by Gaurav Mahendru

Created on: May 24, 2009   Last Updated: May 25, 2009

Man has fought natural disasters, adversity, other animals and fellow human beings since he has walked this earth. We as humans have competed for resources, to prove a point, for love, for money, to win awards and recognition and various other reasons. The list is endless. As human beings baring specific cases we have been more or less just and reasonable while competing with each other.

With the passage of time man has learnt to make his point without shedding blood. As we became more intelligent we as human beings began to understand that we need not kill another person to prove that we are stronger, or wiser or more capable than the other. We learnt to compete with each other at home, at school and at the workplace without hurting or showing someone down.

As long as we understand that we have a right to compete in every field without hurting anyone competition is good and enjoyable by everyone. That includes the winning party, the losing party and everyone else. Let us understand that the moment competition crosses the limit or when rules are broken the situation turns ugly. Therefore we should not get carried away lest we forget that competition is not everything and that there are simple joys of life which need to be enjoyed and we need not be competitive every time and for everything. We should not disturb the harmony by being over competitive.

In life I have come across people who are more competitive and some are less competitive. One should keep a balance between the two. I guess it also depends upon how ambitious you are. The more ambitious a person, the more he or she is bound to be competitive.

Competition is indeed helpful for an individual and every body should compete sometime. Competition makes us stringer as human beings but it also makes us ruthless if over done. Therefore it is more important that the objective and meaning of competition should be clear.

To understand Competition I believe we need to understand how competition pans out in various stages in life and in different societies. A society where resources are scarce will see more instances of the ugly kind of competition. A more refined society will indulge in more subtle and enjoyable for of competition.

We should understand that competition leads to success as much as failure. Unless there are clear rules some people will end up sacrificing too much while others will grow up not being able to take loss in their stride. We should guard against this as it can lead to much damage later in life.

So as they say, let the show go on. At the same time let us not tread on each other's toes. A victory that makes the winner happy and the loser see a point is worth celebrating, but a victory that congratulates a brute and forces another to accept defeat will only harm us all in the long run. The consequences of unjust competition will haunt us in the form of a bitter harvest. Let us avoid that and spread cheer.

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