latitude & longitude

Recently came across a video where Kirti Azad is being dismissive of Arun Jaitly with a ‘उसकी औकात क्या है? मेरे garage के बाहर बैठा करता था’
While Mr Azad’s assertion may be true, the question is, is this the sort of truth that shows Azad in good light? Isn’t he in effect telling us that he started a race with an advantage and still lost it by a mile?
And yet, this citing of antecedents seems to be a national passion.
Which brings me to one of my favourite episodes from the Mahabharata. This is where Arjuna shoots an arrow that whizzes past Karan’s chariot. High velocity, Bernoulli’s principle, and what have we? Karan’s chariot is pushed back a couple of feet. When Karan does the same arrow trick, Arjuna’s chariot is pushed back just a few inches. Seeing this, Krishna remarks, ‘वाह करण वाह!’। The bad loser that Arjuna is, he complains to Krishna about the partiality in praise; and he acquiesces only once Krishna has handed him a certified copy of his chariot’s passenger list(the heavyweight Hanuman, and Krishna himself).
So yes, antecedents are important. What needs to be correctly deduced is which side that entry goes: debit, or credit?
A person’s origin & environment - his longitude - is of importance only in as far as it’s used to ascertain the latitude we can afford him.latt