The Unfair Advantage
“Equality” is something which we consider one of the most important rights a human needs to exercise and it should be of every type and kind like equality of opportunity, accessibility, resources, gender, social, economic and the list goes on. It has a limit though an invisible one which I see people not realizing much.
We all know about Socio-Economic differences so-called “In-Equalities” all around the globe and I’m not here to write that how the rich and their family have all the privileges and the marginalized do not, you can get n number of articles on the web about it. Lately, I realized something and I’ll be honest I wasn’t much comfortable about it.
Few of us humans are presented with opportunities or chances which might be called “unfair” if we see it through the eyes of Equality but we can not do anything about it as it is inevitable and somewhat natural, so how can we call something “unfair” if no one can do nothing about it. Life presents a few with such opportunities that it makes them head and toes above than anyone else.
I’ll place my argument forward with a story in which my younger brother and I are of concern.
Back in school, I reached the position of NCC(National Cadet Corps) College Commander(Senior Under Officer) I was the part of NCC for five years, served my junior division in Air Wing, and my senior division in Army Wing. I started my NCC career as Jr. division cadet(as all do) held my first rank of LFC (Leading Flight Cadet) in IX standard and became a Seargent in X (Jr Division Air Wing), then I went on to join the Senior division Army Wing Platoon 2 in XI standard became the Commander of the platoon and then in XII became the College Commander of all the six wings which are present in my school. In this span of five years, I won The Best Commander and The Best Platoon Award for three consecutive years, on top of that I won The Best Commander and Platoon Trophy at a Zonal NCC camp defeating UP Sainik School. This was unheard of in the last two decades as no student got more than five trophies in three years, I had seven all combined with four “Best Commanders” All this achievement adds more weight when the school has a history of 175 years. I’m not trying to show-off here or brag about myself, I’m trying to put up my credibility because just saying I was great NCC Commander doesn’t mean much. I reached to a level where University cadets were also not my match.
What’s the point of telling all this? Now my younger brother comes in the story he’s in X standard right now. He joined my school in VII standard, joined Air Wing just like me in VIII as a cadet and end up becoming Corporal in IX standard(I want to point out that this is not normal for a boy two years in school and becoming corporal straight from cadet) today he is the Seargent.
I would request some attention at this point. My younger brother saw me march since he was in II standard and that too up close he used to be present in all the official drills, in all my winning moments and more importantly observing me up close at home practicing my Drills and commands for five years. When he joined the Air Wing(I passed out the school by that time), he was already on the pro level, I mean everyone else of his batch did not even know how to stand in “savdhan”(attention) and it is normal even I did not. Every newcomer cadet has to learn the basic disciplines, drills, procedures, etc, My brother not just knew all this but he was even better than his 2-year seniors. He got into the main Flight(the group of 30 Air Wing cadets) even ahead of his 1 and 2-year seniors. Corporal the next year, now he was legit commanding his seniors.
NCC or Military as a whole is an institution where favoritism does not work because it is somewhat closest to the “survival of the fittest” theory. A person does not get the respect by its position but gets the position by its commanding respect he gets, it works like a natural selection. If the cadets under you doubt you slightly that’s the end of your story. In NCC or military your class or your age does not matter, only your commanding or leadership abilities do.
The whole question is would my brother have been the same if I wouldn’t have existed? I mean how many cadets of his batch have elder brothers who were great Commanders. With all due respect, I’m not taking anything away from my brother he has worked very hard he had to, there is no other choice for success. He is the one who made a conscious choice of joining NCC no one told him to do. The main point is since childhood he used to mimic my drill and command moves at home just looking at me and he did it for six years, let me be very honest and clear I have never trained him to this day. He just used to copy me as all children do and I use to laugh at him and at times correct his form or tell his mistakes that’s it. He used to ask me questions at times about strategies and commanding out of curiosity and he hasn’t even joined my school till VII standard let alone NCC. Over the years he accumulated all the exposures and skills from me unintentionally or intentionally I do not know. By the time he joined Air Wing I was already in college.
He’s very dedicated and hardworking no doubt about that, having just an ex-commander at home does not help that’s for sure (eg. Sachin’s son). He had to go through all the hardship and pain to implement what I did because I didn’t become great by walking in the park. My only point is having me around whatever he gained over the years just annihilated any legit competition or dream of his fellow batch cadets not just that he even superseded his seniors because he just proved to be too good. Look at this way let’s say there’s a cadet ‘A’ who is equally talented, hard-working, determined, and ambitious as my brother but he does not have an ex-commander elder brother at his house. Now both ‘A’ and my brother joined NCC in VIII standard, ‘A’ has to learn everything from scratch and it will take at least eight months to able to do basic drills, on the other hand, everyone is already seeing a future commander in my brother because he is already great in drills and strategies. The Assumption we are taking here is that my brother is still working hard with the same pace and determination which he did that’s why he is the Sergeant today. So the whole point is there might be a lot of cadets out there just like my brother but they do not have someone they live with who can advise them.
If we put this in a larger perspective then the world looks like an “unfair” place. For example, let’s take Cristiano Ronaldo’s son Ronaldo jr. go and just watch his football skills and moves and he’s just 10 years old. I mean yes he’s passionate, hardworking, and determined but there are many kids out there too but not everyone has The Legend Cristiano Ronaldo as their father. With all due respect again taking nothing away from Cristiano Ronaldo Jr. because it wouldn’t be easy to be coached by Ronaldo himself.
We can see these examples everywhere from Industries, sports, business, singers, movies, etc. Nepotism only makes sense when someone below average holds a position because of his/her family not when the family member is just too good. We never say Rishi Kapoor, Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Yuvraj Singh, etc are results of nepotism because we know they’re just too good but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have access to the knowledge and wisdom their family has.
I’m not implying in any way possible that others do not become successful who have no access to such knowledge, we have numerous examples throughout the world who become legends without any background. There is no alternative to perseverance, hard work, dedication, determination, consistency, ambition,will-power but if few can access that rare knowledge with all these traits too, then what?
My dilemma is that the Equality we fantasize about is even true? Will we be able to achieve that? Or it is just an unrealistic, unnatural goal.
An Eagle baby becomes the mightiest bird in the sky only when its raised by the Eagles, leave it with chickens then the Eagle baby won’t even able to learn how to fly.
Every one of us is gifted with our own unique unfair advantages, we need to recognize and capitalize on them.
