Being a "loser" has become a four-letter word. To be a 'loser' is perhaps the most socially-incorrect way to be! The way things are in today's day and age, it seems as if we're constantly in some kind of a competition - win, win, win. And if you don't, well, you're a loser. And being a loser means being dumped on the garbage heap of societal achievement - you are deprived of fame, glamour, wealth, social standing, prestige. So, if you're a loser, well, you're done for! It's all over for you...you could well dig yourself a hole and disappear from the face of the earth.

Is that what we're teaching our children...Winning at any cost, at all costs?. Because only winners can look forward to that gold at the end of the rainbow. Sure, Darwin's theory of the Survival of the Fittest is perhaps at the core of this obsessive human condition to win at all costs.

But well, does that give us the right to belittle those - or discard those - who are not over-achievers? One of our Hubbers recently wrote a piece about the man who created the VisiCalc, the predecessor to the personal computer - Daniel Bricklin.The man was clearly a genius but he lost out because he hadn't patented his invention. On the other hand, the other genius, Bill Gates has gotten far ahead of his contemporaries. While Bricklin can be faulted for his lack of foresight, does he deserve to be dumped as a "loser" for this? The fact that he failed to make his billions would unfortunately win him the tag of a 'loser'. Besides, how many of us have ever heard of this brilliant man...isn't it a shame that he remains unknown while his contemporary Bill Gates is perhaps the most-well-known human being in the world?

And where is this obsession for winning getting us? The movie, Little Ms. Sunshine is a pithy comment on the American attitude towards 'winners' and 'losers'. If we don't watch out, most of us who ape American values, may end up inheriting a value system that honours winners and boos under-achievers...Such a value system only helps creating a 'caste' culture (one that we Indians are so familiar with and are guilty of propagating) where the Winners become the Brahmins of this 'winner-takes-all beauty-contest' culture with the Losers being the 'untouchables'.

Another reference to this social-casteism that exists even in the most-democratic country in the world can be found in the movie "The Greatest Game Ever Played". A true life inspirational story about a poor boy (Francis Ouimet) who overcomes the biases of the rich golfers to make his mark in golfing circles, is a movie that celebrates the underdog. However, the point is: would Francis Oiumet's life have inspired a movie if he had played brilliantly and lost? I guess not!