providing solutions in the computer era for companies that had problems in accounting for their wealth.

The next of those members was an illiterate in the true sense of the word, who had built his empire on real estate holdings by conning the rich and famous into believing that whatever real estate he sold to them was more than its actual value. The next member of this team was a simple academic who was just another frog in the well and could not look beyond the syllabus that he had created for the benefit of future generations.

While describing the nature and character of the members of the so called team I would be failing in my duty if I were to forget mentioning the so called female of the team who was or had been instrumental in setting up a scientific laboratory for a so called institution of higher learning in medicine and medical research. Needless to say that this so called creator of higher learning was an ordinary frustrated individual, a fading member of the female species who tried to hide her fading appearance by applying all sorts of lotions & potions that did not reduce her age but only made her look all the more withered. Her physical appearance was such with bony mal-nutritioned frame and shriveled breasts that it would not evoke any sexual stirring from any healthy so called male of the species.

I would not do justice if I were to neglect the other two members of the so called team which wished to inculcate character and values in the younger generation of society. The fifth member of the team was a politician who claimed that he was a politician with a difference. He claimed that he was an honest politician; as if there was such a species at all for in this author’s own opinion no politician was honest.

The sixth member of the team was an NGO activist who dreamt of changing the world through his efforts. Unfortunately his dreams were not based on reality and he was more interested in the money that the donor institutions provided him than the true needs of the poor, downtrodden & deprived.

Enough of describing the principal characters of my story, for I guess I can go on and on about their individual characteristics and natures. However, what is more important is that these individuals wanted to contribute to society and the way they felt that they should contribute was by upholding time tested values and by promoting what they considered good character.

It was at the instigation of the computer accounting software company wallah that this team of six members had started meeting. They decided to meet once a week every Sunday evening and discuss how best they would go about the highly important function of value inculcation in society. As a result they met faithfully each Sunday taking turns on hosting the meeting. Each one trying to out do the other in terms of hospitality and refreshments offered during the meeting.

They decided during the initial meeting that before deciding what they must do they must have a clear picture of what character was all about. While one member felt that character was about being honest another member felt that character was all about being respectful of their elders and respecting he cultures of their ancestors. One member of the group felt that character was imbibed only through one particular religion while another felt that it was imbibed only through another particular religion and another member believed that character was not based on religion at all and was in fact far beyond religion.

The lady of the group felt that character was being proud of whom they were and avoiding bad habits that would weaken the body and wreck the mind. The real estate baron and the politician felt that character was about making money while the NGO activist felt that character was all about finding happiness without money. And so it went on and on. They deliberated for ten weeks without coming to any formal conclusion on what character was all about. They exchanged email strings, shared web links to prove their point of view and spoke with each other incessantly over the phone to emphasize their points but could not come to a consensus on what character was all about.

After ten mind wracking weeks the group had not yet come to any conclusions on what really character was all about. But instead they turned to mud slinging and personal affronts on each other. While the real estate developer felt that the NGO activist who had lived all his life on money provided by begging from donor institutions had no locus standi and had no right to speak about character, the NGO activist felt that a man who had spent all his life duping gullible rich people into buying worthless pieces of land had no moral right to talk about character. The computer whiz who had been quietly listening to their exchange came out in support of the real estate developer. The NGO activist immediately pounced on him and cried out that a man who created accounting software that helped rich people fool the government and avoid paying taxes had no right to talk about lack of character amongst others.

Meanwhile, the academic who avoided contributing to the discussions as much as possible found that the scientific research lady who was sitting on the other side of the table had accidentally exposed her blouse when the sari draped over it had moved position. He gazed intently at the exposed top of her shriveled mammaries and the lady noticing this stood up, took off her footwear and reaching across the table whacked the academic with her right slipper.

At this moment all pandemonium broke loose and the six members of the character building special team began hurling abuses at each other as well as anything they could lay their hands on. The computer professional in whose house they had met that day was worried that the valuable antiques that he had on display in his living room could be damaged and destroyed and therefore shouted at the top of his voice that order should be restored at once.

Must I proceed further to talk about the characters who wanted to inculcate character?