MAIDEN VOYAGE

India is indeed progressing. Its not that I have harboured any doubts regarding its immense growth potential, its just that the proof that I got kind of over whelmed me. Maybe a decade or more back, a TV per 25 houses was the norm, especially in villages. I remember the times when as a child, vacationing in my grannys house in a remote village of kerala, our living room would be transformed into a mini theater of sorts for most of the village. A huge gathering would be assembeled at the house from morning to watch Ramayan till evening when the occasional Malayalam movie would be screened on national TV (cable was not available then). Now to find a hutment without a TV would be more difficult than finding water in the desert.

So it should come as no surprise to anyone that both the terminals of Mumbai domestic airport are now as crowded or more so than CST station at peak hours, thanks to the variety of low cost airlines, rock bottom air fares, and the upwardly mobile middle class of the society with their ever increasing spending power.

On a day no different than any in Mumbai I was at Terminal 1A of the Mumbai domestic airport to catch a GoAir to Coimbatore. I saw that the airport is not just crowded like a railway station, its just as chaotic and messy. Waiting to board my flight I see a couple of foreigners in their tweed jackets and khakis, a stylish Sindhi woman in her typically sindhi clothes yakking away to glory on a Nokia N-series, a group of IT Yuppies with their haggard looks and their ever present laptops hanging from their shoulders and then I see him – Senthil Senthalvarayan of CNBC TV 18 fame. As I contemplated my esteemed company I reached my seat 17C. I was shocked and surprised and for once I was lost on words (for those who know me personally – that’s pretty rare!!!). My co-passengers are a couple of people who look as if they have just got up from the pavement and have been given seats on the plane! Before you decide to crucify me as judgmental, narrow-minded etc. pray, hear me out. These people clearly belonged to the lower strata of the society and uneducated – a young guy and his mother. They were clean and dressed as they would have on any other day. Cheap sari, plastic chappal, no frills pants and shirt. The woman was so slight, surely not a result of diets and gyms, but a lot of unrelenting hardships of life and hardwork, that she was lost in the seat. I helped her buckle the seat belt. She was mortally frightened when the plane took off. I was scared that she might throw up all over me. But none of that happened. She was quite brave and other than covering her head with the pallu of her sari and screwing her eyes shut as tightly as humanly possible there was no reaction from her. I helped them buy biscuits from the flight attendants who obviously spoke only English. The rest of the flight was uneventful as I was quite busy shutting out the screeching whine of 5 year old I the row ahead of ours and penning my thoughts as they came.

I think that moment when I put my eyes on my co-passengers that fateful evening was one of the moments that I could declare to the world “Hello there, India has arrived on the global scene”! But strange is my country. When on one hand I rejoice at the thought of air travel (once the domain of the rich and bitchy) being available to the commonest of common man, on the other hand I am disgusted at the on going talks for increasing reservation quotas in various sectors of our society!

Where exactly are we moving? For every step we keep forward, how do we manage to keep jumping 2 steps back?

HALLELUIAH! JERKS!!

There are jerks and then there are JERKS. These are people who actually think that they know better than you what is good for you. These are not the genuine well wishing kind of people – those who don’t like seeing you go down a drain and advise you against it or people who by some merit such as sperm donation, umbilical cord, an intimate friendship etc are related to you. These are by standers who have to advise on every aspect of your life, whether you want it or not. Not only do they consider that to be their birthright, they also consider themselves gifts of God on earth!

I am someone who normally has an opinion for every thing and many a times I do render that opinion without being asked. I have been told by enough and more people that this habit of mine is far from endearing. People especially adults do not like to be told at every point in life what is to be done. Especially when it comes to small things like which shirt to wear, where to take the wife for dinner, how to spend a holiday, what is the definition of a nutritious breakfast, how much sugar is right in coffee….. At a later stage these are the very kind of opinions – brash, rash, unmindful, thoughtless which end up hurting people – though that might not have been the intention of the person expressing the opinion.

I was faced today by such a jerk who gave me a very final and imposing instruction regarding a decision I was contemplating to put into action the next day. Who the hell does he think he is?????? I am generally not a very close-minded person – I listen to every body and I take pains to agree or disagree with views expressed only by people that I value. The rest is just hot air. So it is understandable why I was irritated to the core when someone decided to butt in on a private conversation I was having with a common acquaintance. The issue at hand was important to me and quite a delicate matter. There I was discussing it with a close friend and Mr. Jerk butts in and decides to dictate what constitutes right and wrong behaviour on my part. He had not even heard me out before there was a barrage of what he thought was apt advice for my given situation. I was angry and that is not too pleasant situation for me to be in. This uncouth behaviour was topped by his analysis on where I erred in understanding my Boss or rather why my Boss did not understand me. I had had enough from a guy who did not know me or my Boss from the moon nor did he have any idea of the chemistry between us or the work dynamics.. Anyway the conversation came to an abrupt end and so did the evening.

Later, as I rewinded the event through my head I realized that people like Mr. Jerk had an important role in the world. They are the best tools for anger management. In all situations they invariably end up agitating you and you need to work very hard to control that temper of yours so as not to bash their face into the wall behind. That might well be the best tool for self-development that you can have in practical life and the best part is that they are found a dozen to one and their services are absolutely free. And for people like me they are an added inspiration of what not to be in life. So I guess, even Mr. Jerk has his part cut out in the grand scheme of things!!!!!!!!!