Some prominent alumni of my school, St Edmund's, Shillong

1. Mr JM Lyngdoh, chief election commissioner of India (from June 14, 2001 to February 7, 2004)
   
2. Mr Victor Banerjee, a famous Indian actor who appeared in several films by Satyajit Ray and is best known for his finely calibrated performance in "A Passage to India" (1984) for which he won the 'Best Actor' award.
   
3. Air Marshal Pranab K. Barbora, recently assumed charge as the new Vice Chief of the Air Staff (VCAS). He was formerly the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of IAF’s Western Air Command (WAC) and Eastern Air Command (EAC).
4. Mr Bijon Dey Sawian, IPS, (former Director General of Police, Meghalaya), former resident of Mawprem, later 5th Mile, Upper Shillong
5. Mr Dipak Narayan Dutt, IPS, (former Director General of Police, Assam), former resident of Nongrimbah Road, Shillong
6. Mr Andrew Langstieh, IA & AS, Member Public Enterprises Audit Board, Mumbai
7. Mr Satya Kant Saikia, IPS, Additional DGP, Gujarat
8. Mr Jayanta Bora, Chief HR Officer, Airtel, Karnataka & Bangalore Circle - formerly resident of Barik, Shillong
9. Mr Sanjoy Hazarika, Eminent Journalist, Author, "Strangers of the Mist", formerly resident of Motinagar, Shillong
10. Mr Kishalay Bhattarcharjee, Correspondent, NDTV, NE India - formerly Resident of Laban.
11. Mr Atanoo Boroowa, Director, Carritt Moran (P) Ltd, Kolkata, former Resident of Nongrim Hills
12. Mr Dhruba Hazarika, ACS, Deputy Commissioner, Darrang, Mangaldai, Assam - formerly Resident of Nongrim Hills
13. Mr Pritom Phookun, IA & AS, Auditor, EU Economic Mission, Norway, Oslo.

(Some designations may have changed now)

Good bye class 10 boards

The nervousness, the tension, and the excitement are all gone. I remember a span of time when I used to say “thank you” at the mere sight of someone. Any guesses when was this? It was during my class 10 board exams when so many people kept wishing me “all the best”. One day a doctor uncle looked at me while I was standing at the verandah and I yelled, “thank you uncle…thank you.” In a jiffy, both of us realised the scenario and laughed. The phone constantly ringing to wish you all the best is also gone. Gone with the wind that swept away the class 10 board exams from us.

I pity the next generation, for, they will never experience what it meant to pass the biggest academic hurdle in any student’s life. The slight tension the examination caused was part of learning. It prepared us for the other competitive exams that we will need to sit for in the future. I remember my dad telling me once that a student’s real potential is judged during the class 10 board exams and never during a 12th boards, graduation or masters degree. The logic was simple. It is during the 10th boards that a student has to make a fine balance between all the subjects: English, Literature, History/Civics, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths, Computer Science and Second language. And I think it makes sense. It reflects a student’s ability to a large extent. These are the subjects that I appeared for in my class 10 board exams. And the main reason I studied them and took them seriously was the board exams. Alas! it’s no more.

The logic of grades also doesn’t appeal to me. According to the grading system, a grade A1 is awarded to a student who scores between 91-100%. I think the gap is too large, for I believe a student who has scored a 91 is very good but the one who has scored 100 is a perfectionist and he must deserve that accolade. Class of 2011 will never know what a board exam means! Sigh!

The Fourth Estate and its essence

Rightly called the fourth estate, the Press is as indispensable as the three pillars of democracy: Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The Press brings forth to the mass anything that is new and worth knowing about. I remember someone saying in one of the press conferences I attended, “The reason why we invite the media is that it forms an important part of the ecosystem we live in.” For instance, a product launch by a company is always followed by a press conference because post-launch, the company has two key functions: sales and publicity, with the former largely dependent on the latter. The three pillars of democracy and the Press therefore are interdependent entities that share the same habitat.

The Press is omnipresent. Don’t question why so but thank that it is so, because without it you wouldn’t have been reading this right now. Without the media, we would have all “survived” in our isolation. I can’t really say “lived”, because living implies something more than merely surviving. We humans by nature are curious beings wanting to know what’s happening on our other side. The media provides us the answer to this need to know. In fact, news, according to me, is giving our audience what they “need to know”. However, in today’s rat race for high NRS figures, TRPs and clicks, news is often being tampered, thereby giving the audience more “nice to know” stuff than what they “need to know”. To pick some random examples, the news about Shilpa Shetty winning the Big Brother is news that is nice to know. We don’t need to know that. We won’t die if we don’t know about it. But the news about hundred farmers committing suicide in a remote village of our country is news which we need to know. This is something that affects us as human beings and we ought to know about it.

The media has played a phenomenal role in many cases. Take for example its active role in the Jessica Lal murder case or the coverage of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. It might have been many accused of usurping the role of the judiciary in the Jessica Lal case, or criticized for telecasting shots that aided the terrorists during the Mumbai attacks, but what can’t be denied is that fact that in both the cases, the media has played a key role. Without the media, we wouldn’t have even known how, when and where the attacks took place.

The Press has its success stories etched in history, but it cannot afford to be complacent. As Henry Anatole Grunwald quotes, “Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.” Media plays a huge role in nation building and the traditional journalistic elements of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability are sacrosanct to the Fourth Estate.

Published articles - The Financial Express and InformationWeek India

1. http://www.financialexpress.com/news/good-better-best.../448607/ 

2. http://in.biz.yahoo.com/090106/203/6z9xx.html     

3. http://www.informationweek.in/IT_ITES/12-07-13/A_tale_of_contrasts_TCS_gives_strong_IT_sector_guidance_while_Infosys_disappoints.aspx

4. http://www.informationweek.in/Data_Center/12-06-22/Storing_more_in_less.aspx

5. http://www.informationweek.in/IT_ITES/12-02-09/A_quarter_with_the_sunny_side_up.aspx

6. http://www.informationweek.in/Software/11-10-10/Slowdown_but_no_deal_cancellations_Infosys_CEO.aspx