Mayhem

My views on marriage are I think on very liberal lines. I believe that a man and woman immaterial of country, caste, religion etc have the right to live as a couple tied by the sanctity of marriage. This view may also in the next decade have to include marriages between members of the same sex. Much to the ire of some of my family members, I have been supportive of my cousins marrying outside the community. With this being my attitude I was in for a rude shock when during a social gathering I heard a friend announce the wedding of his daughter. On questioning as to where the boy hailed from, prompt came the reply that the boy was an IT professional. (Frankly, all of us were waiting to hear from which part of India or the globe the groom came.) But the father of the bride had a totally different viewpoint and according to him there were only two kinds of people in the world, those in the IT field and the poor weaklings who were not part of the revolution. I must say that I belong to the later category. Being a party to this conversation, I was taken aback, but however remained mute as the person who spoke was much older. I thought of the arrogance of his lot.

This incident happened sometime in 1999/2000 when IT ruled India and right from the price of fish to that of a piece of land was determined by the IT Czars, Czarinas, Princes, Princesses, and other IT royalties. The person who made this classification was, was a top notch executive of a MNC IT firm. To tell you frankly when I returned from a long innings in Saudi Arabia in 1995, I did not know what IT meant. It is said that I have a good IQ. I did not know whom to ask for the expansion. Without seeming like a fool, I asked someone very sheepishly and got the meaning. From then on, my GK in these matters have improved substantially. Again I had thought that the human race was divided into 2, male and female. This new classification by this friend was hard for me to digest. At that point I thought I would wait for my day. Being the era of the “Slumdog Millionaire”, this poor underdog too has had her day.

January 7th 2009, would be a Black Letter Day in the annals of Indian Industry. That was the day the great Ramalinga Raju told the world all the Asatyam about the mammoth Satyam he had built over the past 25 years. He was the blue eyed boy of the Indian Industry and everything revolved around him and a few more of his kind. The fact that the government moved in with extra speed to lift the sinking ship is well known. The government had to do that so as to retain the corporate image India had in the international community. Money is being pumped into the company and its very existence depends on what it can get from the government and the banks. I wonder if the ex Czars and Czarinas, ever wonder as to where this huge sum of money is coming from? It is the money earned by the poor working weakling class or rather the other half. They led a frugal life with no flashy cars and foreign trips and saved every penny in a Nationalised Bank so that their offsprings could have a better life. How are the IT Czars feeling about shamelessly using this money? When I last met my friend, Satyam had only produced Maytas, I wonder what he would have to say now that Satyam and Maytas together have produced MAYHEM. I would also like to ask if his classification still holds good!!!