"Whatever happens will be for the worse. Therefore, it is on our interests that as little as possible happens. " -- A wise drunk man.
Consider the worthwhile activities of a Thamizh (under) graduate before liberalization and the Silicon Valley civilization. He'd register at the employment exchange, write cover letters to highlight pedigree Iyengar ancestry, solicit recommendations from the onnu vitta chithappa's athimber who retired as a stenographer at TVS, go through public service commission exams and/or take the Southern Railways job baton from the retiring/expired father. The highest hope was becoming a Lower Division Clerk. The pay structure and work ambiance successfully eliminated all risks of nurturing ambition.
Now: The open nature of the job market and the knowledge economy has dealt a killer blow to the virtue of slacking by fostering competitiveness and a can-do optimism. The continuous pressure to improvise, learn and grow above one's station while simultaneously being able to boil oneself down to a bunch of bullet points and elevator pitches is the result of a grand capitalist conspiracy to deprive Thamizhan of the pleasures of indolence.
Business school appears to be an exit from the vicious cycle of forced aspirations and software defect reports. But the pain of writing essays along with MBA applications -- the crap about being motivated to excel at excelling and work in teams -- is comparable only to reading feminist rants about menstrual cycles. Worse yet, one cannot honestly write, "I want to do an MBA because I have fucking had enough of null pointer exceptions, I like bullshitting and am a natural at that, and want to be paid obnoxiously high for it so that I can buy that lakefront villa and a BMW." And after two years and a $100K hole in the pocket, one would realize that he has traded a relatively secure coding job for a "move up or move out" style ultra-competitive McKinsey shit.
Pained by the death trap of progression in the postmodern world, the heart deliberates a peaceful livelihood where there is no scope -- hence hope -- for improvement. Say, a waiter at the mess opposite to the Mayavaram bus stand. The only things to look forward in life would be two meals a day, a cutting of Old Monk every night and bit padam on Sunday.
-- Alan Smithee and I
Labels: BMW, cutting, government office, Hindu rate of growth, Iyengar, LDC, Mayavarm, McKinsey, Old Monk, Shakeela, Silicon Valley, Southern Railway, TVS
By far more illuminating and less pithy
Such a wonderful post after a long time. You should write more like this. Absolutely loved it.
That mess opposite mayavaram bus stand may soon become a gay bar. Not that there is anything wrong with it - as long as they serve nalla sarakku, i'm fine - one could always move underneath a quieter tree with the sarakku.
-m
naech ba.
Maha, the sad part of Mayavaram mess becoming a gay bar is that Amit Varma will write about it and how happy he is for the gays. All his readers will swarm the place like "ee on pee". Probably (you and) your besant nagar liberal family can easily blend in.
Brilliant
Petre: OK.
Sankar/Rasftafari/Anon: nanri hai.
Maha/Alan: You know that can be the next spoof post.
My relative works in a hotel. Do you know how hard that is?
@Arthi
Konjam neram sandhoshama irukka vida maateengale! ;)
Stumbled upon this post and liked it. Keep it up !