I was travelling from Bharuch to Baroda on a sunny Saturday.
Train was as usual jam pack and there was no place to keep foot. All of a
sudden an uncle woke up and recognized his station and jumped out of train
making “a seat vacant in general class”. I sat there first so it was mine;
after a long time I got a chance to “sit & travel in train” at same time.
But as soon as I came out of the moment, I saw a very old age person (in his
early 90s) standing near me, reading book “conclusions of Rig veda” (Rig veda
ka saar). From his cloths he looked poor but from his book he was richest man
to me. I requested him to have the seat and as can be prejudged by his
character, he declined. I requested him again and he accepted (considering age
factor, I guess!). Now I was standing on his shoulder. Few other people
appreciated the gesture and all of a sudden he said “Give me 5 mins. And I will
be done”. I didn’t know what so say, And in like 7-8 mins. He turned to me and
started casual conversation, name, place occupation etc. Few other travelers
joined conversation by introducing themselves. As soon as I said my name and
told him that I work in sanitary ware, he said “well someone is working on Gandhi’s
dream”. Me a Gandhi`s dream, what the hell was this man talking about. And I
turned this question to him and he replied “Gandhi`s dream was to see upper
cast working in sanitary and lower cast in governmental or official class;
meaning every one and every work is equal”. We both concluded by smile. People
all around were listening. Further conversation turned into debate, and as
usual I was standing against Gandhi. In between came a topic that stormed out
everything.
Communication
Now, the man introduced himself as senior person in Army
Bhola Pratap – some kind of communication`s department post independence. He
was a big fan of “Garam dal” before independence. He explained the importance
of communication before independence and reminded me few of examples like “Chapatti
& Lotus Flower” (Roti Aur kamal ka fool). He said it was his dream to see
communication flourishing in India. It was his dream to watch Congress rule
like “a people`s government”. But then everything changed inside the congress
and good people were thrown out and bad were becoming more captive. He said “my
father use to tell me after all Congress party is a British party as it is
started by A.O Humes. It may have Indian faces but its intentions will always
try to run things like British”. He told me how angry he use to get when his
father use to abuse Congress. TO get him more into deep, I pushed him “Do you
think its all Congress`s fault?”. His reflexive answer was “No no - not at all.
Congress share is 20%. It’s the people who couldn’t draw the line of their
roles and functions post independence. You can blame my generation and my son`s
generation (Or your father`s generation) who enjoyed the independent rights
without writing their duties. We all abused our available resources and keep
them in our house. All family were having 4 kids in 50s and 60s (Your father
mother must be a 4 brother or sisters). That’s when family planning was set.
Since 1960s population growth fell but we never closed our borders or checked
our infiltration from all sides. We never know the cause of this population
explosion till date? Why are we 100 Billion?
Post independence when celebration of independence was on
going and was taking this face of madeness, there were awareness camps by Swami
Vivekananda Societies for society but nothing came concrete. In less than a
decade to make matters worse – there came T.V & Ramayan and all. Till radio
it was OK. Initially T.V broadcast of 1 Hour of news was also good; but when 24
hrs of Doordarshan came it went to over
communication. And the only reason India did it was because world was doing
it!! Before independence, the plan was “to lead the world” but the truth was we
were far behind the world to lead. And instead of telling this bitter truth
“colorful tube-lights were required in Mumbai to make the arrows of Shri Ram
and Ravan look real”. I was posted in “Government communication improvement
program with Eastern states”, I was good in flying due to war with China and
war with Pakistan. In 1980s after making Bangladesh country`s government were
in fear that people in favor of calling east Pakistan may attack eastern
territories. So to make communication strong I was allotted full Authority of
“keeping communication 100% up by any and all means”. In order to maintain such
high demand; I asked Army and government to give me any plain so that I can
take a stop at Lucknow, Allahbad Kolkata and reach Siliguri (Assam) in Less
than 6 Hrs. But our government couldn’t find a single plane out of Army as Army
clarified it’s not a war situation and most fighter planes are on Repair. It
was this time when TATA handed the Air India fleet and proved its loyalty to
nation but in against to their loyalty. Air India was nationalized and merged
to Indian airlines. This is how actual communication (the necessary one) was
established while country was watching T.V. Its ever since that incidence, I am
watching India go mad like anything on any kind of communication and these
devices are make people more stupid and lame day by day without giving them the
hint.”
A first class bogie silence ran through the whole general
compartment. Another gentleman asked
“How is T.V and internet making us lame day by day?”.
He smiled and said “You tell me cause of any invention or
discovery?”
Some college kid replied “Need or passion; desire to solve a
problem!!”
Agreeing to man uncle again started and said “If everything
can be googled or searched or bought over internet; how are you going to
inspire the new generation to invent? If
you tell an upcoming generation a story you will feel that they can’t imagine
it. My great-granddaughter is lucky to have us, and she may realize this
decades later when I am not here; but few of my great granddaughter’s friends
leave their children infront of T.V happily claiming that “she likes to hear
this song, its his/her favorite”. What does a 4 year know about those songs?
What do they like in it, I cant understand.
Let me take you back to our time, Imagine a time when news
paper of 22nd September tells us that 24th Sept there is a
match says India Pak 1 day and all players are fit and doing their practices.
On 23rd September they will tell roughly about who is umpire and how
is the pitch? And again player fitness and ticket status. On 24th
Sept you have to put your ears on radio and hear the whole commentary or else
India-Pak may win or lose but you will definitely loose the joy of match. This
use of ears; this use of maintained desire to hear kept us keen in our time. It
kept our ears connected to brain continuously for larger period of time and
these hearing is to understanding capacities use to be very high. Moreover, Kids
use to have aims of life like this “buying tickets and going into stadiums to
watch match”. These days’ matches run in offices & hall as a background and
work is pretty much affected. The more future generation kid you pick up they
think they can more multi-task but in reality; they don’t do a single work upto
the mark. A similar example of my experience is the letters I have read for all
the family people in the village and the money order notes that I have read. They
use to gift us with char-ana and say “write a reply”. How emotional they were; how
much relation depth was there due to distance and no-connectivity. They valued their relation because of this.
Talk more about it; our “gift” was termed as “bribe” by over communication.
Teach me something; Isn’t MBA colleges teaching “connect to
your customer” in various ways? And if your customer is willing to pay an extra
penne to stay connected to you; what is the problem with that? You are an MBA
tell me?”
After a pause and a gulp of water from his bottle he said “Over communication causes over processing and an extra-load giving lesser time to process in brain and hence lead to defective results and causing bad situations at every part.
After a pause and a gulp of water from his bottle he said “Over communication causes over processing and an extra-load giving lesser time to process in brain and hence lead to defective results and causing bad situations at every part.
Look at the Euro crises; does that group of country needed
to Make Euro? Their system was fine Greece was having low value on money, so
Rest of Europeans uses to go there as it was cheap and enjoys their weekends
and come back. After this political dream of Euro; Greece is too costly to
travel for Europeans also. This overly fast communication got them into such a
big trouble. People in Europe never wanted Euro – It was just a politician`s
dream. A bad dream. It came this far only because over communication and forceful
questions asked by media again and again and again. Every time they(media) ask
the question got an answer and it become more real day by day.
For us the good thing is; now we are putting signs like “do
not talk on mobile phone while driving”. “Keep your mobile on silent”. I wish
you all a good luck in coming out of
this communication dilemma and actually start acting on issues rather than
telling more people and making a heap of not required
information”.
It was his station!
