Sunday, September 29, 2019

Chutzpah

Chutzpah (pronounced Hootspa) is a Jewish word meaning audacity or nerve.
 
I checked the Dictionary.com for the meaning of audacity. It gives the following:
 
Boldness or daring, especially with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restriction.
 
Here is a true story. This is not any movie scene.
 
Amrullah Saleh was a Spy Chief for the Afghanistan Government. He is now running for the Vice President of his country as a running mate for the current Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. As a Spy Chief, he made lot of enemies including the Taliban. He killed lot of enemies. To a US television network he said: “And if they kill me, I have told my family and my friends not to complain about anything because I have killed many of them – with pride”.
 
In July of this year, his office was attacked and many of his bodyguards were either killed or wounded. He just escaped. He later visited the wounded bodyguards in a hospital. In the hospital, a relative of a dead bodyguard slapped Amrullah Saleh. His own security came to protect him. He asked his bodyguards to step back. Amrullah told the dead bodyguard’s relative to hit him more. And, he hit him again.
 
Amrullah Saleh asked the grieving relative whether his own death would have eased his pain. The man said “yes”. Amrullah Saleh then pulled his handgun, loaded it, and gave it to the man to shoot him. The relative took the gun, aimed at Amrullah Saleh, and after a few seconds returned the gun to Amrullah Saleh saying he could not shoot him.
 
During these few seconds, Amrullah Saleh looked at the man straight in his eyes and no fear in his face.
 
I would call this Chutzpah. Real life incident. Not a movie scene.

19 comments:

  1. I don't know about "chutzpah" but that guy had some serious guts to do that!

    Regards,
    John Gotti

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    1. Thanks for your comments John. You are equally a Chutzpah guy. Remember, when the FBI agents were secretly following you, and you were in a restaurant, and they were waiting outside in the street. You sent the agents coffee from the restaurant, with your complements. That is also Chutzpah.

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  2. Maybe you should also share some of your own chutzpah encounters..

    As for the guy about in the story...good for him....

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    1. Thanks for your comments Dee. There is an old television show in USA. It is called Honeymooners. The hero was Jackie Gleason. A character by the fictional name Alice was his wife. Whatever Alice asked him, Gleason would always say "One of these days, Alice". He repeated it so many times, it became a very famous sentence. Why I am writing this?

      You asked me to share some of my own chutzpah encounters. My reply is "one of these days, Dee".

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  3. That's taking some risk alright. I am just wondering what if that person had taken that shot? Probably he wouldn't - and Mr. Amarullah knew it!

    Destination Infinity

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    1. Thanks for your comments Rajesh. Mr. Amarullah later told reporters he was prepared to die if that will ease that man's pain. There are some people in this world who are not afraid of death.

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  4. Such people are hard to com by.Most panic and stand frozen in fear.As you have said in one of your replies,the outcome can go either way.But I feel that the gutsy guy,more often than not,immobilizes the other one and wins.
    I am also waiting for 'one of these days' moments of yours to read your own valourous story!

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    1. Thanks for your comments Mr. KP. One of these days Mr.KP, one of these days.

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  5. You are right. Absolutely daring.
    Not just that. Amrullah had the courage of his convictions.
    May be it's only just a few days after Oct 2, I get a feeling Amrullah's act was, loosely at least, Gandhian too.

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    1. Thanks for your comments Pradeep. You are absolutely correct.

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  6. I didn't know about this incident (I don't follow news very well). He is truly courageous. I have zero chutzpah. :)

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    1. Thanks for your comments Ashwini. Long time No see. Hope you and your family are doing well. Please don't say you have zero chutzpah. If and when a situation you are faced with, you will rise to the occasion.

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  7. Reading this anectode, it appears that this guy lives in this manner of fearlessness.

    This reminds me of Tipu Sultan, who said Better to live a day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.

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    1. Thanks for your comments Karunesh. You are absolutely right.

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  8. Audacity in true spirit was in him.That is why he showed Audacity to kill the enemies inclouding Taliban because terrorists could anything at any time to him.In a way he is a true patriot, standing for his people and nation.And standing daringly in front of the gun is indeed Audacity. Nice post.

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    1. Thanks for your comments Sarala. He really had audacity.

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  9. Wow! That's some nerve and a true daring act! Very interesting story!!

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    1. Thanks for your comments Shilpa. Yes, that is some nerve.

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  10. Wooh.. I can see a Yogi adhithyanath or Amitji in this story.. fearless

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