Of References and Referees

There is a good reason universities, employers, and people asking others to refer you, in general, discourage you from reading the references that you have got. All of them insist on ridiculous measures such as the referee signing on every conceivable blank space on the envelope while others insist on the referees mailing the letters themselves. I, till the day before yesterday, never realized why.

A friend of mine had sought a reference from a teacher a few weeks back. The day before she was bored at home and decided to read the reference. Elaborate preparation was made. A lamp was procured. A table found with a plugpoint handy. Nerves were steadied. The envelope was studied in an effort to figure out how the reference had been folded. Then she felt that the bulb in the lamp was too powerful and a bulb of a slightly lower wattage was found. So on and so forth went the preparations till at last the stage was set for the great breach of trust.

I got a frantic call a few minutes after the perjury took place. I was in class. I cancelled the call, looked around apologetically, and put my phone on silent mode. The caller called again. My phone being an old and roughly handled Nokia phone made a farting sound as it vibrated. My class is a class of eight people. Such farting sounds are not taken to kindly. Turning red, I cancelled the call again. But the caller persisted. Finally someone suggested I take the call.

There was strange news. My friend had succeeded in reading the reference. It was a glowing reference. Her referee thought of the referred as a person capable of great achievement. The referred was a very sincere and hand-working person. The referred was very intelligent. But there was a problem. She wasn't the referred. The referee had placed a reference for someone else in an envelope for her. She wanted to know what to do.

I now realize why one should never read ones references. Probably the universities don't read them either. Neither do the referees. And so shouldn't the referred. References are just a way to make the application process seem difficult. Imagine an institute where you just had to send them your transcript of marks, your email address and phone number, and the course you wanted to enroll for. That is essentially all that anyone wanting to endow you with knowledge needs to know. But most of us would not apply to such an institute because it doesn't make us fill forms in triplicate, get attestations, photographs, references, dinosaur eggs and the works. We would probably think that these institutes are a fake.

So that they remain in business, institutes resort to reverse psychological techniques like making the application process seem difficult, making themselves seem fastidious and us insignificant in their scheme of things. Once we realize that, we can all overcome our innate urges, to uncover anything that is to be kept secret from us, specially if the secrecy is regarding references, with ease.

And while we cogitate on this realization, I request suggestions on how to help my friend.