Dr. Simmi Gurwara
There are many veiled and unveiled advantages of belonging to an old school. Firstly, you don’t experience the proverbial adrenaline rush in your soothing veins because you are ensconced in your comfort zone. Secondly, you don’t experience the jitters that accompany everything new and unused because you are far too happy with the tried and tested ways. Thirdly, there are no pressures at the back of your mind to compete and overtake your new age adversaries (or so you prefer to pose) because you feel your repertoire of self actualized wisdom is over and above all. Fourthly, you revel in the pride of your grey matter that your black and white vision brings along because you don’t credit technological interventions especially the all encompassing social media to have anything to do with your mass(ive) appeal There can be more and many more excuses that your old school affiliation can easily (ill)-afford. Like it gives you a chance to bash your media-savvy counterparts for their uncouth and uncensored quip. Since you have parrot-learned and overly practiced your old tricks, you make their unsolicited exhibitions at the most awkward moments. Your undying confidence in your moth-eaten ideas refuses to go. You see evil in everything that is unrelated to your ideology which emanates from the historical data that you possess and manipulate at will. With your hardcore argumentative skills you can turn the fact into fiction and fiction into fact. On top of it all, you have a heart to look straight into the eyes of your opponents and raise uneasy questions.
It is not that always you find favors by the virtue of your ground holding. There are situations that grind your accumulated sense of pride and make you lose your ground. But, being a brave heart, you refuse to lie low. You raise your pitch in an attempt to bring shivers to the challengers. You know full well that this tactic never fails even when the famous others do. It raises an alarm and your detractors take to their heels. No doubt it can be practiced and acquired by giving more muscle to your vocal chords. Supporting instruments can always be played to give your shrill voice a velvety touch. If you can raise your high-octane voice, it can possibly submerge all sane and insane strains. No, it is not about your sanity and rationality; it is about making others look insane and how. After all the one whom shrieks from the rooftop will take it all- if not everything at least the attention.
As the tables turn, you too turn into a game changer. The strategies are renewed; the methods are mixed and matched to make them more delectable to the receivers who more often than not are seen as gullible fools. You appear in a new avatar and the commons are floored by your changed character. Now it is hard to demarcate between the old and the new. The issues once castigated publicly are embraced in full public view to the wonderment of none. Now we get used to your ways. You may label them as you please. But we know deep within that there are things that never change, particularly your attitude towards us. Whether you belong to the old school, new school or no school-we care not for we now have the choice to select-NONE OF THE ABOVE.
