Be it workplace, classroom, or in public, it is not unusual for us to see a group that is always together with likeness, seeming friendship, and conformity to everything the group does – good or bad.
The group leader initiates and creates a group by connecting with one common interest. Once established, the group always follows and agrees with the majority’s opinion. Despite their disagreements, they stick to the created perception and thought process. When someone disagrees or questions, the group stands against them without knowing the background. The group tends to term a few people like Trouble makers, Non-team players, spoilers, etc.
In reality, these are the ones who question them, who disagree with one among the group, who stands out a bit ahead of them, and the one who stands up their consciousness. This group conformity loses its importance when it creates pressure that every group member takes upon themselves. This pressure comes from immense stress and influence from the group, which compromises individuality. This dramatically impacts the decision-making skill of an individual. This, in turn, creates a lot of subgroups and chaos within the group and creates opportunities for gossip. However, this gossip against an ordinary person makes them stick to the so-called values of the group and come together to take a stand against that person.
Who does this group hate? A questioner, An opinion giver, and A whistle-blower. They come together as one because they are highly opinionated that they are never wrong, given a chance to prove themselves wrong, and would never want to be proved wrong. Because what they can’t take is one fact – say no to what they agreed to earlier.
Unfortunately, in their attempt to stay loyal to the group’s control, they usually fail to stand up for what is right because they would never imagine being left out and experiencing the lone zone. The House Mates failed to stand up with Mumtaz, Mamathi, and Nithya.
Nithya was once the most hated person in the program, primarily because of the housemates’ perception of Balaji and Nithya’s personal life. Nithya was not looked upon as an individual. Instead, she was seen as an extension of Balaji. Until Kamal Hassan intervened, the HMs did not even attempt to know what she was. The only ones standing beside her were Mumtaz, Mamathi, and Ramya. The same Mumtaz who had a different option with her supported her best when Nithya’s personal tiff with Balaji crossed the line. Despite Balaji’s use of abusive words, the HM’s stood with him because he was part of their group. After the HMs were shown the reality clips, they patched up with Nithya, and she became part of their group. Once she became part of the group, her opinion about Mumtaz went above the roof as she had a lot of people agreeing with her statement in her group.
Mamathi was always hated for one reason – She spoke an ideology that was right for herself, and the flair of her mother tongue was seen as over-exaggeration. She was assumed to be influencing Mumtaz to stand up against the group. For some reason, the men in the house could never hear her words. Neither were they happy with her intellect talk nor glad when she stood up with Mumtaz and Nithya. Her Tamil woman stand was only seen as a mode of creating an issue trolled by many because of her dress. The perception was that she was overdressed for her age, and many felt that it was wrong to mention that she is a Tamil Woman when wearing a short dress; the reason known only to haters may be that they should be introduced to modern thoughts of Bharathiyar.
Despite all her flaws, Mumtaz qualifies to be the person the entire group can stand against. She is a questioner, has opinions, and stands up for what is right in her consciousness; she says no when the group says yes. From the servant/master’s task, she stood up for herself. But the group was depressed and used the worst form of gossip by quoting what she did in the movies. When she played the role of a cop, a significant chunk of the group ganged up against her personally as she stood up against them. This week, HMs went overboard with group conformity. The blue team that kept saying that Mumtaz was going out of line forgot that they took a giant step against her by touching her self-respect and instigated Shariq to punish her. Shariq forgot the responsibility of a judge, took up the role of the dictator, and did his best to satisfy his friends from the blue team because had he played the role of Judge, he wouldn’t have spoken behind Mumtaz to the blue team.
The yellow team members Balaji, Vaishnavi, Rythvika, and Yashika were bound by their group norms, although they agreed that the blue team was playing revenge on Mumtaz. Mahath is highly devoted to the group and blindly trusts what his group says, forgetting the task commitment of being in the same team as Mumtaz. All he did was to make his friends in the blue team comfortable while giving the tasks. The rest of the yellow team members complained to Mumtaz and wanted her to talk to him about it, and when she did, the team vanished. At least Balaji stood up for her in a few instances despite talking behind her back.
The most surprising was when Kamal Hassan was so sarcastic to Mumtaz at the end of the week. He cornered her entirely and created an image in front of the HM’s that she was wrong. The entire episode was completely biased. The Yellow Team, except Balaji, did not disagree with all those who raised concerns against Mumtaz because they were scared to be left alone. The blue team played the angel card by telling Kamal that it was all Mumtaz’s fault, and Kamal did the perfect job of cornering her.
One set of people was disappointed and thought it was right. The problem with the viewers is that they watch this season through the lens of Bigg Boss 1, hoping to find the BB1 characters. Only then would we realize that many against one don’t mean the one left out is wrong!! It is time to watch this program, just like a movie series.
Cornering and plotting against someone is never right because this would push even the strongest person out of the line..
PN: This series is not a review of Bigg Boss. It is just an analysis by applying the HM’s behavioral reflection in our everyday lives. So more to come on Behavioral analysis.
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