The Nation of Refugees: A look at the refugees crisis

The Nation of Refugees is a play produced by the Communication department of the United Theological College, Bengaluru. Full length plays have been a tradition in the life of the 106 year old UTC and the plays have been a part and parcel of the theatre scene in Bengaluru. This play features an off stage team of Firoz and Malavika, trained at the National School of Drama, Delhi and an on stage cast of a social worker Rebecca, a priest, Fr. Jerry and seminary students Irene, Prazwal, Raj Kumar, Gandhi, Samuel, Ivan, Ashley, Hanson, Ben and Vinod. The cast is international and draws from several states in India as well. The director Jain Syriac Babu has acted in a mainline movie Shikar and a recent movie Jalam (Water) on the displacement of people and homelessness.



The Nation of Refugees is an in house production of UTC born out an urge to let people in Bengaluru know about the refugee crisis brought about by internal war and displacement in Syria, Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan and a host of nations battling civil war, dictators and genocide. In 2015 alone 1 million refugees have migrated to different countries in the European Union seeking asylum with 184,665 asylum claims being approved in 2014. The migrants have taken the very difficult route of sea and land and in 2015 3,770 migrants are supposed to have died trying to cross the Mediterranean alone. The picture of young Aylan Kurdi, a child of Syrian migrants who tried to make the journey by boat, washed ashore cannot be forgotten quickly. The denial of humanity to people forced to migrate from their own land is appalling.



The play brings about an interesting and yet serious prospect of highlighting the refugee crisis by looking at two extremes of the crisis. On the one hand there is a blood hungry and cruelly funny dictator, who is scared of everyone and yet feigns that he is always in control and on the other hand you have the journey of a woman divided into several shades coming forth as a response by people to the crisis. The people are forced by the evil ruler to build a wall and the people rally around the women characters to give an effective response to tyranny and inhuman policies. The evil ruler meets his match in the women who come up through their own struggles and are yet unwilling to give up their right to humanity. Their own trysts with destiny in their resistance to a patriarchal culture, skewed traditions and unjust laws lead them into responding to their families, culture and a threatening regime. The ending is a surprise unlike usual plays and looks to give some hope to a world divided by race, gender and religion.



The 50 minute production is a chance for people to re look their lives during the Lenten and fasting season which is half way through and get a slice of reality and be aware of the suffering of people worldwide. It also sees how children and women suffer most during war and strife and how women can lead a fight back through a self-realization that they have the power and the strength within them for that. In the lead up to International Women’s Day this is a perfect opportunity to look at how a combined humanity with both women and men can lead to a peaceful and harmonious earth and living.



The play was staged in UTC, Bengaluru, behind the Cantonment railway station on Miller’s Road on December 3, 2015 and will be staged again on March 4 and 5, 2016 at 7 P.M. at the UTC, near the library . Tickets are available at the venue.

WACC Asia Region meeting Sep 30-Oct 1: Worship order

Violence against women: Violation of Communication rights
Worship order.

Call to worship
For once, let us break free and communicate. Let us shed the inhuman baggage that has prevented us from being one with God and doing God’s will. Many have suffered hopelessness for the simple reason of being different. But aren’t we all different in our own ways? Should we be in conflict just because we are diverse or should we come together under the great umbrella of hope? Come; let us congregate together, to share in this great hope of God. We don’t need to understand it completely, but we need to allow it to express itself in our diverse world.

Opening prayer
God of hope, if we speak, let it be for the fullness of life. If we be silent, let it lead to the benefit of our sisters and brothers. If we walk a mile, let it transform the place we live in. If we sit, let it be a sign against injustice. When we think, let hope transpire. As we write, let words express our desire to engage. In listening, let us try to understand, in touching let us feel the pain and while seeing let us not look away. Our God, our only hope. Amen.

Hymn: Great is thy faithfulness
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

2 Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

3 Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Prayer of confession (All together)
God of goodness, we have not heeded to your call of helping our neighbour and forgiving those who have wronged us. Instead we have instigated hate and revenge. God of compassion, we have ruined life on earth as you have envisaged it, and have sown enmity between different communities, seeking to make one fight against the other. God of mercy, we have turned into demonic beings hunting for opportunities to destroy relationships of love, meaning and sacrifice. You have taught us many things through others. The love and strength of different communities has crushed our ill-meaning plans of aggression. We come to you totally humbled and enriched by the love that you have expressed through others. Have mercy on us and forgive us. Amen.

