Category: Breadcrumbs (page 2 of 2)

The other day I took my son to the public library here. He wanted to get his own libarry card, so we went up to an information desk. They pointed us to a computer and said fill out a form online and then go see them. It took us 5 minutes to fill out the form online, then we went back to the information desk. They pulled up the form, asked my son what theme he wants his card to be, there were a few themes to choose from, he chose the dog theme, and he was issued the card then. It took 10 mins. 

Flash back….

I wanted to get a Library card back when I used to live in Bhubaneswar. So I went to the library. The clerk who issued cards had just arrived at his desk. There were pictures of Gods behind his desk hanging on the wall. He first performed puja and then asked me what I wanted. I stated the obvious, I wanted a card. The clerk said they weren’t issuing any more library cards, but I could go see the head Librarian and if he allowed, I could get one. The head librarian was a big officer(Babu), had a big office in the Library. There was a peon gurading his door from intruders like me. I went into his office after placating the guard, with a hand written application. He interviewed me about why I needed card. I told him I was unemployed and was planning a bank robbery and I wanted to get some ideas about how to rob a bank. I was sure the library would have books about past famous bank heists. So I needed a card. Well, I didn’t say that 😀. I said I was preparing for exams and it will help to have access to books. He said they weren’t issuing new cards anymore. But I could go to the Director of the department and if he approved I could get a card. 

The Director of the department was an IAS officer, his office was in the State Museum near the BJB college, a long bicycle ride from the Library. But being unemployed, I had all the time in the world. So I went to museum. At the museum it wasn’t easy to get into an IAS officer’s office without prior appointment. But somehow I was allowed in. The Director was nice, he listened to my Bank Heist plan, I mean my exam preparation plan, and graciously approved my application. Armed with an approval from a IAS officer, who didn’t have any better things to do than approving Library Card applications, I went back to the Library and finally got my Library Card. Of course all these events didn’t happen in one day. It took me weeks to go from one Babu to a higher Babu and then to an even higher Babu to get it all done.

Compare that to the 10 minutes that it took my son to get a Library card. What’s the point of this story! The point is, the Babu raj which is a sad remnant of the British Raj is ingrained in our society. It’s laughable that an IAS officer had to issue an approval for a Libary Card. This was bureaucracy at his best. We have become so used to this way of doing things that we don’t realize there can be a better way. I hope things have changed in the subsequent two decades.

They were the first batch to have completed their 10th board from the local convent school in Balasore. So our +2 Science class in F M College used to have a mixed population, kids like us who came from Odia medium schools and kids like them who came from an English medium school.

Though they were a handful in number, they used to stand out. They were fluent in English. They came from relatively affluent families. They used to dress differently, and they had an overall different demeanor. I used to be in awe of them. I still remember some of their names. Sanjay, Gopal, Jyotiskar and Amit(Shah). I wanted to be like them. And that started my journey with  English. 

Being a slow learner compared to my friends like Deepak and Prashanta, it took me years to overcome my fear of English and to be able to speak it confidently.

In Engineering college, during a viva voce exam for a lab, I answered a question in Odia. It was common practice back then. Most students and teachers used to be Odia. But this professor stopped me and told me to gather the courage to answer in English, and I did. That must have been the very first English sentence I spoke in a formal setting. I am sure I sounded tentative, unsure and possibly said it all wrong grammatically. But it was a start nevertheless.

My brother and I got our first box of crayons when we were probably in middle school. My dad had gone to a city for work and bought a box for us. We had to share it. Though we were a little too old for crayons by then, it was still something we cherished. There was an unspoken understanding that this was probably the only box of crayons we would ever have. If they ran out or broke, they weren’t going to be replaced. We used them very sparingly and very carefully. We kept those crayons for years.

We grew up in a time and place where everything had value, and we understood that at a very early age. Things were never replaced. If something broke, it had to be fixed; nothing was thrown away. We understood the value of money even before we knew how to count.

A generation later:

My son goes through a box of crayons every few weeks. Crayons get broken, crushed, vacuumed. Color markers get stabbed on hard surfaces until the tips look like flowers, then left open to dry . I am grateful that my kids can have things that, at their age, we considered luxuries. But I am also scared that my kids may never truly understand the value of money.

The cost of a box of crayons may not have changed much between the two generations, but the perception of its value definitely has.