Dreadful Face of Plagiarism

The Dreadful Face of Plagiarism

PLAGIARISM - I really dreaded the word and I had a reason to.  A lesson that I have learnt very, very early in my life. 

 I must have been in 8th or 9th class then. Mr.S.V. Burde was our English language teacher. In one of my essays I had written, '--- Where do I want to go? What do I want to be in life? Will I be satisfied in doing just one thing? Or try my hand at different things? Jack of all trades? Master of none, you would say. But in our life we hardly know where we want to go and where we shall ultimately reach;  this is the beauty of life. In the life's journey, we do not know our destination. Some people easily get tired and get down at any in between station. And then settle down there. Such people are highly praised. But there are others whose journey never ends and are labelled as fools. Those who stay put in one place, doing just one job and have just one profession to boast of, are the worldly smart fellows. They are the clever, efficient, capable, accomplished and what not. But there is a bit of confusion in my simple mind, whether stability and firmness are virtues or weaknesses. I do not know. Maybe these people stick around one place because they are too weak to move about, they simply do not have the strength and desire in their hearts to do anything else in life. So what is my aim in life? A teacher? A writer? ----'

MrBurde called me and asked," Vinay, what you have written is good. But is it your own work? I don't think so.  Have you copied it from somewhere?"

"No, Sir! It's all my own work," I replied quite confidently. 

"Vinay, I know for certain that it is not your own work. Do you what is meant by to plagiarize, it means to take and pass off someone's thoughts or writings as one's own. That's exactly what you have done. It is not a word by word copy, I must say. But these are not entirely your thoughts. If at all you wanted to use it, you should have put it in this way, ' so and so has said or someone has said--'. But what you have done here, is translating a good Marathi literature, written by Acharya Prahlad Keshav Atre, am I right? Remember don't ever be a plagiarist and avoid translations because they could spell disaster." 

It was indeed this piece: ‘एवढे उद्योग तुम्हीं केलेत त्याची काही जरुरी होती का? तुम्ही निघालांत कुठून? जाणार होतां कुठें? अन् गेलांत कुणीकडे? कशाला काही पत्ता?  आणि अजून तरी आहांत तिथेच राहणार आहांत का आणखी कुठें भराऱ्या मारून येणार?आयुष्यांत कुठें जायचें हें कळत नाही, हीच तर त्याची गंमत आहे. आयुष्याच्या आगगाडींत बसलेल्या माणसांना कुठें उतरायचें हें शेवट पर्यंत समजत नाही. 

काहीं माणसें प्रवासाला कंटाळून अधल्यामधल्या स्टेशनावरच उतरतात. अन् जन्मभर तेथेंच मुक्काम कुरून बसतात. त्यांची जगांत फार वाहवा होते. पण ज्यांचा प्रवास शेवट पर्यंत संपत नाही ती माझ्या सारखीं माणसे वेडी ठरतात. आयुष्यभर जीं एकच काम करतात, ती माणसें अधिक हुशार अन् कर्तबगार असतात काय हो? कोणास ठाऊक? खंबीरपणा किंवा स्थिरता हे सद्गुण आहे का दुर्गुण आहेत हेंच मला कळत नाही. त्यांच्या संबंधीं माझ्या डोक्यांत जरा घोटाळा आहे. एकाच ठिकाणीं एकाच कार्यांत चिकटून राहणें, हें कांही मला सामर्थ्याचें लक्षण वाटत नाही. मला तर तो दुबळे पणाच वाटतो. पुष्कळशीं मणसें एकाच ठिकाणीं जीं पडून राहतात, त्यांना दुसरीकडे हलण्याची मुळीं शक्तिच नसते.’  

 So, a lesson learnt. Two lessons in fact,  - No translations and no plagiarism (copy - paste jobs, in today's net lingo)!

However, despite learning this in my early school days, I simply can’t resist the temptation (maybe only at times) of doing some copy - paste work especially on my Facebook wall (but I make it a point to quote my source).