Absolution
God brings us together even in our diversity. Our expressions may vary but God remains the same, a beacon of hope in our hopelessness. When we go astray, God brings us closer to one another again. God’s unending grace is for all who choose to dream and hope, despite the challenges we face. May God forgive our aberrations and help us to accept, declare and proclaim hope to all. Amen.

Bible reading
Reflection

Affirmation of faith (All together)
We affirm that the creator God created us to live in peace and harmony and to be in dialogue with all. Differences are normal and dialogue is the only way to understand and accept what others are experiencing. Our mandate is to be in constant dialogue and we affirm that the absence of this creates tension and trouble and stands far from what God hopes for.
We affirm that the crucified Lord sought to speak even when remaining silent. Christ’s death on the cross was a reaching out to all who spoke the language of violence and hatred. By preaching Christ we have to also reach out to all within and outside. Our quest for dialogue should be inspired by the cross.
We affirm that the Holy Spirit moves people towards understanding and coming together. In the midst of diversity we understand that the Holy Spirit will move us to stand firm in our commitment to offer hope to the hopeless. Our faith in God transcends all tangible and intangible barriers of discontent from within.
We affirm that there cannot be hope without social justice and that the poor and marginalized have to experience hope first. Hope cannot be for a few but should be for all to feel and experience amidst the diverse contexts of injustice in our world. Hope for a few is no hope at all. Women and men together have to experience hope in its entirety.
We affirm that the communicator God inspires us to be prophetic voices of hope in society. Through strong voices we should accept our call to bring hope and change in our living contexts. The hope of resurrection was visually seen and understood by women who lived in unshakeable hope. They then passed it on to the men who had almost lost it. Amen.

Intercession
God of love, we pray for communities who have been denied the essence and the means to hope. We pray for those who have been marginalized from the main stream of life and whose existence itself is a day to day struggle. We ask your help for dalits, adivasis, tribals and indigenous people all over the world who are fighting for their land, rights and needs. As they lose hope in the system which is supposed to protect them, we plead you to intervene and restore the hope which is rightfully theirs. We pray that men will change patriarchal expressions of manhood and explore and live the feminineness in them which is as much a gift of God. Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer.

God of equality and respectfulness, we pray for the equality of women in this world. We pray that women may never be turned away and kept inside their homes because of their gender. May women of all castes, classes and religions in this country and world get the justice they yearn for. We pray for those who have experienced and continue to experience violence. We pray especially for the migrants from Syria and other war torn countries who are crossing over to several countries in Europe. The long and arduous journey across dangerous seas and roads always affect children and women most. We pray for your guidance to stop war and violence and find nonviolent solutions. Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer.

God of nurture and care, we pray for our children. May they receive their right to full access to education, and may they never be forced out of their innocence at an age which is decided by someone else. Give us the insight and the will to keep and not destroy what they should see and experience. May their new thinking and ideas instill a new found hope in us. Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer.

God of unity, we pray for our world which is diverse and rich in its culture, religion and thought. We pray for those who suffer for believing in their way of life. Let no woman, man or child be discriminated and crucified for choosing their belief or their orientation and how they want to live life in its fullness. May we see hope in ourselves and share this hope with our neighbouring countries and the people of Asia and the world. May women be accepted as they are, not being forced to maintain the status quo of patriarchy but being free to express themselves fully as women, being and living who they are. Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer.

God of knowledge, we pray for the diverse group which has come together for the seminar on the violence against women, a violation of communication rights. Thank you for the deliberations and learning of yesterday. We look forward to another fruitful day of discussions and understanding. May we unlearn the wrongs that we have been committing and relearn and newly learn the life we should live. Lord, in your mercy. Hear our prayer.

The prayer of hope based on the Lord’s prayer. (All together)
Our hope on earth and heaven, glory to your name. May your true message be proclaimed and followed, in diverse contexts and cultures. Give us the means and opportunities of coming together by way of living communities of faith. Forgive our acts against hope, truth and equality as we forgive those who act against such situations. Lead us not into exclusive and discriminating cultures but make us more inclusive and accepting. For yours are our lives, our existence and our work forever and ever. Amen.

Closing prayer
Information and communication are drastically changing the world we live in. Instead of establishing commonness and solidarity, public communication now tends to reinforce divisions, widen the gap between the rich and the poor, consolidate oppression, and distort reality in order to maintain systems of domination and subject the silenced masses to media manipulation. As we end this worship and gain strength from God, let us take sides with those who have been left out of the main stream. Communication is God’s gift to humanity. Let us understand it in its true sense and be a part of God’s plan for this world. Amen.

