"Bhaiyon... plz yaar.. plz PAF ke liye kaam karane aa jana..."
- Words spoken at end of the PAF whose sole intent was to revive the lost spirit of PAF
Really? Is this the way now the pillars of PAF & other organizations of IITB are going to get people to work?
Senti maar ke?
Think back.
--
Freshie year : PAF orientation.
G. Sec. ( Khandoo) speaking " PAF is the biggest thing that happens at IIT. Paf मे जो करना है कर सकते हो .. झरना बनाना है 15 फीट ऊँचा ... बनाओ ... helicopter उड़ाना है ? वह भी lifesize ... उड़ाओ... नदी बहनी है ... बहाओ ... जो करना है करो ... पूरा OAT तुम्हारा है - तुम जो चाहो वो बना सकते हो वहाँ पे... बस बोलो क्या बनाना है ??" All this supported by videos of prev PAF's..
The words had an impact. They fired up your imagination - made you enthu enough to go to OAT atleast once and see what's happening there - made you think - what can I do to add to this big thing happening at OAT??
I don't remember the G.Sec. at that time pleading even once to get the work done - he told us only to Dream...
--
Dream - It only takes a Dream to create the future - Techfest .. Techfest orientation -
Zeeshan ( the then O.C.) - standing in front of whole LT - telling us what Techfest was - the biggest Technology festival of Asia - the only thing I could think was ( and probably every freshie in LT thought the same thing) - " What a man he is - omg- heading the organisation that will create something this big - Mannn .. I want to be like him .. I want to stand there and do all that he's doing "
Inspired. Dreams and enthusiasm ignited. Worked for Techfest.
--
PAF 2nd year -
" Ok .. It isn't even that big, not that great, but I am Soc Secy - lemme go up and see what is going on, will be back in 15 mins to complete this game"
Up I go. Some people working - others practicing - umm.. bored - comes Khandoo.
" क्या कर रहा है ? "
" आया हूँ just - देख रहा हूँ कैसा चल रहा है काम "
" अछा?! उधर देख ... 4 freshies खड़े हैं , तेरी responsibilty है उन सब को लेके yeh backdrop complete कर दे"
Responsibilty given. Task on head. Work. Involved till the PAF gets over. Later, obviously, loved it.
- -
2nd year end. Recently had been made manager , Techfest.
I was walking towards SAC for the 1st meeting. Ram Kakkad, the then G.S. Cult., was walking in front of me at some distance. I had worked under him as an organizer in 1st year, had carried out a couple of small tasks under him.
Rounding a corner, his eyes falls on me. The person stops, waits for me to catch up - congratulates me on the recently acquired responsibility, walks me up to SAC, giving me fundaes on how to balance work and acads, and everything in general. Man, what an act ! I never expected him to even remember my name, let alone keep a tab on my progress. And there he was, talking to a person who he barely knew, remembering all details about him.. Tell me, had you been in my place, would you have refused him any work that he asked you at a later stage in life? Would he, at any point of time, have to "plead" to get his work done?
Sadly, in the recent times, all I've heard is pleading -" yaar iske liye kaam karane aa jao" " yaar bahut fat raha hai, plz uske liye kaam karane aa jao" ...... the H 4, 9, 10 was probably a pinnacle of it. Pleading in front of the whole institute.. heart - breaking!!!
Where are they? The people who had the power to ignite dreams similar to theirs in others? The people who could get hundreds of people to work for Techfest, MI and PAF without any pleading? The people .. who had the power to make you imagine - what their eyes were seeing - and then - making you believe that it would be great? Where have they gone?
I read once somewhere - the function of leadership is to create leaders, not followers.
Probably, they missed out on this aspect.
Or Probably, we did.
Music : Wish you were here.....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
makes me think really...somewhere something went terribly wrong...or is it just in our perceptions!?
that was indeed a good post.. there was a huge discussion couple of days back on how IIT (thanks to seniors giving "fundaes") is producing clones one after another.. lack of innovation is exponentially increasing in all aspects, may it be mi or tf or paf for that matter (not in terms of scripts maybe but in terms of the way everything is handled)..
what khandu spoke in orientation for you would have enthused me even today.. if only you had posted it before PAFs
@Vati
Ayush, my roommate, also raised the same point. But I firmly believe that it's not a matter of us getting older and seeing it in a different light, had it been so, we'd probably have had the same participation in organizing these events. New people would have been inspired, and would have come for work. But, that aint happening, people are complaining about the decreasing participation. Yuo'd like to look below for a confession and a confirmation of things said above.
@ Onkar,
Thanks !
To be frank, I discovered this only when I saw the announcer calling for people to come to work for PAF.
I think there is another confession to make here. It was only at that moment, that I realised, at some times, I too, in the heat and urgentness, had pleaded to get work done.
I do realise, that, this was the wrong way, and I can just urge others to realise that too.
I think there is something TERRIBLY wrong with the system. A system which is not self-sustaining can not grow too much before it begins to collapse on itself.
I think its hard coded in the system. I can tell from personal experience and what I have observed, that any/all of these events - MI, TF, PAF are not self-sustaining.
Why don't we examine the number of organizers/co-ordinators who are happy with their experiences of organizing these events?
Surely you do realize that they are the life-blood of the system. And if you don't keep them happy, I don't think you're going to achieve much.
The more ambitious organizers hang on to become co-ordinators. Have you ever wondered why not many co-ordinators hang around to assist later? Surely the system does not discourage co-ordi's who are in their 3rd or 4th years. What I am trying to hint at, is that many of these co-ordinators might be disillusioned with the way the system works.
As an exercise which will surely help future pafs/ mi's/ tf's perhaps someone should poll organizers and co-ordinators and ask them for their grievances with the system. Perhaps INSIGHT might be up for it? I don't know. Or perhaps the new CG's/ Managers might want to do this.
We might be losing out many potential leaders with the crowd that is disillusioned.
Then of course you might turn the question around and say, well if they were leaders in the first place, then they wouldn't quit. Well I don't know the answer to that.
I always wondered why no one paid much attention to this before. I guess all the people who could were too busy organizing these events.
-H
PS: I rather like the way your blog is turning out to be a forum for discussions which might tend to be meaningful.
Post a Comment