184. A Quality Time

A male student from Party Politics course and a female student from Social Media Usage course are having lunch together in a Chinese restaurant. The girl is shifting to another city with a job offer.

Girl: We can’t do it online all the time.

Boy: We have to. We will be thousands of kilometers apart.

Girl: But it is so difficult. Then there are technical problems, slow internet.

Boy: Look, we have to find a way. And we are meeting four times a year. I am going to you two times and you are coming here two times.

Girl: When I am coming, I am staying at home. So we can only meet outside or in your place but only for a few hours.

Boy: That will have to do. But when I am there I am staying with you.

Girl: We will spend the entire time together. We can have quality time.

Boy: Umm yes...

Girl: Naturally, there is nothing like the physical presence. Come more often if it is possible. Online is only when you have no way to come.

Boy (slightly uneasy): You are still talking about us working together, right?

Girl: Yes. Why are you asking?

Boy: No, just got a little sidetracked. So you were saying?

Girl: I was saying that the partners of a start-up joint venture should meet and discuss strategies often. Since we are in different cities, we will have to rely on conference calls. But make sure you can come down to my place as many times as possible.

Boy: To discuss the finances and publicity, right?

Girl: Yes! Why are you asking?

Boy: No, just clarifying. Carry on.

163. Sharing is Caring

A male student from Party Politics course and a female student from Social Media Usage course are talking in the common room of NILS. Even though classes are over, many students are coming to the institute to study.

Girl: Are we both writing the same dissertation then?

Boy: That makes most sense, yes.

Girl: Won’t we be caught?

Boy: Mine will be evaluated by the Party Politics faculty and yours by the Social Media faculty. There is very less chance they will come across each other.

Girl: I understand, but feeling slightly uneasy…

Boy: Okay, let us change the names. If you think two different dissertations called Politics in Social Media and Social Media in Politics can be too suggestive, then we can have different names.

Girl: We have to change the names. You keep yours, I will change mine. I will think of something. And how about the text?

Boy: You write from the perspective of social media and I write from the perspective of politics. It will be different.

Girl: But our data and analyses are exactly the same.

Boy: Obviously. This was a joint research. We did it together.

Girl: So we will be caught together.

Boy (with dreamy voice): And kept in a locked room together.

Girl (rolling eyes): Unlikely. But seriously, if we give photocopies of each other, we are definitely going to be disqualified.

Boy: No photocopies. We we will write one dissertation and then change everything – introduction, sequence, conclusion, writing style, formatting, words and terminology. That will give us a completely different second dissertation.

Girl: Wow! Who is going to do all that?

Boy: I will. But you have to sit with me while I am doing it.

Girl: How about me paying you instead?

Boy:  Your presence is priceless. You cannot replace that with money.

141. Long Distance

A male student from Party Politics course and a female student from Social Media Usage course are talking in the canteen during break.

Girl: I have a news.

Boy: Not a good one, from your expression.

Girl: Mixed.

Boy: Shoot.

Girl: I have got an internship in Rampant Media as a Twitter content writer.

Boy: And the bad news?

Girl: It is not in this city. If I take it I will have to move out.

Boy (after a thoughtful silence): Congratulations.

Girl (quietly): Thank you. And…umm...sorry!

Boy: No, no, not at all. This is good for you. Maybe good for me too.

Girl (surprised): How is it good for you? We can’t carry on together anymore.

Boy: But now you are going to be a proffessional in a big media company. Not just a freelancer.

Girl: Do you still want me to be your….?

Boy: Absolutely. I very much want you to be my profile manager.

Girl (somewhat relieved): But what about the distance? We cannot meet. It will only be online.

Boy: I have had long distance contracts before. We have to find some routine.  I will come to the point. Will you be my long distance profile manager for Facebook?

Girl (whispering): Yes!

Boy: (fist pumps) Yes!

Girl: (smiles)

Boy: Shall we talk about fees?

Girl (playing with hair): Maybe.

113. Important and Very Important

A male student from Party Politics course and a female student from Social Media Usage course are talking in the canteen during break.

Girl: How do you start gaining power?

Boy: By working out (winks).

Girl: Very smart. Political power, not Batman power.

Boy (seriously): By knowing people who are more powerful than you. That is the foundation of power.

Girl: I know who is the president of India. But that does not make me anybody special.

Boy: No, then billions of people would be very powerful. It is not only about you knowing them, it is also about them knowing you and…

Girl: But that number will be small. Most of such powerful people will not bother to remember me, because as per your logic, they will also try to know people who are more powerful than they themselves are. I am unimportant to them.

Boy: I did not finish my explanation. I had stopped with an ‘and’.

Girl: Then please continue.

