Infidelity at the dinner table

The phrase on my mind today is "Infidelity at the dinner table". And before your crooked mind conjures up an even more crooked plot about a decent bloke like me getting into trouble of the wrong kind, just think. Do I look like that kind of guy? Ok Ok I may look like one. but let me assure you. I love my wife 1000%.

I am actually quoting an alumnus, who mentioned in one of the speeches about the concept of infidelity, at the dinner table. It basically means, dont stick to any one group while having your food in the canteen. Instead, try having every meal with a new face. Chances are that the new face would be from a professional background you never knew about.

In the past one week, I have had the luxury of having lunches/dinners with people of such diverse backgrounds; that I could easily make a Yellow pages with their details.. I mean it.. There is this guy for whom rocket science is actually not rocket science. Before coming to ISB he actually made rockets at ISRO. Then there is the good lad who hails from HAL. The lad used to make helicopters. People planning to create their own venture, People who used to move containers from port to ships, people who used to move ships..lawyers, I could bloody go on and on. Another favourite is a doctor turned trainer.

The point is, that if you stick to one group, you probably will miss out on making a lot more friends.

After the orientation week, now we are having the pre-term classes. It is an interesting thing to be in. The class participation (CP as we call it) especially is the interesting bit. CP exists in a continuum of its own. At it's lowest extremes, you have the "moron" style CP. Completely non-common-sensical class participation. And at the other extreme you have the "insightful" CP. Every now and then, you also have the common-sensical CP. The ISB term for it is "arbit CP".

Strangely enough, the moron style CP actually comes from people looking for depth in their knowledge base. By asking seemingly stupid questions, they actually help build depth in the classroom discussion. Because, it is only the "moron" style CP that challenges the fundamentals. And in the process, we start thinking deeper into the subject. The insightful CP is a rare commodity. But it does surface from time to time..

But arbit CP; when people say something knowing the answer and knowing that everybody else knows the answer, that is a perfect waste of airtime. I hope, common sense prevails. And people dont forget that common sense is common after all.

And by the way, please dont feel shy to give comments against posts in this blog. Any bullshit would qualify as a comment. I cannot imagine any reason why you should not do so. Can you?

If you do post comments, then I promise an extravaganza of snaps from our talent nite.. Trust me. You want to see those snaps :-)

C