GMBA

Something from long ago. When the Sun first started to set on a bright world, and winter began.

GMBA Speech

Peers, Classmates, XLers, lend me your short attention spans;

I come to pass gyaan, not to gather it,

The gyaan that seniors give, lives after them;

The work is oft interred with their jobs;

So let it be with you. The noble CRISP

Hath told you to make a giant CV:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath you answer’d it.

Here, under the leave of Jittu and the rest—

For Jittu is an honorable man;

So are they all, all honorable men—

Come I to cry in my funeral.

XL was my school, harsh and vague to me:

But Jittu says it will be alright;

And Jittu is an honorable man.

He had brought many students in to XL

Whose loans did your CBI account fill:

Did in this Jittu seem ambitious?

When the the batch have cried, Jittu hath ignored:

“Alright” should be made of transparent stuff:

Yet Jittu says we’ll get placed;

And Jittu is an honorable man.

You all did see that on the brochure

We thrice asked him about the placements,

Which he did thrice ignore: Was this honor?

Yet Jittu says we need not worry;

And, sure, he is an honorable man.

I speak not to disprove what Jittu spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did never know him, not without cause:

What concerns you now, to withhold us?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with this course,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

 

But yesterday the word of Abraham might

Have stood against you at JLT; now lies it there.

And none so brave to do him reverence.

O masters, if I were disposed to stir

Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,

I should do Jittu wrong, and Mishra wrong,

I will not do them wrong; I rather choose

To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,

But here’s a mail from the ID of Jittu;

I found it in mine, ‘tis his promise—

And they would go and kiss his ass

Yea, beg a toenail of him for memory,

And, dying, mention it within their wills,

Bequeathing it as a matter of joke

Unto their leisure.

 

Have patience, gentle XLers, I must not read it;

It is not meet you know how XL fooled us.

You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;

And, being men, bearing the promise of XL,

It will inflame you, it will make you mad:

‘Tis good you know not that you are his trueborns;

For, if you should, O, what would come of it!

 

Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile?

I have o’ershot myself to tell you of it:

I fear I wrong the honorable men

Whose daggers have stabb’d us; I do fear it.

 

You will compel me, then, to read the mail?

Then make a ring about the corpse of GMBA,

And let me show you those that made the batch.

Shall I type? and will you give me leave?

 

If you have CVs, prepare to tear them now.

You all do know this JLT: I remember

The frst time ever we came on;

‘Twas on a winter’s evening, in Shere Punjabaxi,

That day we overcame the borders:

Look, in this inbox came Jittu’s mail through:

See what a rent the envious Mess made:

Through this the well-beloved Abraham stabb’d;

And as he pluck’d his cursed words away,

Mark how the hopes of us follow’d it,

As rushing out of doors, to be resolved

If Jittu so unkindly knock’d, or no;

For Jittu, as you know, was our angel:

Judge, O you BM/HRs, how dearly Jittu fooled us!

This was the most unkindest cut of all;

For when our noble PlaceCom saw him stab,

Ingratitude, more strong than Your powers,

Quite vanquish’d him: then burst our faint hopes;

And, in his office muffling up his face,

Even at the base of the Admin building,

Which all the while remained silent, great GMBA fell.

O, what a fall was there, my XLers!

Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,

Whilst bloody treason flourish’d over us.

O, now you laugh; and, I perceive, you feel

The dint of pity: these are gracious laughs.

Hearless souls, what, laugh you when you but behold

Our loans invested wounded? Look you here,

Here we are ourselves, marr’d, as you see, with traitors.

 

Good BMs, sweet HRs, let me not stir you up

To such a sudden flood of thought.

They that have done this deed are honorable:

What private motives they have, alas, I know not,

That made them do it: they are wise and honorable,

And will, no doubt, without reasons stay mum.

I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:

I am no poet, as Dadlani is;

But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,

That love my career; and that they know full well

That gave me public leave to write and post:

For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,

Action, nor utterance, nor the power of pen,

To stir men’s blood: I only write right on;

I tell you that which you yourselves do know;

Show you sweet GMBAs’ wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,

And bid them speak for me: but were I Jittu,

And Jittu Gupta, there were a Gupta

Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue

In every wound of GMBA that should breathe

The stones of XL to rise and mutiny.

 

Why, friends, you go do you know not what:

Wherein hath we this deserved your loves?

Alas, you know not: I must tell you then:

You have forgot the will I told you of.

 

Moreover, XL hath left us in foreign walks,

Different teachers and new buildings,

On this side of campus; it hath left us,

And to our heirs for ever, common trifles,

To plead to you, and be isolated.

Here was a XL! when comes that realization?

 

Vishal Gupta

6 Oct 2014