Making connections

As a toddler, I learned that if any part of our body comes in contact with a hot object, it causes pain. Later during my childhood, I was wa...

As a toddler, I learned that if any part of our body comes in contact with a hot object, it causes pain. Later during my childhood, I was warned not to have any contact with bad boys. Nobody told me why, but the diktat was supposed to be followed strictly. So, my knowledge about various contacts began on a rather negative note.

As a student of science, I learned the importance of contact while studying the mechanism of a call bell, which works on the principle of making and breaking of contact. Subsequently when I observed my father repair a faulty electrical apparatus (the fault being a loose contact), I discovered how important a proper contact was. It did not take long for me to understand that if a person came in contact with a live electric wire, he meets with instant death. That, I thought, was the deadliest aspect of contact.

Most of these instances, however, brought into focus only undesirable features of contacts. I wondered if they possessed any positive side at all. Just then my sister started having problems with her eyesight. On getting it tested, the ophthalmologist prescribed glasses. Being a highly fashion conscious teenager and keen sportswoman, she vehemently discarded the prescription. The obvious choice left for her was contact lenses. I was immensely glad to have discovered a decidedly positive aspect of contact. It had indeed solved my dear sister’s problem!

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Much later at the Indian Institute of Technology, as students we all realised that one of the main reasons why IIT students outshine those from other institutes is the tremendous stress laid on the student-teacher contact (hours). Upon taking a course on Thermal Engineering, I came to understand how much research has already been carried out on the subject of ‘contact resistance’. Being an engineer, I know how vexing it is to quantify and realistically account for it while designing critical equipment.

At IIT we were prepared to face interviews, and taught how important it is to establish and maintain eye contact with the person you are talking to. We realised the criticality of such eye contact only when two toppers in our class were not selected by a reputed company because, during the interview, they both failed to maintain eye contact with the interviewer, which was interpreted as lack of confidence.

Nowadays one does not have to be an engineer or a manager to know how much of a nuisance contact men (more popularly known as middlemen) are with their shady deals. My friend, a surgeon, is an expert in dissecting not only human bodies but also words. Here is how he dissected the word contact: a tact by which one cons others. I hope no one of us comes across such contacts.