World’s largest bird and we have something in common

Does the ostrich, the large flightless bird native to Africa, have a behaviour pattern in common with us? 

Popular lore has it that the ostrich, the largest bird in the world, has a curious response when it feels it might face a disagreeable situation: it buries its head in the ground. 

This alleged behaviour is based on the supposition that if you can’t see something unpleasant then it doesn’t exist.

Psychologists have likened this supposed evasive tactic to the human response of deliberately avoiding knowledge of the unpleasant by refusing to see and acknowledge it, and call it the struthionine syndrome, struthionine being the adjective for ostriches. 

For example, ostrich-like behaviour is displayed by the spendthrift who keeps spending, wilfully shutting out the caveats of the bank manager regarding growing overdrafts, and the cautionary advice of family and friends, and the piled-up stacks of unpaid bills. 

Similarly, patients who ignore their doctor’s injunctions about changes of lifestyle in order to avoid health problems, and postpone looking at the results of their medical tests which they suspect will be red-flagged with ominous warnings.

We’re all a bit struthionine in our own ways by convincing ourselves that if we don’t see it, it don’t exist, never mind logic or the rules of grammar. 

And much struthionineness was in evidence as Delhi prepared to host the glitzy, ongoing AI summit, which is attended by a global galaxy of luminaries, from heads of state like France’s Emmanuel Macron, and corporate bigwigs like Sundar Pichai of Google. 

The municipal authorities of the capital reportedly were told to clean up the city’s act by shepherding the homeless from their customary residence on pavements and under flyovers to special shelters, hidden from the gaze of our VIP guests, whose arrival caused hotel prices to soar upwards to over Rs 5L for a night, going up to Rs 15L for a swanky seven-star suite.  

Once the event is over at the weekend, the homeless presumably will be restored to their habitual environs. Till the next VIP visitation gives us a heads-up. Heads down!

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