There's a New Deputy in Town

My memory is that nobody wanted to be the class monitor/prefect: the poor slob had no real power, was ignored by all anyway and he got branded teacher’s pet. But that’s now how 6 year old’s feels. Months back, my duaghter was very unhappy that she didn’t get to be Class Leader or Deputy Class Leader. Not even a Green Ambassador (more on what that is later). For some reason, she thought that the role got rotated among the kids every couple of weeks. As time passed, and no such change happened, she became angry. Why should only they be the leaders? What is so special about them? Hmmph… they scream more than those they tell to be quiet! They boss everyone. It’s amusing how kids can wind themselves into a tizzy with such righteous indignation…

Unfortunately, she was way too young for me to be able to bestow wisdom on such matters. No, I don’t mean the sab moh maya hai kinda wisdom, I mean the Game of Thrones kind. Like this great quote by Lord Varys in Game of Thrones:
“Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick, a shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”

Since the power she’s looking for isn’t something to be won (it’s just given at random, presumably), Robert Baratheon’s quote, again from Game of Thrones, wouldn’t apply:
“I was never so alive as when I was winning this throne, or so dead as now that I’ve won it.”
Nor, thankfully, would Cersei Lannister’s comment:
“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”

And then she got made Deputy Class Monitor. I could see how thrilled she was when she called me to tell me about it (she never calls me about anything). I asked her if that meant she could order everyone around, but that the Class Monitor could order her. No, she said, the Class Monitor and Deputy Class Monitor cannot order each other: they are equals. And what about the Green Ambassadors? Hmmph, she said dismissively, they’re just there to see if kids are littering the room, and then force them to put things back/into the dustbin. In fact, she continued, m’am has told the Green Ambassadors that they can’t “word back” to the Class Leaders. And yet, they dared do it to me. I complained, and m’am yelled nicely at them. Serves them right. I get it: they were testing the new sheriff deputy in town, and you showed them.

Lest I think that was all fun and power, she reminded me that Class Leaders have to keep shouting at others and it drives them hoarse. Oh baby, I am sure m’am is grateful for this cross you’ve so graciously agreed to bear…

But remember, kiddo:
“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarJanuary 19, 2018 at 10:30 AM

    Nice one as usual. Aditi produces a delightful presence in the blogs!

    All the quotes were appropriate and showed wit: This one: “I was never so alive as when I was winning this throne, or so dead as now that I’ve won it” made me recall what Andre Agassi said something to this effect in his biography OPEN, "When you win it doesn't produce great or lasting elation. When you lose the hurt is real, intense and it lasts". (It is about the result and it is not to contradict the point of the quote anyway, namely 'being so alive'. Agassi was 'so alive' during the time of playing to win and not to lose surely.)

    This quote answers a point about the 'how of which' which I have always wondered. I have seen people who hold a position and in that who are looked up to as being powerful. Not everyone wields power, just by holding a position. Then what makes some visibly powerful? The quote clarifies through the suggestion of power being a shadow! “Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick, a shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.” It sounds true to me, because in my own way I have felt similarly within me.

    I like the finish with, which follows the smile-worthy line, "this cross you’ve so graciously agreed to bear…" - But remember, kiddo: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Spider-man, who said it, could do it because he only has to adhere to the script of the movie and act as the director guides him. In real life, I would be happy if politically or socially powerful anywhere in the world would get to know that, then remember it and finally adhere to it too.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Student of the Year

Image
As a toddler, my daughter loved Alia Bhatt’s songs, esp. the ones from Student of the Year . (That movie did have many good songs and well-choreographed dances). Fast forward to present day, when she is 12 yo. She rarely watches Hindi movies now, but one of the few ones she likes of late, Raja aur Rani ki Prem Kahani has, yes, Alia Bhatt.   If I had any hopes that there was anything to be read in the name of her toddler-time favorite ( Student of the Year ), they have been dashed. Our conversations come exam time are perfectly captured by this photo and its caption: In fact, the pic below captures how she and I look at her answer sheets – me intently, she with an expression of “It’s over, so why are you even looking at it?”   Of late, we pull her leg and tell her that she isn’t showing any signs of academic prowess, she’d better find a rich guy to marry. Some time later, she showed us this meme on the Internet: “Me No Study, Me No Care Me Go Marry Millionaire If He Die
Read more

Why we Deceive Ourselves

In their book, The Elephant in the Brain , the authors describe this weird aspect of deception that we practice: deceiving ourselves! That is so weird: “If our minds contain maps of our worlds, what good comes from having an inaccurate version of these maps?” The Sigmund Freud school of thought treats self-deception as a defense mechanism, “a way for the ego to protect itself”. The mind seeks to protect itself from anxiety and other negative emotions. Many object to this reasoning: since accurate information is so critical to our survival, surely distorting information would be dangerous. Wouldn’t the goal of protecting our self-esteem have been better achieved by making the brain’s self-esteem mechanism stronger instead? The new school of thought explains self-deception as “primarily outward-facing, manipulative, and ultimately self-serving”. This is based on Thomas Schelling’s work on game theory: “In a variety of scenarios, limiting or sabotaging yourself is the winn
Read more

Handling of the Satyam Scam

The Satyam scam. How does that fit into Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s book on reforms in India, Backstage ? The reason is that, as both NASSCOM and the government of India felt: “(Satyam’s) collapse would create a great deal of disruption for clients worldwide and seriously damage India’s reputation as a reliable source of software services.”   Therefore, the government decided to work with the private sector to “organize a quick takeover by a reputable new buyer, who would quickly restart the company”. But that could not be done overnight. In the meantime, the new board would have to reach out to Satyam’s clients and “reassure them that the company would survive”.   For the new board to have credibility when it made that statement, it had to be staffed with people who understood the private sector, the IT sector in particular, and commanded respect and trust. Deepak Parikh from HDFC was made chairman, and other members of the board included a former NASSCOM chairman, CII member,
Read more