Some time back (September, 2014), the Managing Trustee of the NGO, where I am a consultant, was discussing with me how some of our teachers were giving up on children, labeling them with tags like ‘good for nothing’ , ‘dud’ ,’duffer’, etc. I was pondering on what she had said. Then I remembered this story which my son's school principal (St. Sebastian High School), Rev. Father Lurdino Fernandes had once told me. I emailed her this story ‘Teach with motherly love’ (I have put it on my blog as well. Do read it) and responded in this manner, she asking me to put it as a sort of address to teachers and I actually did: 
[Dear Vinay,
Sorry that I couldn't read your mail earlier. I'm very touched by the story that you have sent for the teachers. I shall certainly pass it on to them by personally talking to them individually, especially to those teachers who need to soften down a bit and be more of friends and mothers rather than strict teachers whom the children would be scared of.
Thanks once again.
Regards,
Khurshid] 

I had also 'shared ' my blog 'Teach with motherly love' on Facebook. Then this guy, Rajan Houzwala, who posted last year on Facebook translation of my 'Teach with motherly love' (of course, names of all the charectars.) Here is the extract from his post:
मिसेस साठे आपल्या वर्गात शिरल्या. इंग्रजी माध्यमाची शाळा होती. साठे बाईंना वर्गात बोलणे सुरू करताना,

“love you All”

असं म्हणायची सवय होती. तसं त्या म्हणाल्याही.

पण त्यांना जाणवलं की, खरंतर आपण हे मनापासून म्हणत नाही आहोत.

त्याला कारण शेवटच्या बाकावर बसणारा एक मुलगा होता.

तो मुलगा अगदी अव्यवस्थित, गबाळा असा होता आणि साठे बाईंना त्याच्याबद्दल प्रेम
किंवा आत्मीयता वाटेल असं, त्यांची दखल घ्यावी असं, काहीही नव्हतं !

त्या मुलाशी जरा अलिप्तपणेच त्या वागायच्या.

कोणत्याही नकारात्मक गोष्टींसाठी बऱ्याचदा त्याचंच उदाहरण द्यायच्या आणी कोणत्याही सकारात्मक गोष्टींच्या बाबतीत त्याच्याकडे पूर्ण दुर्लक्ष करायच्या.

पहिली तिमाही झाली.

प्रगती पुस्तक लिहायचे दिवस आले. त्याही मुलाची ‘प्रगती’ त्यांनी लिहिली.

शाळेची अशी पद्धत असते की, प्रगतिपुस्तकावर शेवटी मुख्याध्यापिकेची सही होते.

Now compare with what I had written in the said blog:

‘TEACH WITH MOTHERLY LOVE

Dear friends, today is Sunday. It was your weekly off. Such Sundays come and go. Saturday will go, Sunday will go and Monday will come. And you all will go back to the class after enjoying your weekly holiday. So did this teacher – Mrs. Thompson.
It was Monday and she entered the class for the first time on that day. She had this habit of starting her class by saying, “I love you all my dear children.” But she knew she was lying because she could not feel that love for one of the children in the class, who was unkempt, untidy and there was nothing in that child that drew attention from Mrs. Thompson. She was a little indifferent to the child. She would pick him for every negative example and ignored for all the positive reasons. That year she had written his progress report card for the first semester and there was this system in the school that the Head Master had to countersign every progress report of each and every child. Reverend Father Joseph was the principal and the Head Master of the school then. On seeing this child’s report he immediately called for Mrs. Thompson and said to her,” A progress report should report some progress. It should make a parent feel ‘My child has a future’. But the way, you have written the progress report for Teddy (Yes, that was how he was called) and for that matter if one writes such a report for any child then the parent of that child will certainly give up on him.” Out came Mrs. Thompson's prompt reply,” But sir, there is nothing I can do for Teddy. I have nothing positive to write about the child”…..’ His very post was 'shared' in another group by a lady from our community (that's how I came to know about it). In my comment on her shared post I mentioned that it was a translation of my story.  Both of them immediately deleted their posts,  but not before I had copy - pasted their posts.

