I often receive internet links and documents in my email to give my feedback on content quality. It is always a challenge to give a truly constructive feedback without any bias and make sure that it doesn't hurt. Sometimes the need of avoiding any harsh words may conflict with telling the truth. Being critical about something always reminds me of the washer man and the donkey story. A washer man and his son were riding a donkey with a load of clothes. They were going to deliver the clothes to the clients in a nearby location. They received the random comments from passerby that they had put too much load on the donkey and this is a cruelty towards the animal. Hearing this the washer man himself gets down. His son and the clothes bag is still on the donkey's back. The new comment is that the old man is walking on the ground, while a young son is enjoying the ride. When they reverse the roles, then also public was not satisfied and the comment is that how can a father ignore his young son and not provide him enough comfort. When both got down and started walking, then also people called them fools for not taking enough advantage to ride the animal they had. A stage came when they lifted the animal themselves, who jumped off their shoulders while moving on a river bridge and they lost their clothes as well as the animal.
The moral of the story is, if you give lot of importance to criticism, you are bound to loose. So becoming a critic my aim is not to become someone who criticizes everything in every situation. I should not behave like a mob while being a graceful critic. A graceful critic has to be knowledgeable. To be a trustworthy as a critic one should be like someone who can probably do a better job. If you do not have this quality, do not accept the job of giving the feedback. Otherwise you can easily be labelled as someone we amusingly call in hindi as 'Rai Bahadur' or the brave advisor.
Dr. Sunil Ji Garg.
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