Boy: So, it is about them knowing you, and more precisely, them allowing you to make direct contact with them.

Girl: Allow you to talk to them?

Boy: To be pragmatic, allow you to call them in their mobile. The more personal mobiles numbers of political leaders you can have at your disposal, the more powerful you are. Power is all about contacts.

Girl: So, if you break a traffic rule, you can call such a person and get out of jail free.

Boy: That might be possible, yes. But to get such access to such a person, you need to spend a lot of time with the people involved in politics. You need both time and effort. Breaking the law is not as easy as you think.

Girl: Mmm…you are learning to be diplomatic already. Are you collecting important mobile numbers already?

Boy: Yes, just started with it. We were given a task of collecting at least five such important numbers.

Girl: How many have you got?

Boy: Two important and one very important.

Girl: Very important? Whose number is that? The Governor’s?

Boy: No, it is your number.

98. The 80-20 Hypothesis

A female student from Social Media Usage course and a male student of Party Politics course are talking in the bus stop outside the NILS building. It is past 8:30 pm and all classes have got over.

Girl: Today we did something interesting. We had a class on what type of information you should share on social media if you are running a store and want to advertise your merchandise online.

Boy: What type of store?

Girl: Anything, from big chain stores like Shoppers Stop to smaller online start-ups selling stuff like key chains or handbags.

Boy: That is a long range.

Girl: And yet they have the same purpose. Tell me, what do you remember from big chain store adverts on Facebook?

Boy: Like Shoppers Stop? Colourful clothes mostly. Some bath towel kind of stuff as well. Scented candles.

Girl: That’s all?

Boy: Umm…some prices and discounts. And some happy family kind of photos with the models wearing the products.

Girl: Okay. Myntra?

Boy: Similar. Lot of clothes and other stuff. Discounts, combos. Models wearing stuff.

Girl: Amazon?

Boy: Computer accessories.

Girl: Only?

Boy: Books also I guess. I don’t read much.

Girl: No wonder! What type of computer accessories?

Boy (thinking): Mouse pads, USB drives, laptops.

Girl: What kind of laptops.

Boy: Mostly notebooks of basic models. Some very hi-fi gaming laptops.

Girl: Some classy stuff and some for the middle class.

Boy: You can say that.

Girl: Not me. The teacher said so. She was saying that every store that puts up adverts online will show 80% of middle class accessible products with low prices, discounts and attractive combos and about 20% of high class products. They may never sell those 20% but it only increases their brand value.

Boy: Gaming laptops make people think they are not a roadside shop?

Girl: Yes, even if nobody is buying the laptop. Same with scented candles in Shoppers Stop. Few will buy them, but it makes them look a classy outlet. Which is why, when you are creating social media adverts for your store, you should have 80% of middle class products meant for real sale and 20% of high class product mostly to boost your brand value.

Boy: Some shops in malls only sell extremely high-end products.

Girl: And nobody buys them. The owners of those shops have a bigger business and that shop is the 20% of that entire business.

Boy: Hmm. 20% invested in imported perfume and real business is actually chewing gum.

Girl: Possible.

83. Ambitions

A male student from Party Politics and a female student from Social Media Usage are talking in the corridor. It is past 8:30 pm and all classes have got over. The corridor is empty except for a few departing students.

Party Politics boy: First paper got over already. Three more months to go.

Social Media girl: Time flies, doesn’t it?

Boy: Yes, especially when you don’t want it to fly. What are you planning to do after the course?

Girl: I will look for an apprentice job with some PR company. I want to be a Profile Designer for celebrities.

Boy (smiling): Yes, that kind of a job suits you. What are the others doing in your batch? Is everybody working?

Girl: Different things. There is another girl like me who wants to be a LinkedIn consultant. Then there is an uncle who wants to open a coaching center for online chatting. There is guy studying Mass Communication at a university. He says it will help him in his research work.

Boy: We also have a university student in our Party Politics batch. He is from political science. I don’t know why he is doing the course though.

Girl: Why are you doing it? Do you really want to be a politician?

Boy (big grin): Yes, the Supreme Leader.

Girl: I know you are lying. But it is alright if you do not want to tell me.

Boy: I want to be a political analyst. I have been doing some editing assignments for a current affairs website since April but I will have a promotion after doing this course.

Girl: Aren’t there any politicians in your batch?

Boy: There is a guy who is probably doing a proxy for some political leader. In fact I am quite sure he is attending on behalf of a certain leader. We also have a guy who is an election campaigner. He is doing this course so he can look more professional and ask for more money.

Girl: We also have an actress who is out of job and trying to improve her image. She hopes her social media presence will land her plum roles. Also, there is a photographer – fortyish – who wants to do DP and profile photography.

