Powertoni

If money is the thing that drives the world crazy, I think power is not too far behind. So many people directly and indirectly crave for power. Now, ‘power’ here is not ‘power in the political sense’. By ‘Power’, I see at it as an ability to make things work as you want them to work. No-one can deny their love for power!

Why are the ‘Reasons to Hate your boss’ type e-mails so often sent and enjoyed by people? Most people tend to dislike the people who issue authority over them. So many stories you might’ve heard about two great friends, one gets promoted and the friendship no longer remains the same. I’m not saying this is always the case, but most people do like to have equal or higher power than their peers.

There are various ways of showcasing power. Take the simple example of viva. Why do many of our internal profs like to screw us up in our viva. The simple reason is they want to signal that they have the power to make or break your life (Hardly do they know stupid vivas don’t constitute our life!), so you better suck up to them to get good marks. It’s a way to say that you execute your freedom to bunk lectures, I’ll execute my power to screw you!

Police in India are very measly paid, live in uncomely living conditions. Still, so many students give the police force exam every year. The applicants are never excited about the money or living conditions, but mostly in the powers the police officers can exercise.

One of the benefits of having many friends and contacts is the ‘power to get things done’ that comes along with it. Let’s take a simple example, apart from a handful of friends that call you regularly, remember the ones who call you less frequently. Recollect the last 10 such people who called you. I bet most of them would’ve called to ask some favor from you. (Unless you are a hot girl who is remembered by almost everyone you ever met!)

While shopping, even if we aren’t going to buy most things we see, we all like to have the power to buy them. College elections also see the play of power games, so many students resort to unfair means for the love of power, to be the most influential person in the college. Luckily our batch didn’t have such students for GS and CS posts.

Another example of power is when you alone have the expertise. I remember my father telling me about the early days of ball pens. The technique to prepare the ink which didn’t flow freely and dry up was known to a very few people. These people were so much in demand that big companies were ready to pay a fortune to hire them. Power of capturing the market was important to these companies.

One more thing you must have observed that previously, the name of inventors of new theories and products were made famous. Like the Aeroplane, the TV, steam engine and so on. Now-a-days, you see so many products, but hardly ever come across the names of the people who were involved in the discovery. That’s because discoveries and advances in many fields are held secret by companies so that they aren’t copied by anyone. They want to have the power to manufacture those products all by themselves. No-one can replicate a MAC Thin Air book!

I can go on and on, but I shouldn’t be using my power to bore people by writing long posts.