Dubai: ‘The White Tiger’ – a Netflix release everyone has been talking about off late. So I jumped onto the bandwagon and watched it myself. And then it give me a sticky remembrance of the word that has stayed back with me since – ‘rooster coop mentality’. The protagonist describes this mentality akin to that of a captured rooster in a cage watching others get slaughtered, knowing it is next and yet making no attempt to escape. It draws parallels with millions of working class people who have similarly accepted their fate and make no attempt to change status quo.
The concept seemed to ring a bell within. While the story talks specifically about the caste divide and the underprivileged accepting the abuse doled out to them, it made me wonder if there are personal cages as well – a rooster coop mentality that all (or most of us ) carry in our daily lives, mostly without even realizing it.
A daily life coop which can be defined as limitations with respect to thoughts and actions, knowing that they are harming us (or about to) and still letting them rule us, even resisting anyone else trying to help us – a feeling of being duty bound towards repeat patterns (even if traumatizing), finding satisfaction in misery, contentment in just dreaming about change but not making that change, loathing the situation and yet finding reasons stay put – a strange ‘love to hate’ association.
A corporate executive who feels trapped in the rat race and yet, is unwilling to change the game for self or for others when it is their turn to run the show.
A woman who finds herself uncomfortably subjected to patriarchy and yet insists on the same traditions for every other woman she encounters, unwilling to repair or mitigate the ensuing damage.
A person unhappy with a friend encroaching their personal space and yet unwilling to draw a line, fully knowing another invasion is impending.
Someone living in an unhealthy relationship and continually finding reasons to stay and be happy, because that’s what is expected.
A person with unhealthy eating habits or substance abuse habits unwilling to break out and take control over this lives, knowing well that they will collapse sooner or later. And countless such examples- big or small, daily issues or life-changing decisions.
I wonder where this ‘coop’ mindset comes from, what drives it. Probably an inherent fear of the unknown, of what is on the other side. Probably a lack of conviction on being able to manage the unseen. Probably a lack of courage to tread the unknown road. Probably lack of belief on emerging the better person in the task ahead. Probably the fear of failure. And hence continuing with the known devil rather than experimenting with an unknown angel.
Arvind Adiga’s protagonist breaks out of his coop by murdering his employer and stealing from him to start a new life – a result of educational exposure earlier in life which made him believe in a better life and strive for it. However, the real-life is less dramatic and does not need such drastic prison breaks. All it requires is some belief and some support.
But with educated and forward-thinking individuals still trapped in personal cages, one does wonder what is needed to make them strive for freedom.
The social conditioning seems to have a larger role than wider exposure and liberated education. The fear of being rejected is larger than personal happiness or even safety.
And maybe that’s why many have led themselves to believe that there is no other way, this is the only way. There is a wish of some heroic change of course and yet there is comfort in knowing there won’t be any change.
As a White Tiger character says, “I spent years looking for the key. But the door was always open.”
And yet our coops continue to make us overlook that door, which we know is open.
(Author, Aarti Gahlaut is an MBA-Graduate and mother of two. She writes on life issues and anything that interests her. She currently resides in Dubai and views expressed are her personal opinion)