May 18, 2012
After listening to a heartfelt, blazing half an hour tirade against the state of school education system from a respected educator who had been the principal of one of the sister schools of mine (coincidentally my sister went there), I end up at the building site of the home of one of the popular movie villains of Malayalam cinema.
Few minutes are spent in the ignorant notion that it is an upcoming hotel. The man himself shows up in a few minutes in a vehicle that befits a movie star. Impeccably dressed and polite, he is the exact opposite of the characters he has been stereotyped into. Nothing about his polished demeanor and sense of humor belies that he has made a career out of getting beaten up by heroes who are nowhere near as well-built as him.
Details of the master bathroom upstairs come up for discussion. "Would there be a Jacuzzi?" I wonder aloud. "Jacuzzi will surely end up being drying boards for underwear in the bathroom. Then what's the point? It's only in the West that people use tubs for relaxing." the man was a realist. He shares his plan to keep carps in a pool near the entrance. He is rather precise about their number: 5!
Towards the end of the meeting, he stares up at the top of the coconut tree nearby and comments, "ee veedinte foundation kettiyappo vacha thenganu. Ippo athu kaychu!" (This coconut tree was planted when the foundation of the house was laid. Now the tree has fruits!) I guess the physically, emotionally and monetarily draining construction work has the capacity to bring out the sentimentalist in even the toughest villains.
An hour long marketing seminar of the group that claims to be world's largest asset management company. Hotel Residency Tower near the old Secretariat is the venue. Time was fixed for 4:30. I find myself alone in the conference room with the steward Ajith at 4:25. Mango welcome drink. Things get rolling by 4:50. All the representatives of the company are unmistakably Kerala Iyers. Couple of them have brought their mothers, clad in silk sarees, along just in case anybody has doubts.
20 minute presentation by the Kerala head of the firm about changing trends in investment and attitudes of the global citizen. Much emphasis made on retirement planning. Its complete absence feverishly bemoaned. No credit given to the fact that in that very room more than half the invited audience "who are in business" are past the repeated referred to "retirement age." Such observations are immaterial I suppose. Valuable financial research and information are only created in American offices to be shipped around the world. We must swallow and wait for everything to go down! Coffee and sandwiches to help the process at the end.
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