Priorities! - a short story

Read a nice short story recently. Really short it is. It had some other title, but I chose to call it "Priorities!"

At dawn the telephone rings. "Hello, Senor Humphrey? This is Ernesto, the caretaker at your country house."

"Ah yes, Ernesto. What can I do for you? Is there a problem?"

"Um, I am just calling to advise you, sir, that your parrot died."


"My parrot? Dead? The one that won the international competition?"

"Si, that's the one."

"Darn! That's a pity! I spent a small fortune on that bird. What did he die from?"

"From eating the rotten meat."

"Rotten meat? Who fed him rotten meat?"

"Nobody, senor. He ate the meat of the dead caballo."


"Dead horse? What dead horse?"

"The thoroughbred, Mr. Lucky."

"Mr. Lucky! My horse that won the Preakness a few years back?"

"Si."

"How did he die?"

"He died from all that work pulling the water cart."

"Are you insane? What water cart?"

"The one we used to put out the fire."


"Good Lord! What fire are you talking about, man?"

"The one at your hacienda! A candle fell, and the curtains caught on fire."

"What!!! But there's electricity at the house!!!! What was the candle for?"

"For the funeral."

"FUNERAL? WHAT FUNERAL?!"

"Your mother's. She showed up one night out of the blue, and I thought she was a thief, so I hit her with your new Tiger Woods Nike Driver."

*** SILENCE ***

"Ernesto, if you broke that driver, you're fired!"

Do you like it?

Let us be thankful for the fools...

Of late, I have been seeing - with lot of dismay, I must add - that fools in this world are being ridiculed left, right and centre. If an ordinary fool does not have a place in this world, where the world is going to? Encouraged by dear Anita Varghese, soon I am venturing into starting an Association of Supreme Fools (hereafter referred as ASF).

ASF will strive to put our view point to the world at large. People may say what they like, but we will continue to espouse the cause of fools like us. Motto of ASF is simple. "Let us be thankful for the fools." I have been collecting information and currently doing a literature survey on the subject. (Wait for the brochure of ASF - will be published soon).


Please remember what Mark Twain and Einstein said on this subject. Mark Twain said (it seems) :

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. And someone equally intelligent went one step further. "The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity".

And our own Einstein is supposed to have remarked, The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. He has also said once, I am told, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not so sure about the the universe."

If you are wondering whether Einstein put it in the right spirit, here is another one by Elmert Hubbard, which explains the issue in right perspective : "Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped."

Some people think that it is quite easy to be a fool. Only experienced people will know how difficult it is and what supreme sacrifice we do every day to be in this state. All for making the world a happy and cheerful place. On the other hand, being a wise person only is very easy.

SAM Levenson : It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.

The Founding members of ASF are determined to take all the abuse in our chin and march ahead. Our guiding principle is that we shall not be deterred by petty talks and humiliations of others. People may try to keep us out of their lives or even try to prevent their children from joining our society - we may even become a minority in the future and face extinction. But,

Nothing is foolproof.............to a sufficiently talented fool.

So, we fools will continue our service to the society through ASF and be the voice of the voiceless. Like snoopy here.

PS : Membership drive is on. Send in your applications and register online through Musings...

Untouchable Firms

For all non-Indians, untouchability prevailing in our society is one of the distinct feature of India. Though things are still bad, I tend to think that we have made good progress in reducing the ills of untouchability - even though there are some horror pockets even now in spite of the huge political mobilisation of dalits during the last two decades. As India started becoming a 'powerful' economy, we added other sorts of untouchability also into our basket. Corporate untouchability is one for instance.

For the blue-eyed boys and girls passing out of the modern business temples called 'Indian Institute of Managements", placement season and jobs offered to them are normally front-page hogging news. Eight digit and nine digit salaries offered to them - that too in dollars - was usual. Not this year.

The ongoing recession has caught up with them too. Grudgingly, they are allowing some 'smaller' firms - who remained untouchable hitherto - also for placement. Here is a small news item on this.

"Every year by February, the sharp suits from corporate houses line up at the gates of IIM campuses hoping to recruit a bunch of bright young managers. The IIMs are snobbish about whom they let in, the blue-chip boys are cherry picked and accommodated, the rest left to wait in the rain. This year, things look rather different. Everyone — even former untouchables like start-ups — are welcome."

With the economy showing signs of distress, placement season this year has been squeezed of its juicy paychecks and headline-grabbing offers. Companies are recruiting fewer students and on more modest terms. When slot zero-day closed at IIM-Ahmedabad on Wednesday, it was clear that the recession had no exceptions. If 25 companies crammed into the IIM-A campus last year on slot zero-day, there were seven this year and 13 students landed up with offer letters as compared to dozens more last year.

‘‘When times were better, students walking out of interview were pounced upon by friends enquiring about the package. Today, all we asked was whether he made it,’’ said a graduating student. On Saturday, slot zero at IIM-Calcutta too was a somber affair. The big guns — I-banks and the foreign recruiters — were missing.

Joseph Ike, IIM-C recruitment co-ordinator, said the B-school had called companies from sectors such as media, pharma and retail which till now ‘‘have either not been associated with our campus or have been associated to a very small extent’’. Fewer foreign firms registered to participate in placement process.

Natural calamities are great levelers. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, everyone is brought in to one level and treated with equality. I guess, the same is true for man-made calamities also. Like Economic Melt Down, Terrorism...

Rahman and Oscars

Entire India and the world is going ga-ga over A.R.Rahman getting oscars. All I can say is, What we knew more than twelve years ago, the world is getting to know only now! When we heard his songs from films like Minsara Kanavu, Taal, Kandukondaen.., we were amazed and might have listened to them a thousand times. Hollywood is catching up with me only now...

Anyway, congratulations to A.R.Rahman from me also.


After the oscars, when I called my fellow Rahman-fan, Sajan to share the happy moments, we got into a tussle (as usual) about Tamil vs Malayalam. He claimed that Rahman is a Malayali and there is no reason for me to get elated. I contested strongly and said that the entire world knows that he is a Tamilian. But, the truth is probably, he is a Tamil speaking Malayali, settled in Chennai.

Anyway, even if he is a born Tamilian, what is there for me to feel proud of? I was jokingly telling a friend that all of us have a share in this Oscar - because we only encouraged his music, liked it so much, ensured that his film music is success by watching and appreciating it; that is why he ended up getting this oscar. So, even though Rahman credited God for all his success, I think, we too have a right to a small piece.