Benediction
May God inspire us to come together in the midst of diverse thoughts and cultures. May Jesus Christ empower us in the midst of confusion and uncertainty. May the Holy Spirit guide us in our efforts to understand and spread justice, peace and hope. The blessings of the triune God be with you all now and forever. Amen.

The towel code of cricket in India

The Indian Premier League has lead to a premier allegation against three Rajasthan Royals players that they took money to fix matches. The allegation is of spot fixing whereby certain overs or balls were fixed to bring about a certain result. Gone are the days when an entire match was fixed. These are the days when bets are placed on single balls, multiple balls and overs, number of fours and sixes, instead of the entire match.

There have been allegations and counter allegations that match fixing and spot fixing have been a part of Indian cricket for a long time. Former cricketers have been punished and apart from players from different countries there was always a doubt over players from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka from where the bookies and betters also happened to be. This continues even now as the fresh charges show.

S. Sreesanth, the player with international cricket credentials along with Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan have been charged by the Delhi police of wrong doing. They also showed visual evidence of fixed matches during the press conference yesterday. The visual evidence has also lead to television channels being abuzz with how the betting gangs told the players that they had to show codes or signs that they were going to give certain runs in an over. Among the codes being talked of are a towel, tucking out the t shirt, and taking time while doing the run up to the delivery.

The study of signs and codes is called semiotics and it is a very interesting field of study in communication studies. Not everyone can understand the signs and codes. Proximity is not what matters but sharing of a culture whereby the signs and codes can be understood. Prefixed understanding of a particular code could also lead to understanding a particular sign. “Semiotics sees communication as the generation of meaning in messages- whether by the encoder or the decoder. Meaning is not an absolute, static concept to be found neatly parcelled up in the message. Meaning is an active process: semioticians use verbs like create, generate, or negotiate to refer to the process. Negotiation is perhaps the most useful in that it implies the to-and-fro, the give-and-take between person and message. Meaning is the result of the dynamic interaction between sign, interpretant, and object; it is historically located and may well change with time.”(John Fiske, Introduction to Communication Studies, Routledge: New York, 1990, p.46)

The use of codes in the IPL matches by players and bookies cannot be denied. If they did take money and bet, they might have used codes. The codes were also pre-determined and therefore likely to be understood by both parties. What does not go well with the entire episode for me is that everyone associated with the IPL is saying that they were not aware that this was happening. This, despite allegations already coming up in the previous IPL editions, and the BCCI having a special arrangement in place for this very thing. This refusal to accept that the system is flawed is the problem.

My effort may appear to be defending the three players. It could at least appear that I am trying to defend Sreesanth, since we are from the same state. My intention is neither. One can also ask other people from Kerala whether Sreesanth is actually a popular cricket player there anyway to dispel doubts that I would take this as a personal fight.

My point is the point of sign, code and meaning. The guilt of the players will be investigated and we will be informed. My questions in the mean time include aren’t any others apart from the three involved, didn’t anyone along with the team owners, BCCI officials and other players know about this or even doubt that this was happening, didn’t the audience know about this? If the three players in question and the bookies had a secret code, weren’t there other codes which owners, officials and other players understood? What do you say when an under performing player is picked for a match again? What is the rationale of giving a critical over to a player who has already gone for runs? While the bowler bowls is he in complete control of the number of runs he is going to give away. If the bowlers in question said that they would give not less than 13- 14 runs, what would happen if a batsman did not connect? How is it that this perfection of spot fixing is attained? It suggests that the code is also being understood by others including us. How many times have we felt that matches are getting too close and matches that should have been completed in the 17th over are still on in the final few balls? Could it be that entire matches are being arranged (I would not say fixed) in a particular manner to increase the entertainment quotient?

Subhash Chandra, chairman of Essel group and Zee was the pioneer of 20-20 cricket in India. His ICL was a bit more open and I would say that the league would have openly admitted that matches would be made interesting for spectators. BCCI understood the lucrative business of 20-20 and took over. What now occurs in several editions is one of the richest league competitions in the world. Players are paid huge sums and other perks are included. This is entertainment and we are all being entertained. Can we now say that we did not know that we were being entertained?