This particular lady has a habit of doing this 'copy- paste' jobs often. In one of her posts I had commented thus:
 Comments

Vinay Trilokekar Yes, ‘Living Life And Having Fun’ is nice story by Unknown Author, sent by David Freeman from Taree, Australia to Keith Ready, Director of Inspiration, way back in 1999 or so.
About Keith Ready: Keith is from Sydney, Australia. Keith has over 30 years of practical and hands on experience in sales, marketing, human resources and general management across a wide range of industry sectors complementary health care, FMCG and retail industry sectors.He works with and alongside his clients whose primary need is to manage and run their businesses to achieve increased performance and profitability by developing, coaching and mentoring the most important and often under-valued asset in any business - it's people. He is the publisher of Inspire-Email and website ‘A Gift of Inspiration , which (both) have the aim of providing inspirational messages to refresh the spirit and boost the emotional bank account. In recent times he has become known both in Australia and Internationally as Mr Inspiration due to his commitment to inspiring everyone that he comes into contact with, to be better at what they do in all levels of their life.Keith has had many of his inspirational stories published in international e-newsletters and on websites including - Achieve, Insight, It's All About Women, Starfish, Sermon Illustrator, Heart Catchers, Motivators, Heart-warmers, Our Echo, Personal Growth and Positive News.

This particular story (* 31st in the list) was published as one of the stories (as) under ‘Positive Inspirational Attitude Stories’. The other stories being:
1. The Nails in the Fence,2. The Carpenter,3. What am I ……49. Glowing and Growing with the Appreciation.

 And then this post:

Moms will be Moms... and don't care about who you are...
Here is some Mom talk:

*Mona Lisa's Mother:*
'After all that money your father and I spent on your braces, is that the best smile you can give us?'

*Columbus's Mother:*
'I don't care what you've discovered, you could still have written a letter!'

*Michelangelo's Mother:*
'Can't you paint on walls like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that stuff off the ceiling?'

*Albert Einstein's Mother:*
'But it's your senior picture. Can't you do something about your hair? Use styling gel or something...?'

*Thomas Edison's Mother:*
'Of course I am proud that you invented the electric bulb. Now turn it off and get to bed !!!
This particular Facebook has been lifted from:

SOURCE: HumorMatterstm
Presented by Steven M. Sultanoff, Ph.D.
Past President of the American Association for Therapeutic Humor

What Famous Mothers Might Have Said

Then there is this guy, who copies jokes from '

' English JoKes ', 'Santa- Banta' and some other category of jokes readily available on the Net

  Telling jokes is an art. I am not good at it.  Some people are, like my cousin, Nrupal. He has a knack, he cracks them fantastically and with action. Even you have heard the joke before (and even if you heard the same from him earlier), he twists it and makes it sound fresh and not stale. One of my nephews, Sandeep is also good at it, just the way his father, Arvind, was. 
 Plagiarism is no big deal. It was prevalent 'yesterday' and is still prevelant 'today'. We have these 'copy-cats' in the world of cinema as well. More about it some other time and as a separate write up.

  

Plagiarism is rampant in our society in a big way. Those who are involved in it think nothing about it. Some even boast that their work is the original, at least in the initial period, during social parties and other platforms, until they are exposed.

 Plagiarism is like a poisonous weed and its tentacles have spread far and wide, affecting people from all walks of life. But it only when big shots are involved, there is hue and cry.

It should have been aspiring American First Lady, Melania Trump’s moment –her first real introduction to American voters. They had seen her by her husband, Donald Trump’s side for months during his campaigning. But they had barely heard her speak, until now.  

But within moments of Mrs. Trump's triumphant appearance on the Republican National Convention stage, accusations of plagiarism surfaced, eclipsing her achievement in the latest stumble by the Trump campaign.

 The word-for-word overlap was obvious between Mrs. Trump's remarks the night before and two passages in Michelle Obama's 2008 speech to the Democratic convention in Denver. How that had come about remained unclear.

Vinay Trilokekar

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