Anyone has a scale?

I was going through the old stuff lying in my store room and suddenly came across a school group photograph taken in my 4th standard. Then what! Nostalgia unlimited!!

My 4th standard class teacher had a particular habit of punishing students for whatever reasons they went wrong. The punishment was terrible. She hit on the knuckles, fist closed, with the wooden scale in vertical position. The pain was unbearable.

But the wrath never went on her. She never carried a scale! She borrowed it from the students, sometimes not even returning it! She announced, “Who has a scale?” And multiple hands dug in to their bags to produce the weapon of HAND DESTRUCTION, teacher take mine, take mine. The wrath was upon those people. The one who gave it got a come-outside-the-class-after-school-and-will-thrash-you look. Sometimes I was also the one who gave the scale.

Why did we do that?
Was it the pride of having a scale?
Was it the revenge of getting less marks than the fellow being?
Was it just ignorance to the pain of others?
Or was it to prove I’m-the-smartest-ass-around phenomenon?

Well, the answer might be a mix of all above, but astonishingly, this was the initiation of the RAT RACE. Don’t we still do the same thing? Try to create funny problems for our colleagues in the workplace with no visible gains. The idea is to gain pleasure from the problems of others, the elimination of the species by making the species weak. Put people in unwanted pressure situations, in a due course of time they are fed up and surrender paving a way for the one who initiated the trouble. And mind it if the chap is smarter the vice-versa happens. “Life is a Race” as quoted by Viru Sahasrabuddhe from THE 3 IDIOTS.

Fine, who gains? None. Cos the promotion you were eying for is filled by the external candidate (an example). What’s the use trying to win such a race? Even if you win you are still a rat.

Is it always important to eliminate others for survival? Are we humans evolved to be humans so that we can still fight for the mere survival as a selfish deed? Can’t this be the solution? Working together, trying to understand, empathize your fellow beings, working for a common cause and gain an extra edge over the team effort.

So does it make sense, when the boss next time asks you for the Scale evolve out with the chart and graph of the performance of the team and not just yourselves? Does anyone have a SCALE?