Face Archives - understand-culture

Four Judges

On January 12, 2018, four judges of the Supreme Court, Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M.B. Lokur and Kurien Joseph, held a press conference about the Chief Justice, Dipak Misra. “Unless this institution is preserved democracy will not survive in this country,” they said. Chelameswar called the step “extraordinary in the history of any nation.”

They had first gone to the Chief Justice himself: “We met the CJI with a specific request which unfortunately couldn’t convince him that we were right.” Soli Sorabjee said: “I’m very upset about this, I wish the four Supreme Court judges hadn’t done this.”

One Rupee

On August 31, 2020, the Supreme Court sentenced the lawyer Prashant Bhushan for contempt of court over two tweets. The fine was one rupee, to be paid by September 15. The alternative was three months in prison and a three-year bar from practice.

Bhushan said he would pay the fine “respectfully.” He added: “This issue was never about me versus the Hon’ble Judges, much less about me vs the Supreme Court.”

The Fall in the Palace

In the Sabha Parva of the Mahabharata, Duryodhana visits the new palace of the Pandavas and falls into a pool. “Beholding the plight of Duryodhana, the mighty Bhima and Arjuna and both the twins, all laughed aloud.” Duryodhana tells his uncle Shakuni about the laughter. The dice game follows.

In many popular retellings, it is Draupadi who laughs and says that the son of a blind man is blind, andhe ka putra andha. The Ganguli translation of the Mahabharata does not include her line.

The Hundredth Insult

At Yudhishthira’s Rajasuya sacrifice, the Pandavas offer Krishna the first honor, water to wash his feet. Shishupala, the king of Chedi, mocks Krishna before all the assembled kings: “If this one is the lord of the universe, as this fool representeth him to be, why doth he not regard himself as a Brahmana?”

Krishna replies that he had made a promise to Shishupala’s mother: “a hundred offences (of his) were to be pardoned by me.” Then he says: “That number, ye kings, hath become full.” He cuts off Shishupala’s head with his discus.

The Vocabulary of Face

Naak kat jaana: to have one’s nose cut. The Rekhta dictionary gives its meanings in Hindi: to be disgraced, to be humiliated, to lose one’s honor.

Ghar ki baat: a matter of the home. Rekhta gives “secret of home” and “personal matter.”

The Letter

In August 2020 a group of senior Congress leaders, later called the G-23, wrote to the party president Sonia Gandhi about the state of the party. The letter reached the media. According to Newslaundry, this “had several leaders expressing displeasure about letting such an internal matter play out in the media.”

At the Congress Working Committee on August 24, Rahul Gandhi said, as Business Standard reported: “it is the CWC where we discuss our differences and put out our thoughts, not the media.” Kapil Sibal tweeted: “Rahul Gandhi says ‘we are colluding with BJP’.” The party denied that Rahul Gandhi had said this, and Sibal deleted the tweet.

Private and Confidential

In September 2005 the Indian cricket coach Greg Chappell sent an email about the captain, Sourav Ganguly, to the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It reportedly said that Ganguly was not “physically or mentally” fit to lead the team. The email reached the media.

Chappell said: “I sent a private and confidential e-mail to the president of BCCI. It did not remain confidential though I would have preferred it to have remained so.”

An Unseemly Manner

At a board meeting on October 24, 2016, Tata Sons removed Cyrus Mistry as its chairman. His email to the board, written on October 25, reached the media the next day. In it he criticized decisions linked to Ratan Tata, including the Nano car, and said he was “shocked beyond words.”

Tata Sons replied on October 27. It called the email “unsubstantiated claims and malicious allegations” and objected that it had been released “in an unseemly and undignified manner.”

At the Airport

In December 2015 the police superintendent of Dhanbad, Rakesh Bansal, asked for a transfer. According to The Tribune, two days earlier he “was humiliated and scolded by the chief minister at Dhanbad airport.” The chief minister of Jharkhand was Raghubar Das. The officer was reported to be upset by the chief minister’s “public humiliation.”

Friends Who Rebuke

Nagudhar poruttandru nattal migudhikkan merchendru iditthar poruttu. Friendship is not for laughing together. It is for stepping in to rebuke a friend who goes too far. This is couplet 784 of the Thirukkural, in its chapter on friendship.