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Articles: Literature | A Man of No Consequence
- Dr. Rajeshwar Mittapalli
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Soon however the equations change once again at the office. Subbaiah is unceremoniously sent back to the Despatch Section. He has not cleared Gavaraiah’s bills yet, and Gavaraiah has thus not benefited in the least from bribing Subbaiah. He therefore insists, and not always politely, on Subbaiah’s returning the money. When Subbaiah in turn asks Venkat Rao to do so, this unscrupulous man dodges the question and instead suggests that he should find the courage to tell Gavaraiah that he would not return the money, come what may. Subbaiah is in a real fix, afraid of the consequences of Gavaraiah’s wrath on the one hand, and cursing his powerlessness to extract the money from Venkat Rao on the other.
His helplessness and the irrational fear of losing his job, getting arrested, rendering his family destitute and above everything else the increasing severity and frequency of Gavaraiah’s threats subject him to an intense psychological conflict. He feels traumatized and rudely shaken by the inner turmoil. It is however not true, as has been erroneously suggested by critics, that the present trauma precipitates an already existing psychological condition in him. There seems to be a deep-seated negative personality trait, an inadequacy at the core of his being, that has rendered him feeble in spirit and mind so that he finds it impossible to act with determination even when his interests are at stake.
He has been, as adumbrated earlier, thoroughly inferiorized and marginalized by all concerned, even by the unidentifiable cultural forces, and consequently his personality and self-esteem have never properly developed. His suffering is therefore infinitely greater than that of a typical patient of inferiority complex in the West where the trauma one suffers is usually of a personal nature and not culturally determined. And most definitely this trauma does not visit one for being honest and law abiding, even if incompetent. Sadly for Subbaiah, he is slighted, humiliated, demeaned and judged as inefficient by almost everyone for no more ‘objectionable’ behaviour on his part than hesitating to do things that are potentially disturbing to him.
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