The police is well within its limits to crack down on betting. But Delhi was always in the news for violence against women and the lack of safety for women in the last six months. I would have liked to see a crack down on how women are used as mere objects in the IPL. There may even be many cases of violence and misuse of women. None of this has come out and instead betting is made to look like a grave offence that is being committed by the underworld and three cricket players!

We the audience, team owners, players and even the BCCI can say that we understood the codes and knew that something was wrong but did not say anything because we feared someone. That in all probability is true. But then what does it make the accused three? Wrestling has been popularized by the WWE. Wrestlers fight in what appears to be a pre-determined thought out fight. The audience also knows that it is so. Yet, many people watch it and enjoy it and appreciate the athleticism showed by the wrestlers. Cricket also has to play to the crowd, it has to entertain and even titillate to bring in the money. How can we now collectively say that “we didn’t know”? There has been no special code and no code has been broken. The codes were also there in front of us. Everything happened right in front of us. More than the spectators, the others involved are professionals. If anyone was underperforming it would appear so to many. The coaches, ground staff, commentators,and others who know so much about the game are likely to know if something were happening.

I would reject the headline of a “billion Indians cheated”. If anything we have cheated ourselves by ignoring all codes and signs while watching cricket matches.

Communication in Theological Education

The word communication brings to mind words like commune, communion and community which suggest that it means bringing together or coming together. All forms of communication thus seek to bring people together for whatever purpose. Communication also brings to mind sharing, participating, giving, taking, co-operating and transmitting. Communication thus involves people and what they do. Communication is a basic human need like food, shelter and clothing. It is a right of people. ‘One cannot not communicate’ and ‘one cannot but communicate’ provides the essence of the importance of communication. Even if we are silent, we communicate something. Religious institutions are usually happy with providing food, shelter and clothing to people in need. But this does not give the right to speak and express ones thoughts and very being. A world and church without communication would be just this. A world confined to superficial charity while refusing to give the poor and needy what is their fundamental right. This is the right to communicate.

Some definitions of communication are
1. The English word communication is taken from the Latin noun ‘communis’ and the Latin verb ‘communicare’ that means ‘to make common.’
Making common also means having something in common. Usually only people who have something in common can talk to each other. But this cannot be a hard and fast rule making us think that people who don’t share anything common cannot interact with each other. But on the other hand an element of commonness is definitely essential. All human beings have something in common but one needs to look to find and feel this commonality. Commonality includes religious beliefs, colour, taste, region, education and the like. In a theological setting it is very essential that we look for things that bind us together rather than for things that separate us. In churches also this holds true. A pastor has the responsibility of finding common threads between people rather than dividing people based on superficial disagreements. A communicator would seek to bring people together in a church setting and try to include the aspirations of all.

2. Communication is a human relationship involving two or more persons who come together to share, to dialogue and to commune.
Communication seeks to make relationships. It is not an artificial act but a human act whereby we seek to create togetherness. The first act of communication was God’s creation. God reached out to human beings and got into a relationship with them. This still continues. This is what should happen during church services as well. People should not come to see and hear something and then leave. Rather they should come and be a part of the church and each other. Without relationships, we cease to become human and therefore communication becomes an integral part of our lives.

3. Communication is the process that links discontinuous parts of the living world to one another.
We are a broken world trying to live together in hope. As pastors, care givers and social activists the hope we share is the hope given to us by the resurrected Christ. Communication forms the medium of experiencing and living this hope. How many times have we heard in theological institutions and churches that “it is a problem of communication”? Any breakdown in relationships is immediately attributed to the lack of communication and miscommunication and urgent calls are made for this to be rectified. Communication should not be seen as something using the latest technology but should be seen as the importance of doing simple things. Pastors looking at and greeting people in church, listening to people and holding their hands are all simple yet effective means of communication. This makes us a community who holds hands together, knowing fully well that we are broken and imperfect and yet coming together in the hope offered to us by God. This then should be extended to all people, of all races, castes, class, colour and gender.

4. Communication occurs when an individual assigns significance or meaning to an internal or external stimulus.
There are two types of stimulus. They are internal and external. An internal stimulus gives a signal to our brain that we need something or should do something. An external stimulus will be from someone else who wants something from us. When we are hungry, a signal is passed to the brain and we are informed of the hunger of the stomach. In Indian culture, peculiar movements of the hands and feet suggest various things at various times. This then makes us react in a certain way. Pastors/priests have to read various messages from stimuli from various sources. The need is to make out the correct meaning from what we see and feel. Many people in church will be silent and will not talk about their real feelings. Pastors should read the stimulus from silence and gather the need of people.

