‘Resolving conflicts is a matter of constant practice’

N Vinoth Kumar

Published Date: Jan 9, 2013

There are two exercises which a person must have every day — swimming and facing conflict. As the whole world is surrounded with water, one really should know how to swim and in a life filled with quarrels and disputes, one should know to manage conflict, says Dr S P Udayakumar — the man behind organising and leading the stir against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project — in his new book.

An ardent anti-nuke activist, he wrote quite a few books on the topic, such as Anu Aattam, Thagaraaru and Asura Sindhanaigal, a compilation of thoughts of Asuran, the renowned environmentalist. Udayakumar, who is known for his writing skills both in Tamil and English has now penned Puyalukku Pinney Poonthendral, published by Kalachuvadu publications. It was released a week ago in Koodankulam and will be available at the Chennai Book Fair this year.

In his new book, Udayakumar talks about his past when he worked as a teacher in Ethiopia, where he summed up the courage to deal with conflict.

“I started to write this book in 2008 as a series when we started a magazine, Puthiya Thendral. But after the sudden demise of our friend Asuran, the magazine was closed and thereby the series was also stopped. Later, in 2011, when I was working in Monmouth University, USA, I had a chance to complete the book” says Udayakumar in his preface to the book.

The ‘Iron Man’ also attributes his skill of dealing with issues to his parents. His father was a politician and his mother, a social worker, met many people, who were having personal, official and societal problems. He explains, “My parents’ way of counseling people and their urge to bring a ‘win-win’ solution to the problems attracted me and I imbibed that skill with some practice.”

When he applied this practice to his friends and it worked on them, he began to believe that violence could never offer a solution to one’s problems.  To teach his doctrine, he set up a ‘UNESCO Club’ in the school he worked, even though it was controlled by a communist military government.

“A panacea for fear for others is nothing but understanding and having kindness for them. If we are fearful, we will not be capable of managing conflicts,” writes Udayakumar in one portion of this book. “If self-analysis is negative, we lose the confidence to engage our conflict,” he adds.

Throughout his book he stresses on the importance of ‘listening,’ apart from encouraging everyone to have peace, education and practice conflict management.

“Listen to the worries of individuals and that will be a great help in those moments, for people entangled in the problem,” he says.

In this book, he listens to the problems of people whom he considers ‘affected’ – between lovers, between an authoritative soldier, his superior and himself, district education officer on setting up of ‘UNESCO Club’ in the school and celebrating the Independence Day of USA, and also between brothers.

While sharing his past he also tries to depict the history of Ethiopia at that times — militarism, red terror, white terror and Mengistu tyranny —  have made him believe the principle of ‘servant leadership’  and all this helped him while leading the  anti-KKNPP struggle.

Through this work, his six years of Ethiopian life, that constructed a man of new beliefs, principles and his own way of struggle, Udayakumar makes genuine efforts to win the hearts of the readers. The book is legitimate and compassionate and makes for an engaging read.

Courtesy: The New Indian Express