Saturday, March 29, 2014

A Convocation Message

Few weeks back, the Media Committee of IIMI wrote to me asking for a message to the convocating batch... Although I had written something immediately, it took me almost half a day in pondering whether I should click that send button or not! I decided eventually to send the mail rather than discarding it. The message was straight-forward, caustic, abrasive, and harsh. More importantly, it was a heart-felt truth that emanated out of genuine and emotional concern.

I do not know if it was finally included in the yearbooks or not... since I haven't got any reactions, I presume it wasn't. As I think more, I realise that this message is not limited to the convocating batch but to a much larger population... to the present generation perhaps. A lot can be said, explained, and argued... anyhow, the message was as follows:


Well, this is a message you may not like.... it is not a very pleasant one but I could write only this in all my honesty!

Dear Batch of 2012-14,

You were a perfectly not - normal batch... meaning a batch not depicting a perfect normal curve. Rather, you were a batch with a thinner upper-tail and a fatter lower-tail than normal.

There have been some really nice people, who were a sheer pleasure to work and interact with... very nice and responsible people... receptive and responsive people.,... not necessarily the book-worms, teachers' pet, or "maggu" types. I know they will set milestones in the years to come and will make the institute and the nation proud.

Then, there were more from the lower-tail - selfish, cribbers, irresponsible, rebel without a cause, restless without a clue, seeking rights without responsibility, making demands without behaving, reckless, unkind, impolite, and so on... again, not necessarily the top or bottom of the grading curves!

And then, there were most of you - the middle of the curve people... ideally distributed across the normal curve but actually, swayed more by the fat lower-tail than the thin upper-tail. People without a character of their own, without a thought in their head, people who just wanted to be accepted by the crowd. I hope you develop a spine and a head some day soon instead of surviving in a post-metamorphosis Kafkan room.

Overall, I wish you best of luck (many would need it) and lot more sensibility (many more would need much more of it) to be a good person!!

With Best wishes, 

3 comments:

Anil Kumar said...

Interesting post sir..

NIKHIL KUMAR said...

Sir you are too fabulous in selecting words.The way you have described the hole batch makes you real Economist.hhhmmm

Meghna said...

Well said. I have no right to agree or disagree with what you have written since I don't know anyone of them but what you commented earlier is true.This equally applies to the majority of the people be it in our spectrum of work, family, class or the society. It appals me to see what people do to get accepted within the crowds and seek their make believe reverence. Can such a fictitious sense of achievement/acceptance (although they are hardly synonymous) be so over-powering for so many of them?

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