Sunday, March 20, 2005

The Corporate Hippie

The transition from a long haired, sandal wearing hippie to cropped hear and tie and shoe wearing corporate guy is not easy as it seems. For one, shoes hurt my feet, and my socks start to smell after a couple of days. And, I have to take bath twice a day (the horrors). I also have this cognitive dissonance, which I will think of writing later.

There was this bank executive today as chief guest and I was surprised to see him spouting such words as 'poor people', 'women trekking 10 kilometres for a litre of water', etc. I had to pinch myself to see that I was indeed listening to this suit wearing capitalist talk such things and not asleep in the sub-continent heat. Ouch! He started talking about missing his family when he is at work. Funny, only when they are filthy rich and have earned enough money to burn for a couple of generations do they even think about these things. Otherwise, they advice the minnows to sacrifice something for their employers, whom, by the way they are happy to chuck out for an increase in their profits. Talk about humour, eh? The world's richest Indian now says beyond a point, earning money means nothing - but he still wants to become even richer. Ironies!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

mams, mr. Purwar is no suit wearing capitalist. He's the head of SBI which isn't exactly walmart.
And I wonder what makes you think tht having long hair makes you a hippie. attacking the symptom doesn't cure the cause. and you make it sound like being a hippie is a compliment. It simply means you're willing to spout peace just cuz the guy who provides you with pot/speed does too. It doesn't take great political conviction.
Nirmal

Lumbergh-in-training said...

Mams, nice to see you here :)
Just to be clear, it was not Mr. Purwar. It was the guy on the previous day. :)