5. Communication is a process by which senders and receivers of messages interact in given social contexts.
We are all part of one or the other context. The social context decides how we should behave and what all conventions we should follow. This differs in each context. A pastor has to first of all understand her/his context before speaking. Only this will bring about effective interaction. The early history of modern communication hinged on the propaganda wars played out by various nations during the first and second world wars. This propaganda concentrated on transportation of messages. But mere transportation without knowledge of the social context will not ensure the intended goal. Communication as a process is much closer to understanding communication as relationships.

6. Communication is the transmission of information, ideas, emotions, skills, etc by the use of symbols, words, pictures, figures, graphs, etc.
Communication makes use of several things at the same time. It is not just words, but a plethora of other things which make the message clear to the audience. Even in churches it is not enough that we use just words to preach a sermon. A sermon should make use of all means and methods to introduce and explore the message which is being preached. Still and moving images, music, pictures, figures and graphs should all be made use of to make people understand what is being said. Take for instance the feeding of the five thousand in the bible. The message can be explained much better if we use an LCD projector to show a picture of thousands of people sitting together for food, playing appropriate music in the background through the same laptop used for projecting the picture, showing official figures of poverty in India and using graphs to show a break down of food production and distribution in India over the past decade. This will give a link between the biblical story and present day reality. There has to be a visual impact along with other things. This visual impact is present in the liturgy in churches and happens especially during the breaking of bread. This same impact should then be carried forward into the sermon and other parts of the service as well.
(to be continued...)

Send-click-like

The need for communication in theological education can be strongly felt when we look at the bible passages from the perspective of our media rich lives today. The real does not only exist in person but in the virtual as well. Words used speak differently today.

The healing of the centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1-10) is a very popular gospel story. The narrative of the centurion sending people to ask Jesus to visit his house and heal his servant then shifts to the power of the word and the twist in the tale offered by the centurion by his words go, come and do. Jesus is very impressed by this immense faith which was rare in those times.

The knowledge and power that belonged to Jesus usually was asked to be transferred in person by people who found him special. But in the centurion’s case a virtual miracle is what he asks for. Do not trouble yourself with this, but just say the word. The go, come and do mentioned by him are the send, click and like of today. In essence this is a dissemination of information horizontally.

Jesus was informed about the centurion by certain elders and they recommend the centurion to Jesus. But the message from the centurion does away with this peculiar mediation and puts the message in the public domain for everyone to see and comment on. This is the need of the hour now. Words captured in books and publications should then become free to share and distributed online. Send-click-like.

(Excerpt from the meditation preached for the BTESSC-UTC programme for librarians)

Swapping the immediate for the mediated

It is not unnatural these days to do online counselling and priests need to be prepared to sometimes even go the extra mile as that would provide extreme relief to someone and also be a learning process for the priest himself. But is it really possible to talk to someone who is at a distance and make sense of what they are telling you? Can this be termed counselling in the strict sense of the word? How do I know who I am talking (chatting) with? What if someone is fooling me or checking me out?

Every technology will bring along with it sceptics who will question the need and efficiency of anything new and whether it is indeed needed. Can this really replace the good old face to face talk and camaraderie?

Chatting with people long distance is a challenge as it involves different time zones and understanding a language which may differ in the way it is expressed. Even a harmless smiley at the wrong moment could send the wrong signal. But this does not mean that counselling this way is impossible. Just the fact that two people are not doing face to face communication actually works in the opposite of what we think always. We cannot pause a direct talk but we can pause, think and answer during a chat online. Some people feel shy or scared to talk face to face while they open up more knowing they have the cushion of being at a distance.

Chatting with someone definitely qualifies as a counselling session which can be shallow or deep, depending on how much is shared. Usually we take up counselling sessions with people we know but there could be one off sessions with people we may not completely know but who nevertheless talk to us about something that is bothering them. It is not necessary to know who we are talking to as long as we know whether they are male or female and they are sharing the truth. We could be mislead and sometimes even fooled but anonymity in the church is something we should offer to members, especially women until they trust us enough to say what they want and share who they are .

The sceptics are a bit scared of losing ground here. Will the church building be replaced by an online, invisible church? What will happen to the present power arrangement? The biblical prophecy that mountains will become valleys and valleys will turn into mountains should ring clear in our minds. Change is inevitable. But one can only say how it takes place after it actually does so. So far people still cherish the pleasure of meeting each other in person and online activity helps or hastens this. But to ensure this immediacy, the help of computer technology is used and therefore we can call it a mediated technology, whereby we are in interaction with each other with the help of technology and this then leads us to commune in a common place later on. Truly very religious as well…what you see is not truth in entirety, what you don’t see is where truth lies in waiting…swapping the immediate for the mediated.

