Himesh of Hyderabad

I met a person last week in Hyderabad… the person who drove the car that came to pick me up at the airport – was with me till late night when he dropped me off at the hotel.

I don’t remember his name, but let me call him Himesh – he had a stubble, tight jeans, tight t-shirt, open jacket and a cap pulled down over his forehead. All that he didn’t do compared to his more famous likeness was go “oooooo” when he missed traffic lights…And hence Himesh.

Himesh was a man with attitude. Spoke halting, heavily accented English but insisted on listening to a radio station that has the RJs speaking predominantly English and plays English songs. At the airport he held the name board fairly apologetically and as inconspicuously as possible. He drove like he was Haikkonen Himesh. At the hotel he got into a fracas with the doorman who apparently referred to him disrespectfully and asked him not to stop in front of the main door. Of course, he took the tip that I proffered, but with such a supercilious air that I felt fairly apologetic about the quantum of the tip (which was quite substantial if I may add)…

Why was he Himesh? Why the attitude? Why the permanent disgruntlement? And he seemed fairly typical of the new generation of Hyderabadis (going by the few people I met). From my previous experiences with Hyderabadis, dating to about a few years back, they have always been very courteous, very at peace with themselves…

Drawing a rough parallel, this change is fairly evident in native Bangaloris (or is it Bengaloorians) too over the last few years. The one common change in these two cities over the last few years is the huge growth in the IT/ITES segments in them. And the consequent increase in salary levels among a largely expatriate work force with largely foreign skill sets. Is this the reason? Possibly it is. There seems to be a distinct class divide now among the Have-a-BPO/IT-jobs and Have-not-a-BPO/IT-jobs. The majority of the former, are typically from outside the city, have high proficiency in English, high salaries and conspicuously extravagant spending habits. The latter meanwhile can only look and envy. (Almost like the metros of yore where the divide was with respect to having a secure Government/Bank job…)

This theory seems to be borne out of the rising crime rates in these cities (crimes committed not for survival, but for spending money) and the increasing linguistic xenophobia (look at any movie and more often than not there is the mandatory comedy track deriding the linguistic foreigner – Indian or otherwise).

I believe, unless we address the cantankerous Himesh-es along with infrastructure and the like, while on the path to development, we will have unrest and chaos which may soon become unmanageable.

Is it reservation that is the answer? I don’t think so – it will only perpetuate this like the hydra-headed caste system being propagated in reality by the system of caste-based reservation. Is it low-cost quality education? Maybe it is, but it is too late for this generation of job-seekers. Maybe it is generation of entrepreneurial opportunities for today’s Himeshes… I don’t know. I bet most of us don’t. But we better find out fast… The first step to that is to not get blinded by the splendor of the non-Himeshes’ success stories and accept the existence of the Himeshes.

Till then, Himesh will continue to exist in a state of growing discontent dreaming Walter Mitty’s dreams I’m sure… I sure as hell hope that he doesn’t stop dreaming and get into action-mode… but I guess he will at some point.

Ramblings on rumblings and noise cancellations

Have you heard the old limerick about rumblings written by i-dont-remember-who? Well it goes like this:

I sat next to a duchess at tea
Her rumblings abdominal
Were simply phenomenal
And everyone thought it was me.

I was sitting in a train from Mysore to Chennai. Early morning, sipping tepid, extra sweet tea and everyone intently gazing out of the window pretending to take in the scenery - the reality being that no one wanted to talk.

Next to me was a stylish-denim-and-red-T-shirt-clad middle aged French-bearded gentleman with a distinctively Bengali accent when talking on the phone… Even the sound he made while sipping tea screamed Bengali.

Of course, many-a-times you would also have been in similar situations with the Indian countryside, desultory conversation, boring magazines and oily snacks whizzing by... You may well ask 'so what's special'. What's special is that this gent was rumbling abdominally with a vengeance.

(Did I hear you say ‘disgusting’? Well, you asked me ‘What’s special’ didn’t you?)

All this with look of nonchalance on his face and beatific contentment that would flit across his beefy countenance for a split second after each hell-raiser broke loose. The contentment was understandable, but the nonchalance must have come from a supreme belief that the noisy train sounds would cancel out the rumbles. He may have been hard of hearing also...

Anyway, I got a few reproachful looks from fellow passengers. Unshaven me in old track pants and baggy T-shirt may have looked the type who would do this - definitely not a middle-aged dapper Goshto Pal-look-alike. So I hunched my head into my shoulders and busied myself typing this on my mobile... (and remembered a dear friend of mine who often spouts the irresistable hindi-belt ode "thain thuin madhyama... thuskari maha hathyari")

But that’s not the point…

The point is, Hey, isn't this what we all do? Spitting on roads, rioting, eve teasing, scratching graffiti on public toilet walls, advertising our latest loves on walls of historical monuments… believing no one will notice us - the comfort of invisibility in a crowd. The belief that the rumbles will be lost in the deafening din of humanity passing by.

And hence would it be right to posit that as long as there is a crowd, the best in us can't surface. There is too much comfort in collective failure and wrong-doing. If so, then loneliness is the route to individual brilliance.

Individual work dazzles - teamwork is a means of sharing it and hiding collective weaknesses. Brilliance must perforce be compromised since the brilliance of the team is the brilliance of the weakest link...

So then, is teamwork fit only for a group that is equally mediocre? Of course then, the mediocre can survive in a world illuminated by flashes of individual brilliance only if they stick together and work in teams.

Maybe that is why the tiger hunts alone... And the wild dog hunts in packs... I wonder...

By the way, I had a chance to view the tiger, wild dog, elephant in the wild - was in the Mudumalai forest last weekend. I will write about it in a couple of days...