Volume 18 - 1 May 2007

There are some questions in my head that will find vent as we go through this… some of them have been with me for some time, and some have come up because of the things that I have seen/heard/did…

Yesterday was the launch party of a portal that has been my primary responsibility as part of my Internship project. As I usual in all such matters, things happen and progress at their own pace before suddenly reaching the crescendo of live wire activity… so my Sunday started at 4 in the morning since I was to oversee certain operations and went on till late into the night… the final day was the same…

At around 5 in the evening (Monday) the Operations Manager pushed me out of the premises saying that unless I move I’ll not be able to make it to the venue… now, I had been here earlier with the operations team to furnish the technical logistics but then we had used the workmen’s access route and never quite paid attention to the pomp and luxury of the place…

We had hired the Lawns at Taj Krishna and modified the looks of the place to look like Old Hyderabad – Char Minar et al. There I ran into the various teams – the Presentation people/Advertising partners/Event managers and so on… since such things and people don’t hold my attention for long, I took the opportunity to have a see at the place…

The hotel built in an Indo-Gothic style has a design similar to the Maurya Sheraton… much attention has been paid to the fact that the place should reflect the pomp and splendour of what Hyderabad once was… so on one hand we have the works of many Western artists (and, a lot of fakes) while on the other we have intricate work of highly skilled Indian craftsmanship…

I took the elevators right to the Top floor and then walked down floor-by-floor right till the basement and then into the Taj’s larder. Yes, I saw their Wine cellars and other stores… what impressed me was the amazing order they seemed to have in the proceedings… the lower levels had these kind of highways for speedy processing of orders and other services… while the occupants were unaware of the kind of workforce that works to serve them.

My old school buddy, Nameesh in the evening, joined me and together we analyzed/criticized all that we saw. The fellow is headed to Ukraine in a couple of weeks, and between us we have made up quite a few Ukrainian dreams and jokes. Now, this person is like an encyclopedia on any city that he has ever lived in… therefore, through the evening he kept on pointing out the mistakes that socialites and others were making while talking about Hyderabad… haha!

Now, I come to the first question: as I looked around at the guests, I realized that everyone from the Business side of the company was in attendance. However, the engineers were conspicuous by their absence… I fail to understand why this discrimination? My engineers (and friends) who worked with me all through the last one month on ground (and, perhaps even before than that)… those very fellows who had established connectivity for our resources even at the venue were not invited while fellows had been flown in all the way from other locations… even Nameesh concurred the same being an issue at his company too… Why?

The evening otherwise was splendid… almost everyone from the who’s-who of Hyderabad was in attendance… heroes and heroines, industry leaders, government officials etc.

Certain actors and actresses were among the principal guests… the moment they walked in, the photographers almost got on top of them… imagine, there are a fifty cameras in your face, and they are even capturing the brand-new root-canal and capped teeth that you are trying to hide somehow… in this matter, I feel there are two sets of crack-heads – the ones who allow such behaviour and the ones who exhibit such behaviour… after all, even these fellows are mortals, made of the same things as you and me, breathing the same air, and yet all this pompousness and glitter – why?

This brings me to the second question – why do we crave after celebrities/stars? A girl – all of 19 – crowned Miss Universe gets more ears (and eyes) than a 60-year old scientist who has devoted his life to the study of the geological patterns of the Earth, and is also speaking about Global Warming… especially because he knows and has studied the phenomenon unlike as in the other case where it is fashionable to say so…

Why were we there in mute and rapt attention listening to people talking incoherent and unrelated things? I have reasons to believe that they have the same speech for all such occasions… now, I am not saying that these people are not good… obviously, they are at something – that’s why they are there… but the question is whether they are really that worthy of our adulation?

Why do we require celebrities to endorse our products? A starlet bathing with the soap that I’d like to use, a cricketer riding a bike that I’d like… why? Why do we seek ourselves in others?

Well, the food was fine… but the desserts – the desserts were awesome! Had a number of servings…

All in all it was a nice little evening with a look at almost everyone worth looking Hyderabad…