Editor,
We wish to remind through your esteemed daily of a saying that goes, “Properly organized, even crime pays”. This is a time tested truth in today’s world. Organizing is an arduous task. Executing any plan is in all much more difficult and the risks are also huge. Mistakes are unavoidable while organizing an event. But when it comes to a competition, how affordable it is to commit a mistake has to be consciously and clearly justified by the organizers.
Recently, an event called the Pianist 2017 was organized in Shillong by the Casio Co. We congratulate the organizers for bringing such events where piano players who have the love and passion with different degrees of artistry can participate and share with the world their beautiful melodies. It is really a great platform for the amateurs.
But here are some tough facts about this event.
The event was organized in two rounds – the prelims held on two different days both for the junior and senior category and the Finale, held on the Feb 11, 2017. The list of participants who qualified to compete in the Finale appeared on the public domain in the official Facebook page of the Pianist 2017 after the Preliminary Rounds, some days before the Finale. We congratulate the organizers for using technology so adroitly Advertisements, results and various developments of the competition were uploaded here for all to see. This is a real advancement into the digital world which also ensures transparency. Unfortunately, there was a wrong turn of events. Hopefully it was not rigged. “Rigged” is not a word we would like to use but the situation warrants it for want of rational reasons. And if the event is not rigged then the Organizers owe the public an answer.
The public declaration of any result is a final process and any discrepancies arising out of it, demands detailed and unbiased enquiry. Now one participant whose name appeared in the selected list of finalists was not allowed to compete in the Finale ostensibly because the result declared on social media was incorrect! Actually, that list had already made the rounds on social media. The concerned participant prepared for the Finale amidst hopes that the door of opportunity has opened for him. The participant had physically, mentally and emotionally prepared to do his best with much zeal and passion. To have your name posted in a social media for accomplishing something is itself a great achievement. Alas! This joy was short-lived. It was later informed that all those who were selected have been given a confirmation call along with a message to compete in the Finale. Further, another list which was a plain and simple list mentioning the names of selected participants was received through social media (whatsapp), in which his name was also included. The participant was bewildered, emotionally traumatized and mentally distracted. He left the scene at once with much disappointment due to lack of clarity in the whole process of public declaration of results. His family members who came to support him came to his rescue! Think of the mental agony of the person who is told he did not accomplish anything in the real world but who was proclaimed a victor on social media. Mismanagement is easy; efficient management is tough. The Organizers should have detected their error before posting facts in the public domain. Their failure to do so reflects shoddiness. To the Organizers, I say – for all that goes right in the Pianist 2017, we salute you but for the single sorry incident you are answerable to the public and yourselves. This monumental error tantamounts to emotional and mental harassment especially when the Organizers have failed to clarify their acts of negligence in the public domain but have all the time to post on their Facebook page the go-happy things of the competition.
This is meant for constructive purposes and with a desire to help understand the nitty- gritty of event management and also to remind the Organizers that aspiring pianists are humans too with a heart to feel and a mind to deliberate.
We hope that such incidents do not recur so that the morale and dignity of every participant is handled with decency, human respect and courtesy.
Yours etc,
The Aggrieved Party
Name withheld on request
On Unemployment
Editor,
This is the age when we the youth of Shillong live in uncertainty and doubt over our future. Our parents who are aging and on the verge of retirement are overly concerned about us, yet we ourselves cannot do anything in our capacities to make them happy. It is an age where some of us, out of complete disillusionment with our lives, turn into junkies and live “like a rolling stone” as Dylan said.
The sickening “back door entry” or nepotism has spoiled the chances and opportunity of many who were in every way fit, eligible and qualified for a job in Government organisations. These graduates and post-graduates thereby end up working in time-bound contractual basis jobs as Data-Entry Operators or small jobs like delivering online shopping goods or selling encyclopaedias and dictionaries door to door or as school teachers or taxi drivers or daily-wage labourers.
It forces us to ask the question-“What is the future for our youth?”Aren’t they are the ones who we believe are “promising”? Aren’t they are the ones who we believe would “make positive things happen” with their careers?
Thousands of us youths applied for posts in a prominent Government organisation in the summer of 2015, but till today, even after two years have elapsed we haven’t heard of advertisements in local papers informing us the date of exams and interviews. One wonders what went wrong? But the “sad reality” is that things go on like this. The “future” for our youth is bleak, uncertain, full of doubts ands scary.
Yours etc.,
Willie Gordon Suting,
Shillong- 1