Comments on a tragedy

I do not consider myself a geek. I do not code much. I still use precompiled packages. I use windows for a significant fraction of time. I do not have sufficient knowledge to take part in entirely rational discussions about which programming language is better or which OS is better. But I appreciate the fact that those who do so are the reason we are in this stage the first place. I have a dilettantish interest in such matters. I have an interest in and know something about Physics. I (hopefully) will contribute something to the world.

If all people were like the typical IITK student, we would still be in the stone age.

Heck, his entire awful life lurches from one "festival" to another. In the beginning, he tries to get "ragged", so that he gets contacts with his paragons - his seniors. Then he either takes part or watches with bated breath a talent hunt, so that he can be involved in the "freshers". If he has no talent, well, he can always perform the role of the minion painter. Then he can go to various introductory club lectures, attend a few workshops wide-eyed and leave them for "cultural activities", like dumb charades and dramatics. He is never going to become Al Pacino, but the herd goes, so he goes. Then he rushes around and mugs up some things for his initial mid semester exam. He performs miserably, utters a few choice abuses at the instructor and returns to his arena of choice - the herd. Then he can run around and be a volunteer for menial work for the cultural festival in October. He can either play or "turn up and cheer his block" in the "prelude" to an intra hall sports festival. Yes, that's right, prelude to a damned intra hall sports festival. After that, come his second mid semester exams. Some more curses for the poor instructor. Then he can focus his attention on making his block triumph in the intra hall cultural festival, if not by performing, by "turning up and cheering". Bloody idiots could be replaced by an army of clapping furbys. Then he gets all "serious" and mugs up a few more things for his end semester examination. A final volley of curses.
Next comes his precious intra hall sports festival. He participates in long meetings into the night to choose teams and "waits with bated breath". He cheers his block on. He runs around and exchanges high fives. He analyzes games after their end and pats the losers on their sweaty backs. He cheers if his block gets a good position or heckles the other blocks. The midsems in between and resultant curses are a common feature I won't go into. Then we have the Hall Day! An occasion to wait for, prepare for, and die for! He works as hired labour to make backdrops; He cheers and claps for the dram guys and dancers. He heckles people from other halls and ogles the girls.
Then comes the "inter hall sports festival" - Josh. The same as for the intra hall festival, with suitable substitutions. Then comes the hullabaloo of the general and hall elections. He campaigns for his friends: He goes around with a group of like minded, strong bodied students and persuades people to vote for his candidate, saying that they will get greater representation in so and so body. He listens wide eyed with his wingmates when older versions of him come with their candidate and preach his virtues. He cheers his hall candidate on in the general elections and cheers his block candidate on in the hall elections.
During intra hall elections and contests, he is against other blocks. During inter hall elections and contests, he is against other halls. When students from outside come for various contests, he is against the other institutes. His entire life is a meaningless series of affiliations and "passions" for cheering finer and finer subsets of the general herd.
With the possible reintroduction of the inter hall cultural festival, even more events will be added for him to work in, to cheer in and be a general part of the mindless herd in.

What a meaningless, dumb life! It will prepare him for his destiny - management! After all, what hard work does he need to do to be in management, he just needs to be "well known" or have the right contacts.

What these herd members don't realize is how much they owe to the geeks they want to eventually "manage". For example, look at the simple things they do like playing computer games.
Someone has developed ways of reversing the entropy of the universe and generating usable power by expending the least amount of work. Someone has developed technology so that we can transmit that power vast distances from where it was generated. Someone has developed a computer so that idiots can press the power button and make millions of circuits work in perfect synchronization. Someone has developed an OS so that dumbos like him can click on Install and Autoplay. Someone has developed games for him. Someone has cracked them so that he can play it for free. Someone has made a chat client so that his friend can tell him about the games. Someone has developed a file sharing system so that he can do what they describe as "DC se uthalo". Someone has developed technology so that they can have good speakers in a small volume and decent manufacturing cost, so that he can hear the sounds of the game. Someone has found a decent way of transmitting complex signals like his asinine bellow across networks, so that he can hurl cruse abudes at the other players. Someone has found a way of compressing complicated sights and sounds so that they be rendered and displayed using the minimal memory his system has.

It is good that our world has become user friendly, or as some disgruntled people say, idiot friendly. But it has become far too easy to forget the incredible leaps of technology and science which led to this ease of use. Easy to the point where management jobs are valued above technical ones. Easy to the point where the people in India's supposedly premier technical institute read "self improvement" books and improve their "soft skills".

To hell with studies of brand failures. To hell with Shiv Khera and Jack Welch. Maybe Douglas Adams (may his memory be sacred) was right after all. Let's emulate the people of Golgafrincham. Let's take all these middlemen and launch them into space. We can do something while they land on some planet and set up committees to develop the wheel.