72. During The Break

(For more information on the people below, please click on the labels at the end)

The Batchmates

The boy from Party Politics and the girl from Social Media are standing at the glass window at the end of the second floor corridor, between the classrooms of Office Dynamics and Work-Life Balancing. The boy is holding a folded newspaper and explaining some news to the girl. The girl is showing a look of intent interest every time the guy is looking up at her.

The Daughter

The daughter is sitting in her classroom for Time Management on the second floor and talking to a girl of similar age. They both have a chart with the title “Invisible Time Records” in front of them and seem to be having a discussing about the topic. On the chart in front of the other girl the words “Total 4.5 hours” are written in red ink.

The Married Ones

The man and the woman are standing next to the water cooler at the canteen. The man is leaning against a wall with a light smile on his face. The woman is showing him something on her mobile. Her face is slightly red.

The Husband

The husband is standing in the corridor outside his Family Management classroom on the second floor and talking to his wife on phone. He has just suggested that he will take her out for dinner. But to his dismay, instead of being overjoyed his wife is now asking if this proposal was a kind of home assignment given in class.

The Office Guy

The colleague from the Office Dynamics course is in the library. He is issuing a book called, “Safety 101: How Not to Trust Anyone”.

65. The Reward

It is 8:40 pm and the classes have just got over. The corridors are mostly empty. One male student from the Party Politics course and a female student from the Social Media Usage course are standing at one end of the first floor corridor.

The guy fishes into his backpack and takes out a transparent folder with white Velcro strips.  He gives it to the girl.

“You are welcome,” he says proudly.

The girl opens the folder and looks at the papers inside.

“Latest updates of all my contacts from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,” the guy says pointing at the sheaf of papers inside the trasparent folder. “That was the whole assignement, right?”

“Yes,” says the girl and shoves the folder in her bag.

“Is something wrong?” the guy asks.

“Why?” asks the girl.

The guy looks a little confused.

“I just did your assignment for you,” he says. “The whole thing. And you don’t even say thanks?”

“Thanks,” she says and starts walking.

“Hey, wait!” he calls after her. “It took me hours to do that. And still I did that for you. Don’t I get anything in return?”

She stops in front of the stairs, looks at him.

“Why don’t you ask that girl in orange t-shirt in your class for returns? You two were having a lot of fun during the break, it seemed.”

With that she storms down the stairs.

A big grin appears on his face. He has got his reward.

43. Where to Show Happiness?

A student of Party Politics talks to a student of Social Media Usage during break.

Party Politics: Hi there! Good to see you again.

Social Media: Hi (smiles).

PP: How is the course going? Are you already very active on Facebook?

SM: It is not only about Facebook. It is more general. For example, we just had a class about different kinds of profile pictures.

PP: So that you can take good DPs? That’s useful.

SM: Eh..no. Last year they had offered a course on how to take good DPs. But it was not available in this branch. Today we were taught how to chosse proper photos for DPs in WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter.

PP: Don’t you just pick the one where you look good?

SM: Well, the background, clothing, distance…all these matter. And facial expression, of course. It is kind of same for the photos you upload in your album in Facebook.

PP: Always a happy face.

SM: Yes and there is a reason for it. Generally you cannot tell people that you are happy. Society expects you to be sad and under pressure. If you are not a little sad all the time, then you have not experienced the real world, not seen the suffering and the greed. However, life is not always that bad, right? We all have good times as well. Where do you show your good times?

PP: In Facebook?

SM: In your profile photos, correct. Your Social media profile is one of the few platforms approved by the society, where you can show your happiness without being judged as inconsiderate.

33. The Returning Customers

Two students of NILS are talking at the library. One is attending the Social Media Course and the other is attending the Party Politics Course.

Party Politics student: Hi there!

Social Media student: Hello.

PP: I am in the politics course. You?

SM: Social media usage.

PP: First time in NILS?

SM: No, I did a crash course last year.

PP: Same here. I did two years ago, though. It was a course on biking. I love bikes (smiles).

SM: They taught you how to ride a bike?

PP: Yes, it was half practcal half theory. They also taught us how to look after the bike and how to modify it. Also what to look for while buying one. All that stuff. Which course did you do?

SM: I did a course on college fashion.

PP: Was it useful?

SM: Yes, very. They taught us about fashion with students’ budget. It was good.

PP: Most of their courses are good. This time I am doing a six months course.

SM: Mine is half year too. Tell me, will you become a political leader after this course?

PP: You cannot become a leader straightaway. But I will know what all I need to do be one. The course gives you fundamental knowledge. Then you have to do the real field work. What will you do after your course?

SM: I want to work in a PR firm. Social media are the most active public platforms now.

PP: (smiling) Well, if I ever become a leader, I will hire your PR firm.