Thursday, November 18, 2010

An EML after a long time

After what would be years, I happened to attend an extra mural lecture at IC&SR auditorium this evening. The speaker was Sri N Gopalaswamy, former CEC of India. The topic was 'Whither Indian Democracy'

Firstly I was rather surprised at the crowds, or the lack of it. Considering who the speaker was, I would have expected the CLT to fill up and here I was at IC&SR auditorium 10 behind the scheduled time, only to find quite a few empty seats. Being myself, I chose one of those seats as close to the stage as possible.

The speaker was pretty good and impressive. For a while actually, I thought he wasnt reaching anywhere, but with time and more slides and the points he was making, he was indeed driving a strong message which isnt unknown but needs to be realised and acted upon immediately, which is need to clean up today's Democracy in India.

I dont know that people were allowed inside IC&SR premises in half pants and shorts. Since when has this been happening?

When will people learn to switch off or put their mobile phones on silent? The most noisy of phones were those of faculty members and a certain member of faculty had been getting calls continuously for not less than an hour and he kept pressing the cancel button. Would it not be easier to have the mobile in silent or just quietly slip out to take the call, or just switch off the phone?

The saga of incomprehensible and incoherent questions continues. People still do not want to understand what others have asked and reword the same in different ways.

The number of post graduates and research scholars was pretty high compared to the undergraduates. I dont wish to say is it good or bad.

While the speaker kept remarking about the corruptness and lack of credibility and integrity amongst the educated elite, when it came to the election scenario and the democracy and bureaucracy in general, there was a roaring applause. I am still digesting it and figuring out as to what was the reason to applaud?

A better master of the ceremony was warranted. While I do not wish to get judgemental with the accent, somebody with a better fluency and command on english would have certainly been much more helpful.

All this, while a stone-throw away, Chetan Bhagat was having some interactive session at CLT, with i m sure a full house...

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