SMS Gamesmanship (Banter)

Distances have been shortened by technology. Though not a very efficient job well done, it has done whatever it could to bring people closer. Distance need not always be measured by the kilometers between two people, in fact it need not be measured at all. It is felt more than measured.

Two people: X and Y, keep going despite the distance with a lot of wit, and humour, with technological aid. Here’s a sample of a flurry of text messages sent to each other as a part of their conversation. Funny and filled with banter to the persons involved but absolutely weird to a third person. Have a good read and notice the gamesmanship involved.

Person X to Person Y: I want to climb the Mt. Kanchenjunga
Person Y to Person X: I want to mount Ms. Kanchenjunga
Person X to Person Y: Get rid of your oriental fixation
Person Y to Person X: Get rid of your fixed orientation
Person X to Person Y: What’s wrong with you?
Person Y to Person X: Wrong you? With what?
Person X to Person Y: What was the fixed orientation thing? It’s too wide a term and can mean anything...
Person Y to Person X: A Thing too wide? It was an orientation term, and anything mean can fix it
Person X to Person Y: I am not mean. I am nasty.
Person Y to Person X: Nastiness is no mean time
Person X to Person Y: Well hung?
Person Y to Person X: Hung well…
Person X to Person Y: Ding DONG bell pussy in the well?
Person Y to Person X: Well Bell did dong her p****
Person X to Person Y: Whose?
Person Y to Person X: His sow…
Person X to Person Y: Why not the swine?
Person Y to Person X: Why swine the knot?
Person X to Person Y: Cos Juliet tried swinging her knot.
Person Y to Person X: Lol… ok boss… Off to buy ingredients for lunch… We'll play later
Person X to Person Y: Ok… Got work to complete here too.

The End.

Who's the Brother?

The promising thought ubiquitously spread across the mainland of the country (forget the pariah north-eastern part of it) is the young populace teeming the streets and fields of our “motherland”.

I have often felt profound grief and a sense of rejection at the very thought of the mores thrust down the systems of the group we belong to. Often, it is not our mistake that young people commit ethical blunders. It is a residue of the system that we come out of. The paradox within the system does not recognize the viability of the merits and demerits of its produce.

Often, too many responsibilities are thrust upon us without adequate conditioning. And perhaps the there is an utter lack of orientation for the same. The system does not prepare us like the armed forces do or does it makes us aware of the variables we would have to encounter. We are often bundled and thrown out in the open like a bunch of treated tomatoes ready to be canned; often confused by our roles and course of action. Or perhaps like a pair of shoes. Crafted and sold but unsure of the ground we are most likely to tread upon.

In India, we are witnesses, like a circus audience. The vagaries of the dumb political charade that thrives on every nook and corner of the country and everything else it foments is adjusted to our own internal systems. We are pusillanimous by nature and are avid spectators, or are terribly ignorant wannabes. And not to hurt anyone’s collective conscious or sensibilities, but Indians are a terribly selfish lot of people. And also, like it or not, we are extremely political in thought, word, deed, and pretensions, and are embarrassingly ambiguous.

In a MBA lecture held at a semi – prominent business school a lecturer started sermonizing that in the age of rising of economies among the BRIC nations, India was the most forthcoming. And the reason for the erroneous assumption was that India was one of the most well acknowledged pluralistic societies on the face of the earth. We are diverse in caste, creed, sex, and so on. We are also perhaps one of the most intelligent species on the earth along with the Jews. We dominate or contribute significantly to almost all major business transactions or growths. True. But also, how unfortunate! The aforesaid reasons are no reasons why India should be tagged as “the most forthcoming and accomodating” country in the world when the “Atithi Devo Bhava” as a principle is only for certain group of people only.

As much as we cry loud and hoarse about the treatment meted out to Indians outside its shores, and the racist attitude of the Caucasians and so on so forth, we forget that our own backyards needs more cleaning than the neighbour’s kennel. It is like watching a terribly bad Bollywood family drama and providing our slanderous and sarcastic critique on it while forgetting that our own personal lives function strikingly and frighteningly similar to it.

As young Indians, we are taught about the spirit of Indianness. The same in-bred quality in us that forced the Europeans to quit the country; the same spirit that’s pulling (or pushing) this country to be on par with the political super – powers of the world. While I say that though, the Indianness is not about getting done with our habitual ambiguity in talk and action, or about being more accommodating to fellow Indians than our foreign guests. As much as we dislike the word ‘racism’ we are racist in a way in letting caste and communal differences take over proper Indian sensibilities.

Being political in nature, political activism is all pervading in every strata of higher education in the country. Despite the technical superiority of our students, there is a lot to do for the students from the non – technical courses. Student political bodies like the SFI and AISF, and other similarly polyp like political organizations in educational institutes impair the intellectual capabilities of the students. There has to be a clear demarcation between political activism and intellectual development because there is a huge difference between the two which otherwise is like a bad marriage which by an exception may produce an intelligent child.

The effect of the spread of such organizations is probably felt in Business Schools now. With so many mushrooming around the hallowed IIMs, a clear marketing strategy is required to give the other B – schools to differentiate itself from the IIMs and the rest. One strategy is to project the institute as a student driven institute. Not that the other institutes do not have student participating but lo and behold! Some want the students to run it! It is another tool of management learning methodology. Apparently. But the farce of such a proclamation is that once an unsuspecting student enters the classrooms of such an institute sooner or later the poor soul is going to slowly unravel the aura of the student driven hocus pocus.

The truth behind a typically student driven institute is that there would be body of student run organizations focusing on various disciplines (apart from academics). The over – reliance on such a body gives it a certain amount of unneeded political power which in all likeliness would be misused and manipulated to suppress dissenting voices. And of course, there are the other political situations which involve a sense of false and temporary camaraderie, and hollow pat on the back, and other shenanigans. Such an environment would deprive the student who seeks academic value and a certain competitive advantage over his peers from other institutes in a demanding job market. Not every student coming out of such an institute can be capable of handling such an ambiguity or opacity, and even if the students do learn to handle such an environment, is this what teaching and learning all about? If it is, it’s a terrible loss of face for quality education. To be able to earn big money, and vacillate vacuously after spending a tidy sum of parental money and two precious years of one’s life in an educational institute is an utter loss of academic self – respect and dignity.

‘Older’ adults, trustees, management authorities, and others must understand and acknowledge the fact that students are students. Not everyone is capable of handling anything that’s close to a whiff of power. We are after all Students. We are learners first, and activists later. Activism comes from learning and not vice – versa. A little show of enthusiasm is not a sign of maturity. Policy makers should create a distinction between activism (of any kind) and education. Without uninterrupted education, one will never be able to provide anything of substance, and that is not something the country needs from its young populace. When policies are made irrespective of the nation and other organizations, there should not be any rift in practice and policy formulation. The Youth cannot always handle such divisive indistinctness. That should perhaps set the tone towards educating Indians about Indianness. And remember, the North – Eastern part of it is still a pariah.








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