Saturday, May 28, 2005

Dr.Sadist, or how i learnt to ruin someone's career..

Am back. No apologies asked, none given.

Fact of life: A juvenile serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei with a missing R-cortex knows more about taking a career decision than a tambram mom.


Imagine the best saturday morning... It had rained last night... the world is beautiful, offering infinite possibilities.. alive with broken trees on all over, flooded roads, and a distinct tangy waft of the overflowing sewer next street. This is how it is in bangalore at least. Having decided to ignore all this, we proceed to enjoy an otheriwise crisp saturday morning, with a cup of coffee, and no radio city of course. Plans are already in motion for an amazing lunch, followed by 'Girl, Interrupted', courtesy: Mr. Ganesh of the CD shop, which interestingly, does not have a name, Everyone refers it respectfully as the CD shop next to Shiva Bakery, which more surprisingly sells just biscuits and tea.

The area has a huge students' population, and Mr. Ganesh is a much-respected godfather, partly because he lends out DVDs at a cheap rate, but mostly because of his being a philanthropic appeaser of sexually frustrated youth. As a student, you can't afford to disrespect the only person in the area who lends pornographic CDs.

And then comes the call- the voice at the other end is raspy and with an unmistakable accent - one of a worried tambram mom who is forced to take career decisions for her darling daughter, who she thinks hasn't grown beyond 13 years of age, and is an innocent hard-working girl, not realising that her daughter has shacked up with 6 different people, 2 of them being her neighbour's dogs.

Formal introductions were made. She came to know that i am a tambram(politically right, but practically wrong), studied at IIITB and is currently working in a place which she thinks is a safe place for her daughter to work.

During the course of our conversation, I came to know a lot more about her second cousin's son who is in australia, and how he thinks that an IT degree is a must before she gets married(try talking to these people.. its amusing..they think that if her daughter does a ph.d, she'll develop a monstrous ego, and wont find a suitable groom..lol...) She asked about the course, explained that her daughter got an M.S. by research at IIT Madras, and how an M.Tech is better than an M.S., for the job market and for her marriage(ya, these ppl are for real), asked everything about the hostel from the bolts in the room to the flush in the loo, how safe the hostel is(safe=>she shouldn't be shacking up..lol..), how i found the course and the profs.

This went on for half an hour, at the end of which i decided that i've had enough, and redirected her to one of my friends,a tambram herself, but a sweet one at that. Am sure that she'd be able to handle these questions much better than I can.

And btw, it was her daughter's career.. shouldn't she decide? someone correct me if i am wrong :)

3 comments:

Nilu said...

The easiest way to put these people off - tell them you are going to quit your job and "find yourself". I have perfected the art ;)

Ishwar said...

al, idhellam....
just becos u are one gaboor, dyona thing you are all the gaboors... whatever :D

Expert Reviewer said...

lol... yeah... and I handled it myself for 4 consecutive days over the phone and 5th day, direct meeting.. good ish.. :) that she didnt talk about getting an MTech degree for marrying someone.. I would have gone WILD!