A breezy, rainy and dark Bangalore night. I was on my way to City Railway station on an auto. Not through any familiar routes. Through streets littered with godowns where rain had stalled loading and unloading activities. Labourers huddled under canvas shacks. Fallen treee trunks everywhere. Names like Dewan Bahadur Royan Road. Paranoia lurks.
Just then the conversation flows with the driver. In urdu and madrasi mixed hindi. Along the way he asked me if Mumbai and Chennai are different places. What could I say? How do I make sense of his question?
Heres a man who has been ferrying countless souls across this city on his auto - perhaps for 30 years now. Perhaps he has fathered three or four children. Circumstances may have made him a husband to more than one woman. And this piece of information he sought seems so basic to me. To think that he could have carried on with life this long without ever stumbling upon the obvious answer to this question. Wouldnt his children know this? Wouldnt the vernacular newspapers he reads shed some light on it?
Now, to look at this the other way. Is it really vital that he know this? He has made a living thus far and exudes a condiserable sense of satisfaction with life. What knowledge is essential? Multiplication tables at the speed of light? States and Capitals? Makes me further ponder the educational system that is manufacturing minds for cubiclcedom.
5 comments:
i like the word 'cubicledom'!
that's what it is!
but then airspy, which type of knowledge is essential?
pg, check this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html The spouse just loved it; was glad that there were more people faced with similar challenges with corporate life.
cb, in the age of google it is really difficult to classify any knowledge as essential. The human kinds brain is going to shrink in a generations time, as more and more data is stored in drives external to our physical brain.
airspy, is this the one "The Case for Working With Your Hands "?
a bbc america newsreporter and another abc anchor wrote a book on womenomics:.... on how women and (also men) are demanding more balance in life, work+home, whethr they have kids or not. They want more of a life for themselves.
I guess there's definitely a trend out there - have to see how the recession affects this.
Post a Comment