Off The Record

There were many things which I saw tacitly get added to my list of Shared Human Experiences on this planet during the time I saw myself attached with Renesa. If we were to speak of last year in particular, the period where I had the most fun, I can distinctly put forth an experience which I wish people reading this right now should get to have. Which is what are, in journalistic parlance called - The Off-The-Record Conversations.

I used to conduct a regular feature – Walk When You Talk (Which still is carried by the current team) Up in where a Nokia 5300 device used to keep recording every tick and turn of the conversation which later used to go and lap-up verbatim in press. But what I cherished the most was the inevitable conversation that followed the said On-The-Record talk. Where I used to get invited to the interviewee’s residence and, besides availing periphery benefits like home-made tea and morning snacks (Dr. Porey had a remarkable snack-sense, so to speak, I remember.) I used to ask them various question, share many an uncomfortable opinions and ideas and the same used to happen from the other end.  Be it Dr Porey emphasizing the need to “Own the system”  or Dr Joshi discussing about his ideas on frugal living, or Dr Naik discussing further on the topic of Ethical-Bonds, or Dr. Vakharia speaking thinking aloud on the topic of freshman orientation, or Mrs Porey sharing her views on ‘The Idea That Is Love.’ And amuse at how her name happens to be ‘Kiran’ her husband’s ‘Prakash’ and her son’s ‘Deepak.’

To append to the list- The numerous, free-wheeling, and endless conversations with Dr. Banerjee was something, which I guess, made me more clear in the head all-the-while leaving a lingering sense of chaos for it to get further transformed. After a particularly heavy Idea-Bouncing session I remember him saying to me “Remember, always, Truth with Tact.” The way it encompassed the zing in the air at that point in time is remarkably unparallel. A discussion on the matter of Education with Dr. Channiwala, at his residence in his study (If you ever get a chance, do visit his place. With his permission, ofcourse.) made a lasting impact and further made me raise more questions to myself. Talks with Dr. Christian, Dr. Urvashi Kaushal, Dr. M.N. Mehta, not to forget – Shekhar Bhaiya and many many more teachers has given me perspective about things which broadens my own spectrum of thought and amplifies the log of avenues where more efforts can be put so as to streamline the solution-lending process.

The one thing which remained constant between all these talks was the statement “Please tell them to...” which typifies the overwhelming need on the said person’s side to reach-out. Which makes me infer that not many outlets are there, present, for that to effortlessly happen. They all, also, expressed a need to have more pupils come and share their opinions with them personally. Yet again a thing which I don’t suppose happens much. So, before I get carried away and spew out a quintessential didactic screed – Talk more, share more, Know more about the other side of table, yada yada – let me just put it On-The-Record that being conversant with both my friends and them the teachers, I have come to realize how very important it is to view a thing from point of views of people placed some 20+ units apart on the age-line. It has, if not anything, made me understand me more. And how you can’t believe on Wednesday what you believed in on Monday without taking into account what happened on Tuesday. And, although, I did delink myself from the Newsletter owing to ideological differences- consensus on which would have over-shot the time-boundary which I could allot to the idea - I am happy that I never and neither did they, stopped sharing and talking. Off-The-Record.