Communicating the Lord’s prayer

The traditional Lord’s prayer
Our father who art in heaven
Hallowed by thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
On earth, as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen.

A prayer inspired by the Lord’s prayer

Our communicator who is amongst us, peace be to your name.
May your words come true and your vision be fulfilled, in the real and virtual world.
Give us today the food we need,
And delete the viruses we produce as we delete the viruses produced by others.
Let us not devour tempting bytes and browse that is evil.
For yours are the mother board, password and subscribers for generations to come.
Amen.

Communication Sunday: Coming to our senses

God has equipped us with five senses to navigate our way through the nitty-gritty’s of life. The senses of hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell play an equal part in making us what we are. The sudden absence of any one of these senses awaken us to the importance it had/has in our lives. But these senses are not just for a solitary, self existence but are rather radars for picking up cries for help from all around the world. We therefore have to come to terms with ourselves, our senses, to be of help to others.


Help us to listen O God
When weak voices squeak in final acts of desperation
Help us to see O God
When tired eyes look to us for final redemption
Help us to feel O God
When evil swoops down on good intention
Help us to taste O God
When power corrupts the natural concoction
Help us to smell O God
When dreams are burnt beyond recognition

Networking in resurgent India: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours???”

It’s the magic word used in presentations, job analysis reports and brain storming sessions. “Wake up people…start networking.” We have communication networks, information networks, and company networks all over the country and it’s seen as a very powerful word in a new world. India is also perceived (by a few) to be in a new dispensation. It’s a resurgent, energetic and powerful India that is being showcased in business magazines and world economy reports. One of the words that we can then put to test to figure out how much of this hype is true, is ‘networking.’

What then is networking? One definition is the practice of linking together computer devices. Another definition is joining together with someone to achieve a common goal. I would like to look at networking in India as ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.’

“What will you do for me?’ asked the government official sitting across the powerful and official table. “What do you mean?” I asked. The official replied, “You know that expenses in India have increased so much and a government salary is not enough these days. So, I will do your job for a consideration.” Is this then the networking that we are talking about in India? You do (scratch my back) something for me and I will do (scratch your back) something for you?

Coming to think of it, wherever we go, this is what we come across. The local news covered in the media is usually of people who keep the reporters happy. Strong and powerful middle men fix deals in a package. Everyone from the minister to the one at the bottom gets paid, each according to his/her position. What a wonderful network indeed! Networking is indeed a powerful word. Powerful when it is used to attain a common, public and good end. Otherwise, all it means is the network that attaches a deep and dangerous chain of corruption, discrimination, and wrong doing.

Questioning the question: Guru= shishya…shishya= guru???

The early concept of gurukulam in which a guru (teacher) teaches and guides his (sic) shishyas (students) was one which was tried and tested to a great extend in the Indian context. Even now it continues to rule the roost in many institutions. This concept even made perfect sense. The message would travel from the guru in the direction of the students with minimal disturbance, since the students would usually sit in rapt attention of their teacher. Any alteration would be dealt with sternly. Feedback was not expected since the guru was the authority on the subject.

Students who dared to question what was taught would be ousted and some of them were creative and brave enough to start their own schools. These days the balance of power has shifted. Information is available (not for all in India) and this, when converted into knowledge can put an individual in a position of privilege. The traditional model of communication therefore stands exposed in it’s weakness. A relevant model would then be a criss-cross between two centres of knowledge, where the distinction between guru and shishya is blurred.

This would make perfect sense to many. But there is a catch here. The feedback and two way communication is only between two power centres. What then happens to those who can’t catch up into the realm of these power centres? In effect they are left out of the process of communication. This converts the guru-shishya into the insider-outsider. (Interestingly the outsider is a construction of the insider)

The democratization or the new face of education is then a new face of discrimination and neglect. What then could be a solution to this? One of the answers could well be the disruption of the communication process. Small centres of protest will form human chains of protest to prevent a skewed and selective communication. This will last till we accept every shishya as a guru in his/her capacity or moment (This is a very popular usage these days) rather than accepting a selective phase of blurring where selective gurus and shishyas switch into each others domain.