When will we learn professionalism?

There is this club in Bangalore for the amateur photgraphers. They advertised that they would accept pictures from anybody for the 2008 exhibition. We were highly interested and so sent few pictures. One picture was selected and we were instructed to provide the final enlarged print. That was done and then on the day of the exhibition, I land up in exhibition hall at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Lo and behold: they inform without any word of apology that they have decided not to display our print. The print, when enlarged, does not fit the perspective and they had been silent about that.

It seems that they have been trying to convey to me this information for the last one month or so………..and could not reach me through email or phone…. Can you believe that? We are in this highly connected world and two tech-savvy persons in IT capital of India cannot communicate.

One month? ......... I submitted the picture only 20 days back.

I was indecent because I questioned them….great…another boomerang for trying to find the truth….

Then I expressed my “grief” J through email……I was told that I am seeking explanations again and again…

Also, it seems I am irresponsible because I am not “calling” enough to enquire about the fate of my photograph….great: though not mentioned anywhere, this seems to be required….

I found the behavior of the organizer to be extremely arrogant and irresponsible.

I was extremely frustrated by this. This club, I guess, is run by mostly educated, well-off IT professionals. But there is no culture of correct communication. I guess, that is part and parcel of Indian culture. We can get highly educated, but we still have feudal outlook. We have not learnt that the moment you are involving the public, you are accountable to the public. Just an NGO is liable to be questioned for the usage of donations, the clubs are required to be transparent and accountable for all the actions involving those who do not belong to the coterie. There is one thing: setting up a club and there is the other responsibility of providing proper transparency. In India, when we are the organizers or top office bearers of any organization, be it small or big, we feel that we are the boss and we cannot be questioned. If you question, you are wrong and not the other way round.