Be it in official meetings or at social events, we often find ourselves in a funny predicament like this. Wherein the person right next to us would be getting blitzed by a blizzard of praise from people around them, when there is absolutely no need for it.
And some, the actual recipients of those praises, would be merrily ignored, owing to myriad reasons.
A friend’s daughter, a beautiful girl, was once saying in a despondent tone, “We were all revelling in rollicking time, raising a toast to the roaring success of our company. The company’s profits had remarkably ratcheted up that year. All my colleagues were admiring my dress, except for one. She has always been a sort of sinister-minded person, ever smarting with severe heartburn against everyone. She poised herself purposefully in front of me and started praising the apparel of the one sitting adjacent to me, who actually did not seem like she was comfortable receiving all the attention! It looked, as if to perturb me, as if she had wilfully indulged in those pseudo praises.”
This reminds me of another techie who was stating, “A co-worker of mine is a slothful skiver, ever seeking ways of shirking work.
“Being silver-tongued, he has a way with seniors, who think he is toiling like a trojan! And, from subordinates, by his soft-soaping strategies, he gets all surplus work done. What is perplexing is the way he is being pitched higher, with all plaudits, even by the company’s proprietors. Especially when we have been beavering away with back-breaking work, which isn’t even a bit noticed!”
Now, in the first case, if the act of ‘praising the undeserving’ is intentional, in the second case, the act is out of being ill-informed or ignorance.
So, if it is owing to people’s ignorance that someone else is bagging recognition, well, it’d be only for some fleeting time.
Because, the brilliance of the ‘truly deserving’ is akin to a blazing fire, which can’t be buried for long. It gushes out in all its glory.
And if those phoney plaudits of people, on the undeserving, are intended only to pull you down, then possibly it may help in recalling this profound line. “If someone is trying to pull you down, it is strongly confirmed—they are surely below you!”