‘Games We Play’

Ratna Raman

APPARENTLY, games played by children have been devised to prepare them for adulthood. I hated the game of musical chairs. Chairs, less in number than participants, were arranged to form a circle.  While the music played, people ran around the chairs. When the music stopped, those nearest to a chair grabbed it and sat down. With each round, the number of chairs was reduced, steadily eliminating chairs and people till there was only one chair left and one victor. 

 In recent years in India, governance has been akin to playing musical chairs. Arbitrary changes in the rules of the game continue to drive us from one manufactured crisis to another. Take the case of education. Overlooking anomalies in school education nationwide, the government turned its attention to the universities. Far more students were admitted while infrastructure continued to shrink. University policies were constantly revamped by organisations that were being created continuously. The powers of the UGC were truncated by the HRD, transferred to NAAC and now there is another new ring master HEERA. Academic curricula now have a shelf life.

There is no attempt to ‘bring back’ (restore) normalcy. Retired university teachers cannot access their pensions.  Promotions have been stalled for several teachers in permanent service. Ad-hoc appointments, available for four months at a time, push qualified young adults to ‘lead lives of quiet desperation’ (Henry David Thoreau) as the months turn into years. Meanwhile as the recommendations made by the Seventh Pay Commission are yet to be discussed, implementation could take forever.

 Elsewhere the Planning Commission was disbanded and NitiAayog set up in its stead. Demonetisation made our money much more portable but it could not stop the economy from slowing down. There are no new investments and hence massive ‘cutbacks’ (reduction) in job opportunities. What are these but adult versions of musical chairs?

Another circle game had us sing: ‘I sent a letter to a friend and on the way I lost it. Someone came and picked it up and put it in his pocket.’ This enabling postal game provided random initiative. 

In the real world, the mammoth Indian postal system has been reduced to a skeletal service with the advent of the private courier systems.  The change in name to ‘India Posts’ hasn’t worked because now literate India posts online. An enormous infrastructure, enabling services across the country, capable of generating revenue and employment is being allowed to die out. Teachers of language and literature should tinker with the academic letter-writing, orienting students to the writing of real letters to people they know. This project would significantly improve personal communications and incentivise exchange, employment and  income generation.

Yet another game, encountered in the truant years, but adopted far more tenaciously by adults is the metaphoric ‘pulling the rug out from under people’s feet’. The rug is a comforting stretch of thick fabric, spread on the floor. Administrators must never ‘pull the proverbial rug out from under people’s feet’ (to create problems). Good governance is not about making citizens lose their balance but about ensuring that all participants remain equal in the game of life.