Office Office!

Office is a remarkable institution- it is the melting pot of all kinds of people. But before I start off on a boring piece of multiculturalism, let me neatly divide the office population into three groups-

1. The Intellectuals- A rare commodity. They hardly belong here, they do not like their work, their hobbies do not match with the rest and amusingly, their hobbies can actually become their full-time work(??) if there was no pressure from conjugal life, kids, parents, belly(food!) etc. So how to identify them? Simple. Their clothes are "thoda hadke"(distinguishably different) and their talk all the more so. They utter long lost poems in Urdu, listen to Ghazals and Thumri, yet have an encyclopedic knowledge of classical English literature and western music of the yesteryear's. Their movies do not play in the PVRs or Waves. They wait for the Osians and discuss Bergman (may his soul rest in peace) and Goddard. They seem to agree that there were only two directors of any class ever born in India- Satyajit Ray and Ritwick Ghatak. The Benegals, Sens and Ghoses are just pretenders!
2. The Half-Intellectuals- A far more common breed. They are stuck in the middle. they sometimes like their work, sometimes they don't. They are torn between their mediocre tastes and the promises of higher thinking. They are also aware of their limitations- they are too materialistic and crass to evolve into the first group. They like their junk food, Action movies, Harry Potter to discard all the pedestrian stuff. To them, My Brother Nikhil, Swades, Black etc stand for cinematic excellence. Their reading habits follow the bestseller lists.
3. The Workers- They do not seem to think. They do work, they are happy and then they party.Chilled out people, their life stands for many things- gadgets, parties, food, family and even work! They like career planning, usually aware of how to grow their money and somehow they are also not at peace, in spite of the fact that this is what they wanted to do in the first place. As for ID, look for KJo and Jlo fans, people who've heard of Britney Spears but not Morissette, and swears by the crappy business books that come out every week.

In the end, we all fight with existentialism and indulge in 'bad faith'. Profound, huh?

Bollocks!

P.S. - In case, you're curious where I belong, look in the middle.

Opinions

We all have opinions on everything- life, work, men, women(!), books, movies, art etc. But should we have opinions on people- I mean how they are?

Its a difficult choice. Its one of my beliefs that no one behaves in a few particular ways. Human behaviour is a perennial fliud motion. Its never static, always under the influence of one thing or the other- it could be circumstances, the base instincts, the upbringing, the peer pressure and so on. At most, human behaviour can only be imagined as a fliud which takes the shape and contour of the vessel that stores it. And if the vessel breaks, the spirit flies and no predictive forecast of the behaviour would have any meaning.

But then the post-modernists say that even each and every medium can be interpreted in a different way, based upon the ideology you follow, the circumstances that you're in, and the world that exists. But do these intangibles also follow a fluid state?

The world is a sum of the parts. But some has more influence on how the World behaves than others. Take for example Armani, Hugh Hefner or George Bush. Do they change? or are their behaviour constant?

Their behaviour is again governed by a complex set of factors, the state of the world being a pretty crucial one. So here we are in a circularity- men who decide what the world should be are governed by the world themselves.

I need some clarity on this.

Till then I make an oath that I will not have any opinion on anyone.

But I will on books, movies, places and so on.

A little free time in the week of madness!

Yes, I've been given a project and the sacrosanct norms of client confidentiality requires me to stay silent on the details.

But I won't stay silent about the volume of work. For the last couple of days I had been leaving at 1 AM. And i come to office at 9-30 AM, not so sharp :)

15 hours of work! Hell, they don't pay me that much!!!

Now that the boss is not in today, we have a little vela time, and this is how choose to use it.

I must be mad!

But then I am what I am!

P.S.- They should get more clients from China, Vietnam etc etc.

Delhi girls are like no other!

Delhi girls- stuff that dreams are made of?

All right, let me get this correct. I am not writing about my fantasies or publishing material on the web fit for a guy's wet dreams. This is about them -yes, them. And not their details (my more unsophisticated friends say stats!)
Delhi girls are seriously like no other. They have a hugely different world-view (mostly centre-left but customised to individual preferences), awesome skin (and hair) and very active S & D status. They are also quite experimental (and I hope you get what I'm referring to. If not try DPS). They are also extremely knowledgeable (they read their books and papers), smart (quick, perfect accents but not usually cocky, but I've seen that type also), argumentative and accomplished in professional life.

The ideal image of a modern woman?
Yes and No.

Why yes? Their uninhibited lifestyle (pubs, male friends, boyfriends, sex, short-term relationships, smoking, drinking, even drugs) are all good signs. Do not get me wrong here. Some of the things mentioned in the last parenthesis are habits and overdoing them might land you up in trouble- social, moral and physical.
But there should be acceptance of such lifestyles- if a man can smoke, so can a woman. The process takes long, there will be people talking about it and there will be people staring at women puffing. But there should be a conscious effort to dismiss such talk and discuss that it is not such a big deal (wherever possible). If a man can move on from one relationship to the other, then so can a woman. Right now, such a man is a stud, and the woman a slut. That needs to change.
Lets emancipate our women from the stereotype of the "Indian Woman"- principled, traditional, homely etc while we (the male species) are free to so whatever we like. Some argue that we (men and women) should both practise such rigid lifestyles to maintain "purity" and what not?
The reply is that most often it is not possible, and even if possible, maybe not desirable. A man (and a woman) should have the right to do as he (she) chooses.

Without getting adrift, we were talking about Delhi girls. They are a odd bunch. They mostly come from illiberal families (let me be careful here- this includes traditional, repressive joint-family settings and modern nuclear settings where new money rules and so rules extreme pragmatism, the preclude to neo-con ideas, if you know what I mean). So I feel that, more often than not, women trying to prove a point, trying to break out, and with a vengeance. That explains the unsavoury incidences.

It is instructive that NCR is also not a safe place for young women. It fits into my hypothesis- the society is still medieval. The man still thinks women are inferior and are sex objects. The frequent rapes are, I believe, are a function of the prejudices and the mindset as well as arousal.
The problem is, uninhibited lifestyles may make the men believe that women are mere playthings and treat them so. Ideally, we would like them to accept the women with her own independent lifestyle. But a scantily-clad,tipsy woman can also be declared an easy.
There are two solutions and they are both reinforcing. On one hand, the men of liberal disposition should make it a point to try and change their brethren's mind. Just a small chat does wonders. I have tried it out. There is still doubt on the sceptic's mind but it does help.
The women can use their learning and wisdom to make good role models. Role models, accomplishments etc do make men realise that women are just part of the human family and can in no way be a toy, a plaything; a human being with either less, equal or more intelligence and skill.

The Delhi girl can do this- they get the best of education, they are smart and there are plenty of opportunities in NCR to prove your mark. And why just stick to NCR? We are children of globalisation right. Its time to justify our lineage.

Its time to change- not just our lingo, our clothes and the work. Its time our society changes.