Volume 5 · The Great Indian Bazaar · Essay 55

De-Networking

You may not know the name De-Networking, but you know the thing. This page only introduces the two of you formally.

The idea is simple, and like most simple ideas it is easy to nod at and hard to use. The nod is free. The use costs attention, every day, in small change.

It is worth keeping in your pocket not because it is always right, but because it is always available. A tool you carry beats a perfect tool you left at home.

Stand at a tea stall during a big cricket match and you will see a hundred strangers become one family in an evening. The same crowd, given a different match, can split over a surname.

Society is a long conversation; the only question is whether you are listening or merely waiting to speak. Keep it like a good key: accessible, unlabelled, and used often.