Hemantha Kalam - 68 'Epidemic in Pandemic Times'

Ente dear Jojan has asked for trouble when he said he was longing for another blog from me. So far, I had only one ardent follower and looks like there is Jo added to the list now. God bless him and his likes!

Just because he has asked, should I torment him and others really, I pondered! But then Jojan is a well grown adult (Yes, I do think so) knowing fully well where he is treading. J

Now the ordeal started for me. What to write?

Recently I became a member of a mailing group in the development sector and out of every 10 mails I receive, I see at least eight of them are selling Webinars - a webinar on this, and a webinar on that!. Now having mastered the art of doing webinars myself over the past five years, I should actually be empathetic to these webinars but strangely I am not. No, no, there is no professional jealousy, I assure you, as presently my hands are full with work. I am actually giving back to my wife by helping her in cutting vegetables, cleaning dishes etc., and nothing could be more engaging and fulfilling, webinars or not!

So, why then am I writing this blog?

Aha, the webinars that are touted and tantalised in the mails, are on subjects starting from child to adult psychology, and any subject on earth most of which is of no use to me and as I suspect, to many. You are unable to burp, there is a webinar. You are unable to sleep on your left side, there is a webinar. And those conducting and speaking on webinars are mostly from our brethren from northern India.

I derive three inferences from this.

One, the north Indians know very well, the art of transferring funds from your pocket to theirs in an organised manner

Two, many of them are good ‘talkers and takers’ and

Three, for sure, most of them are jobless, otherwise.

Can’t help it; COVID-19 times are pandemic times containing people under lock down with the enterprising able to smuggle themselves in and out of homes with ease that a purgative helps with, and the not so enterprising stuck to homes; well whose home, is not to be questioned though!

So, let this epidemic of ‘Webinars’ also be unleashed to go about in these pandemic times! Knowledge filling or not, pocket filling for sure and yes, time passing! There are also arguments on what medium to use; is Zoom app Chinese and so should it be banned or is it American and so it should be encouraged (now that they are our friends) and such!

I am also seriously contemplating to change my office room into a studio with arc lights and do some webinar sessions (in between vegetable cutting and dish washing) on the art of nail cutting without nicking the skin, trimming the beard with occasional patches here and there to make it the new ‘in-thing’. Perhaps I should ask ente priya Jojan also to do some sessions on some innovative subjects that he may think of.

I am sure that our age should be a passport and my grey hair should more than convince the people how much grey matter in my brain is on the display.

I note that many of the speakers on the webinars, that are being marketed, are quite young (you should note that I didn’t use the words ‘pretty young’ as I cannot know or assure on that score) and there is no way of finding out their credentials and worthiness without burning your pocket. Thankfully, the organizers are smart enough not to charge very high and limit the charges to something like Rs.200-250 per session (Less than US $ 3). After all, they need repeat audience for the most ‘innovative’, ‘out of the world’ topics (that may or may not be useful for this world) that they are already conjuring to work upon, don’t they? I remember that lovely Tamil film song with so much of wisdom “En panam panam un panam panam un panam en panam” (my money money your money money your money my money) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hpaXTVU3Ic .

Let the readers, please, not mistake me of criticising all webinars or the concept. There is any number of extremely purposeful and well meaning webinars worth their money in gold. Only people should be more discerning, as suddenly the supply of webinars seems to be in abundance and when at anytime supply exceeds, quality could be suspect. Caveat Emptor!

But then we have to give it to the new generation for their creativity. They are unloading whatever bull they have in their mind, pass the time and charge you for it, too. This is what is to make the cake, show the cake and eat it too! Isn’t it?

Well, you tell me? So long until the next cleaning time! 

Krutagjnatalu (Telugu), Nanri (Tamil), Dhanyavaadagalu (Kannada), Nanni (Malayalam), Dhanyavaad (Hindi), Dhanyosmi (Sanskrit), Thanks (English), Dhonyavaad (Bangla), Dhanyabad (Oriya), Gracias (Spanish), Grazie (Italian), Danke Schon (Deutsche), Merci (French), Obrigado (Portuguese), Shukraan (Arabic), Shukriya (Urdu), Bohoma Sthuthiyi (Sinhalese) Aw-koon (Khmer), Kawp Jai Lhai Lhai (Laotian), Kob Kun Krab (Thai), Dankie (Afrikaans), Asante (Kiswahili), Maraming Salamat sa Lahat (Pinoy-Tagalog-Filipino), Tack (Swedish), Fa'afetai (Samoan), Terima Kasih (Bahasa Indonesian & Malay), Tenkyu (Tok Pisin of Papua New Guinea), Malo (Tonga) and Vinaka (Fiji).

Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy

Chennai, India