Christmas : any, every occasion: Lessons to be learnt

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.     – Douglas Adams

Christmas Party… is one event in which a Crescentian learns a lot..Firstly like other traditions Crescent could have spoiled this one also: by placing the party 2 days before exams… however unfortunately for them, Jesus was born on 23rd December, and it cannot be changed !!

Sharing:            The main attribute to be explored is ‘Sharing’, not the sharing of views, opinions etc.. but the sharing of food. The basic principle, students are divided into groups, and each group is assigned a eatable which they are supposed to bring from home, and each student in the morning instead of being tense about their dress, looks etc, is more worried whether the gulab jamuns will be ready in time or not !!

Lesson #1 Generalization may lead to Prejudice

The first lesson learnt is that there are no generalizations in life ,,like the most famous general statement...Äll women are bad drivers…which is definitely not true as some boys are also bad drivers ….

Similarly, in the party you can’t just say ‘óh!, the gulab jams are bad’..you can’t say that, because 10 guys got 100 jamuns from home, Once mixed,, you cannot say which gulab jam came from where..

ironically,,or may be aptly.. when I was eating a ‘Bad’  jamun, one friend in our class was singing ‘nadi mile sagar mein, sagar mile kauno jaal mein, koyi jane na ‘

Lesson #2 : There are many sides to the coin

I have seen people, not like ‘the sixth sense’ kind of people… but normal people wearing a Tag of ‘Happy thought’s ‘on their collar or pocket..I bet that the one who has started this thing, must have been a Crescentian

At the Christmas party after finding odd tasting jamuns, you might finally discover after a friendly investigation that the ladoos are good,

and you may approach them, take them in you hand, and just as you close your eyes, expecting a mouth watering treat,,and as the ladoo is just about to touch your wide open mouth...IT CRUMBLES, ya it does that..all there is left is the mess, on your hand, your clothes and your mind..and just about as you are about to hurl some expletives… someone utters “Kisi ki maa ne bahot pyar se banaye hoge,,isliye itne soft hue hai” ..oh maa… (need to check if Prasoon Joshi was a yellow Crescentian or what…)

yet, I have to say the most hilarious and most learning part was the gifts… again the tradition was each student brought a gift, all gifts are then mixed and then a lottery is conducted to know who got which gift,

the hilarious part was when, eager students, (mostly boys) got a gift, from their person of interest (POI), and then used the gift to approach the person with questions like ‘what does this gift mean, I did not understand it, is it a game or what ‘, and initiate a conversation..

well I had a friend who took this to the extreme..he got a gift, it was a large white chocolate and he yet asked “What does this mean”….

‘Eat it !! thats what it means !!! eat it and finish it, if you are not going to eat it, give it to your friends !’

,, yet he had the gumshum to approach the POI, and ask his silly question..the idea being, that since the chocolate had come to him from that person, may be God was working his mysterious ways to bring the two together… so in a lottery he got a chocolate to show the proof that God exists,(Guilty as charged.. after all we are the generation of such hopeless thinking, that gave karan johar his first hit, and that has brought real suffering on millions of fellow indians)

ohh yes never mind the fact that the lottery was rigged to get a desired outcome !! 

but the even greater lesson, was the lesson in Game Theory,,

yes Game theory , which is greatly discussed in the movie ‘the beautiful mind‘, where in Steve Nash got the noble prize for seeing imaginary people around himself..

so for the Crescentian, the Nash equilibrium problem was this:

if I buy a gift of Rupees 30, and if get back a gift of Rupees 20 I am in a loss, and if get back a gift of Rupees 40 I am in profit.. what rate should I buy the gift,, If I do not want to be ridiculed for getting or giving a really sorry gift !!

It requires great thinking, a good market study to understand where others are inclining, and make an informed decision about your choice.. , this is the biggest puzzle of their life.. it involves taking quiet opinion polls, and also being part of a game of poker, the front person should not know your cards, but you should get cues of their cards

some devious genius one’s do crack the problem.. it’s about buying a gift of 15, making it look like as if it was of 30, getting a return of 25.. making a profit of 10,

and yet showing generosity of loosing 5..uttering stuff like ‘are saab friends hi, thoda aage picche hua toh kya hua‘

and as usual, some go home happy as they got the gift in profit, some are unhappy as they went into loss, some are happy as they got to talk to their POI, though the POI must have formed an opinion of him as someone who is a ‘dumb fellow’..and some are just going through the rounds

oh yes as all this is going  there are actually some Christian students (usually one or two) who also enjoy the party with their hindu and muslim classmates..oh yes then there are the Sikhs also, Marvadi’s, Gujrati’s, Sinhi’s, Mallu’s, sometimes Somalian’s, African’s,…Europeans (oh yes now I definitely exaggerating)

             but that day we all are just a bunch of children, enjoying with their Teachers, on day when, no homework is checked, no book is opened, no test given, and most imp no marks are distributed… I bet it..getting a bad gulab jamun in infinitely better than getting bad marks in your english paper..