Monday Morning Musings

The Economic Times - February 20, 2006Monday mornings are what that R K Narayan schoolboy character Swami used to dread most. The first day of the week can be daunting not just for schoolchildren. In offices throughout the world, the cry goes out on the need to meet targets and those in the firing line cannot even duck. However, for the young at heart and romantically inclined Monday morning offers the opportunity to pick up the threads after the weekend break.And so college kids set out bright and early with a song in their hearts if not on their lips. Even roadside Romeos perk up at the thought that the old campus or office looks attractive even on the first day of a studious or working week. And it’s not just in Hindi or vernacular movies that college classes are full of lectures interspersed with sidelong glances. In real life, those taking down copious class notes could also be exchanging messages , either on paper or the silent SMS mode. A recent novel, titled Mediocre But Arrogant on the making of an Indian MBA, has a lass scribbling a message to a lad during an OB (Organisational Behaviour) class that “Go on like this and you’ll get a D.” To which the response is “I’d rather have an F from you.” In the good old filmi days, of course, only Shakti Kapoor playing the campus villain (you know the one called Vicky who drives a rash Cadillac and whose industrialist father is the chairman of the board of governors ) would say such outrageous things to the studious heroine Seeta played by Hema Malini and be promptly beaten up by the poor student Veeru (poor not in terms of academic grades but family income) played by Dharmendra . That Bollywood stereotype of the poor but brilliant student may even have been inspired by the Chinese philosopher Confucius who observed in the 6th century BC that “the scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.” ...http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1420948.cms