The debate rages: by Vipul

From Cmi Spark

Revision as of 09:42, 29 January 2007

Date of the event/events: January 20, 2007

In the follow-up to the January 11 meeting, we were looking forward to some genuine action to justify all the rhetoric that had been put on display in the meeting. Sadly, social causes took a backseat as Spark members grappled with the Pongal weekend and then four hectic weekdays. However, unrest on social issues, when it exists, continues to foment and it was only natural that by Friday (January 19) matters had sufficiently reached a head for people to decide that a new round of rhetoric (and possibly, action) needed to be begun.

The January 20 debate

The debate really flowered on Saturday, January 20, at a particular table. Since I was the only person there throughout (right from the start with Amit to the end with Anirbit) I'll try to report the debate as objectively as possible.

A discussion with Amit

Amit De, though not formally a member of Spark, has been the most generous student contributor to Spark -- he contributed a sum of Rs. 100 during our last fund collection drive. While discussing the progress of Satish, one of Spark's ex-beneficiaries, I asked Amit for his opinions on our current directions. I shared with him Anirbit's views about concentrating on the construction workers.

Amit agreed with Anirbit's views and suggested that we focus on the construction workers as we would be in a better position to dictate rules and terms with them and they would prove a more pliable ground for experimentation. With some success stories behind us, we could proceed further to the local schools.

Bodhayan joins

Bodhayan, the brain behind Spark, joined us at the dinner table and I asked Amit to share his views with Bodhayan. Bodhayan then put forth the viewpoint that Spark could operate on multiple fronts. Soon, Kshitij also joined the dinner table, and the discussion acquired more energy. In the process, Bodhayan and I came up with an idea of committees which Bodhayan hastily re-christened as fronts to avoid the bureaucratic connotation of committees. The idea was to have four fronts:

• City school education front: Schools in the main city area (Adyar, T. Nagar, Mylapore, Vadapalani, Saidapet etc.)
• Local school education front: Schools within a 3-5 km radius of CMI
• Construction worker education front: Children of the construction workers of sites in SIPCOT
• Public relations front: This front would focus on spreading the word of Spark within CMI and getting more people to offer their time, money, skills and suggestions. I decided to head this front, and put maintenance of the wiki and eliciting opinions and suggestions under this front.

Swarnava joins

A new and unexpected entrant into the Spark debate was Swarnava. He is not a member of Spark, but given his penchant for spreading news like wildfire, I offered him a journalistic post in Spark. He enthusiastically agreed, though it is possible that he was jesting and that he thought I was jesting.

Shreevatsa joins

Shreevatsa was among the other people at the dinner table who participated enthusiastically in the debate. The real question was: which of the fronts of Spark had a genuine potential to be active?

I asked Bodhayan where we planned to educate the children of the Hexaware site construction workers, in case we did decide to educate them. Should we get them to CMI, or go to their homes to teach them? Bodhayan suggested the tin shed, though it seemed that a combination of drying clothes, shed-cricket and teaching kids wasn't very ideal for education. Shreevatsa then pointed out that the parents may not be willing to entrust their children into the hands of strangers.

I also strongly suggested that we talk to the management and to the people who have got the workers here in the first place. I asked Bodhayan to make sure he gets these details in the survey.

Anirbit joins

Shreevatsa left, and Belliappa took his place. But the real new entrant into the drama was Anirbit. Anirbit, given his strong views on educating the construction workers, had some points to make:

• He felt that the whole idea of getting more volunteers into Spark was idiotic. He said that since Spark currently isn't doing anything, it should not try to get more people in.
• He felt that opening too many fronts was ill-advised and that we should focus on the construction workers who were close by.

Anirbit and I then had some interesting trivial debates. He said that if we did not have CMI official transport to go to the people and teach them, then it was simply not worth it. In summary, his points were:

• The students would be unwilling to come and learn from us
• CMI students would be unwilling to walk/use public transport to go and teach them

Anirbit said that nobody (in their right mind) would think of walking, or using public transport to come to CMI. He said that even the cleanliness staff and security would resign from CMI if CMI vehicles were not provided for picking up and dropping them.

I strongly contested this saying that while the security guards and maintenance staff definitely use CMI official transport if the timing suits them, they do not depend on it and are willing to walk long distances if it takes them to the place of their job. I pointed out that Murthy and Venu often used to come in 19Bs for night duty at CMI.

Anirbit was of the opinion that no social cause was great enough to justify twenty minutes of a person's time and energy spent in walking.

Belliappa (who was watching the debate with a mix of interest, amusement and exasperation) said that it was possible that a difference between the stamina levels and love of walking of Anirbit and me were responsible for the difference in opinion. He pointed out that there were villages on the main Old Mahabalipuram Road, and we could use CMI official transport to go to these villages (particularly Sholinganallur village). I said there would be villages closer by.

Anirbit flatly declared that it was a far-fetched conclusion that a village could exist right on the main road. I said that there were villages outside SIPCOT (not very big ones, but they were there) and they were within fifteen minutes of walking distance. Anirbit persisted in the view that teaching kids for an hour was not a worthwhile gain for the great sacrifice of having to walk all the way to SIPCOT arch.

The debate hung somewhere at this point.