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| ashu |
Posted
on 06-Oct-02 01:32 PM
I found this while looking for something else.
Thought this is relevant for Sajha readers too.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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In defence of gaph
The Kathmandu Post Friday, August 13, 1999 Shrawan 28th, 2056.
By Pratyoush Onta
Some weeks ago, I was introduced to the head of a Kathmandu-based college that offers BA level courses in the sciences, both "basic" (physics, chemistry, biology variety) and social. He asked me what my profession was. I told him that I was a researcher who did a lot of gaph and writing.
I proceeded to tell him that I was involved in the organization of once-a-week gaphs at Martin Chautari and several-times-a-week FM radio discussion programmes over Radio Sagarmatha. Upon hearing my answer, he lifted his eyebrows a bit and asked "What happens after these gaph sessions?" What was clear from his question was that he did not consider these sessions as activities that were important in and of themselves.
Over the years, I have gotten used to such encounters. When told that organizing discussions in the form of gaphs was one of the main things I do, I have rarely been asked to describe the organizing mechanisms behind these sessions, or about their actual contents.
Almost always, people immediately ask for evidence of other, perhaps more "real" and "countable" activities. If I cannot produce such evidence - they seem to suggest - then I have wasted my life!
Such encounters are themselves testimony of the fact that in the Nepali lexicon, gaph has acquired a bad name. Gaph is defined by the Royal Nepal Academy’s dictionary as an activity that does not have much positive output. It defines gaph as "talk, engaged in by participants to consume time or for entertainment," or "talk about something that is not true or real."
Moreover, it defines gaphgaaph as "talk without a purpose" and gaphadi as someone who engages in lots of gaph. These definitions relegate gaph and gaphadis to a domain of "idle" activity, associating them to all things trivial, frivolous, wasteful, and extravagant.
In so doing, it seems to me, they do great injustice to the word gaph itself and totally fail to understand how creative and collective endeavours are generated in our (or for that matter, any) society. These definitions categorically insult all gaphadis who have ever participated in their favourite activity in various chautaris, addas or tea-shops.
We must reclaim an exalted status for gaph and gaphadis and revise the negative connotations associated with gaphadis and their activity by rewriting the definitions provided in the Academy’s dictionary and elsewhere. To do so, the following points could be useful.
To begin with, we should defend all gaph as activity that is the quintessential marker of a democracy-oriented society. The right to gaph is one of the most fundamental rights present in a democratic polity and must be defended against all of its opponents. Such a right need not be necessarily justified in terms of its productive potential (although that is also done below).
At the present moment, it is true that not all of our citizens enjoy this right equally. Hence, for the sake of justice, creating conditions in which all citizens can have equal opportunities for gaph must be one of our social aims. This would mean not only securing the right to speak but also the right to be heard.
Secondly we must challenge the attitude that associates gaph to all things wasteful by pointing out an important aspect of gaph as an activity. No matter how big a gaphadi might be, no one survives by gaph alone. Put this way, gaph exists in a continuum of life-generating activities.
Some of these will be necessary for physical and financial sustenance, others for mental and emotional ones. In this spectrum, gaph can be located just about anywhere. To exalt gaph as an activity is therefore to celebrate the entire spectrum of activities that make up life.
Thirdly we must argue against the attitude that suggests that it is only bikas work that will upgrade our lives. One of the most repeated slogans of the Panchayat years was: Hamile kura thorai ra kam dherai garnu parchha (We must talk less and work more). Notice where we reached with that slogan and that system! We must challenge all those who believe that work can happen without gaph by simply reminding them of those dark days.
Fourthly we must point out the productive potentials of critical gaph. While I believe that all gaph has productive potential, I also believe that some kinds of gaph have more productive capacity than others. Speaking more as an organizer of gaph, both in its narrowcast variety in Martin Chautari and in its broadcast variety over FM radio, I would say that to make gaph critical in any single venue, some skills (which can be learnt if lacking) are necessary.
Gaph organizer - who need not be a gaphadi himself but that would help - must have the ability to find out what gaph is happening in other chautaries. He must be able to identify critical strains in these sessions and invite suitable gaphadis to push the boundaries of gaph on any given topic. If those invited to such sessions can do some homework to organize their information and thoughts in a coherent manner, it would greatly enhance the quality of critical gaph. Once gaph is convened, a moderator who can make sure that it is not monopolized by just one or two gaphadis would be desirable.
Given these conditions, critical gaph is assured. One can sleep with the knowledge that those affected by critical gaph will follow up the session with "real" work, if someone is still concerned about productivity!
Are opponents of gaph ready to hear us out? If so, I invite them to join sessions at the various chautaries in Kathmandu and beyond.
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| paramendra |
Posted
on 06-Oct-02 01:51 PM
Ontaji, guff can be gossip of discussion, and those two are different things. For a gaphade country like Nepal, of nosy relatives and neighbors, guff has always been plenty, but discussions are hard coming by. People discuss Girija relentlessly at the teashops, but they tend to be gossips, not discussions. I was wondering, though, if the Martin Chautari discussions can be put online in the form of transcripts/outlines. Who/what is Martin?
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Tiwariji, for someone who habitually engages in guffs/gossips, discussions, and rants and raves, I woud be curious to see what you have to say to Ontaji on this one.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 06-Oct-02 08:44 PM
Paremendra wrote:
Tiwariji, for someone who habitually engages in guffs/gossips, discussions, and rants and raves, I woud be curious to see what you have to say to Ontaji on this one.
**********
Paramendra,
Sure, I like to have stimulating conversations, even intense discussions with friends, where, at times, I take the opposing viewpoints just for the sheer intellectual fun of it, to see how far one stretch certain ideas and thoughts.
I can't help it, but I like playing with ideas and tossing and turning them in my head, and sharing them with others -- hopefully by offering a different perspective.
You see, I remain a big fan of Richard Feynman, the iconoclastic physicist whose intense and even irreverent and fun attitude toward life remains inspirational.
That said, gossip?
Well, I keep secrets very well, and I don't divulge contents of private conversations in public, nor too do I play, as I have seen some do it, one set of friends against others and destroy years of friendship on account of gossip, innuendos and all that garbage.
You know, Paramendra, at the end of any day, I'd rather be trusted permanemt than liked . . . and this approach suits me just fine, with its own learning curve.
I value conversations or guff as a way to share information, spread ideas, see connections among dfferent ideas, thoughts and events and bring people together.
That's all. This is my little prabachan on the value of guff. :-)
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| ? |
Posted
on 06-Oct-02 09:33 PM
Just finished QED by Dr Feynmann.
'what one fool can do, another can. what one fool can understand, another can.'
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| ashu |
Posted
on 07-Oct-02 08:46 PM
Paramendra,
This link has more info on Martin Chautari.
http://www.sarai.net/journal/pdf/010-015%20(martin).pdf
? , good to see another Feynman fan.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| ? |
Posted
on 07-Oct-02 08:54 PM
Keep on counting, last chapter on 'The pleasure of finding things out' and after that, starting on 'Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!'. The former is a killer, so far, I tell you.
"Physics is like sex: sure, there are plenty practical results, but that's not why we do it."
"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy." :))
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