The World Of Words

The Director Prof Madhusudan Chakraborty

The ten point something girls

The posters also had to be judged. Some of them were awesome!

The ten point something Men in Black!!

Ms. Nagarajan giving away the certs, the prizes and the smiles...:-}

The Director welcoming the 'esteemed' judges....;-}

Ms. Nagarajan in a speechless mode...

When I was invited to be a judge for an elocution competition at the IIT Bhubaneswar I had mixed reactions. Firstly I was completely taken aback because (and I’m ashamed to admit my ignorance) I had absolutely no inkling that there actually was an IIT here. Secondly, of late, except for some unavoidable functions, I try to shun all public gatherings. But the most important factor is that having been a participant as a child and a youngster, I simply hate to see that expression of disappointment when the prizes are finally announced. Nobody likes to be termed a loser. Especially not those who are on the threshold of graduating into the world wanting to become ten point Someones!

Moreover, for a winner a judge is the most intelligent person but otherwise he/she is not fit to don on the esteemed cap. I know we are all born judges, being judgmental about all and sundry. We judge our parents, our teachers, our spouses, our children, our friends. In short we judge everything and everyone around us. Everyone but ourselves! So who am I to judge these kids?

However Shanker was insistent I go. Especially since this competition was going to be held on March 8th. ‘It’s your day’ he said. And my mummy was even more persistent, even though she didn’t know about it being our Day! For her it was more a question of pride.

When I arrived on the dot, I was given a warm welcome by the faculty. But the exquisite decoration also included a thin crowd. Which is nothing new considering the fact that Bhubaneswar is in Orissa and Orissa is in India and to be a proud and inscrutable Indian one has to have that illustrious trademark of being a late lateef ;-}. However, the Director of the Institute, Professor Madhusudan Chakraborty who thankfully was not blessed with those distinguished qualities was already present. The other two judges, Dr. Amrita Patel and Ms.Gita Patnaik, also arrived soon.

The Director seemed pretty upset with the delayed proceedings. It was obvious he was punctuality personified and his gentle ire was reflected in his amusing speech, which incidentally focused more on the twisted definition of timekeeping by Indian men and women and less on the empowerment of the global woman :-}

What followed next again took me by surprise. All the judges were introduced and then asked to come to the dais. As we were just settling down with our bouquets, an announcement was made- ‘……and now we’d like Ms. Nargis Natarajan to say a few words………’ WHAAAAT? Wait a sec…I was…I mean I am… but I thought’………Well, before I could think or say anything, a mike was thrust in my hand and a sea of faces was looking at me with anticipation.

The thing is, earlier whenever I’ve been invited in schools or colleges, the judges always sat a little away from the audience, which was but natural considering the fact that dancing and singing and one act plays had to be performed on the stage. And only after the performances, were we taken to the dais, asked to say a few words and then told to give away the prizes.
Therefore naturally I had prepared a speech from that angle- ...you know that profound kind of encouraging talk of how not to lose heart since everyone is a winner and how the participation is more important than the results and how the woods would be very silent if only those birds sang that sang the best kind of reassuring sentences. It never occurred to me that when a woman is invited for a function on Women’s Day, she is also expected to say a few words from the ‘woman ’ angle. So now with a mike in my hand I was literally speechless!

To make matters worse, there was a sudden tsunami of people and the hall was soon engulfed by all the late lateefs. The judges on my right and left were scribbling something on their notepads- probably some vital statistics about the celebration/ liberation/ degradation of the fair sex which was to be incorporated into their speeches. As if that distraction was not enough, the placecard on the table was suddenly brought to my notice- In bold letters it said- Ms. NAGRAJAN! Forget about the omission of my womanly identity, even the name of my man was wrongly spelt. I took a deep breath and Shakespeare being my guru I began to chant his famous mantra but..... Ms.Natarajan by any other name was still speechless!

Anyway, after the initial shock wore off, I cleared my throat and began. And because of the unpreparedness, instead of the speech being from a woman’s viewpoint, it became from a writer’s point of view. I spoke about our WOW factor-not the exclamation kind of a wow but an acronym for a World Of Words. I elaborated on how we writers literally live in a world of words; how we string our thoughts with words, dress our emotions with words, mask our desires with words but sadly how our worded world is a very silent one. And despite our passionate feelings, our ardent desires, our vociferous characters, it is only through silence that we are able to communicate with our readers.

I don’t know how they sounded but I’m desperately hoping that my *phew* words were appreciated by the audience :-}. For although in blogging it might be a regular affair, in an institution that breeds engineers, it is not every day that one is allowed to enter the intricate mind of the writer.

The other speeches followed and then the elocution began. While the delightful orations were going on, I realized that even though the topic dealt with the emancipation and empowerment of women, it was the boys 2 men who spoke with more enthusiasm than the girls. Especially on gender issues! And what was truly amazing was that even the world of the speakers was not very different from us writers. These brainy kids also had the WOW factor. And even though they had the power to string their thoughts and dress their emotions with words, theirs was not a silent one. Instead it was a world full of sounds! Therefore it also had that exclamation kind of WOW aspect!!

With vociferous but well articulated thoughts, their words echoed long after each one had spoken. And more important it was not the kind of sounds that caused only noise pollution but one that was packed with passion and expressions and gestures and fluency! These kids were like the designers that fashioned a stylish wardrobe for our silent words. Which was why, apart from being emotional, I was also dazzled by all that brilliant display of eloquence!

I feel that the onus of taking our country forward lies only with our future generation. And for that one does not need to be a patriotic zealot. What is needed is basic respect for one’s motherland, a healthy reverence for values and most importantly a high regard for each other as humans, gender notwithstanding. And on March 8th, after hearing some ‘sound’ speeches, (definitely a pun intended) by a bunch of budding youngsters, I don’t think we are headed in the wrong direction. I sincerely hope not.

Jai Ho Kiddos- go ahead and shine!