Powered By Blogger

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Chronicles of the aam aadmi - I


This I hope kick starts a series of my so called enriching experiences with the so called "aam aadmi"

Time : 1324 hours
Place : My office lift
Prerequisite : My office is in UB City (owned by one of the country biggest industrialists - Mr. Vijay Mallya ) and since large parts of it are still under construction we have lift operators for every lift. This is to avoid any inconvenience caused to the various non-aam aadmis

I generally have this habit of striking up conversations with the so called aam aadmi, from auto rickshaw drivers to gardeners. Today was one such occasion. Since my office lift was relatively empty I started small talk with the lift operator as to how the lift fan was so slow and the effect was hardly felt in this weather. He just gave a smile of defiance and said "Imagine. We are stuck here for around 10 hours in a day". I then noticed the absence of a chair or stool in the lift and made further inquiries about it. This is what he had to say. "Ayyo !!!! Why do you bother asking saar? We used to have stools in all the lifts for the lift operators. Last week or so, when the building MD got into one the lifts, a new recruit happened to be operating it. He failed to show the MD any respect and continued sitting on the stool cross legged. The MD got wild and decided to reprimand all lift operators by taking off our stools. So 10 hours of standing for us daily saar "

This is the state some people of our 9.0% increase GDP nation still live in. Imagine if one day u fail to get up and wish your BIG boss and in turn he decides to take off all your chairs from the very next day. What a fuss would be created bout it. I'm sure TOI will splash it all over the front page and Crime Dairy also may have an episode for it. But who will give the so called aam aadmis a voice?

Mr. Vijay Mallya . Are you listening ????

11 comments:

Kiran said...

The aam aadmi will always bear the brunt of the big shit... er... shot... All in the name of white collar v/s collar jobs... You've touched upon the shell of the issue... the core is so rotten... we'd rather not go there... But still, concise and well put...

Anonymous said...

The MD's company is gone to the dogs.

The point here is not of justice and splashing it all over the newspaper, but rather it is about the kind of mentality some people have.

I am surprised that he even rose to be an MD!!! Ah! may be he just inherited the position. Generally people who work to reach such positions are humble and nice. The suckers who inherit are the ones who lack respect.

This MD is perfect example of what not to be :D. btw do you know who this MD is?

FreaKick said...

The MD surely isn't the liquor baron.
Some lap dog of his for sure

mouleesha said...

this is done by people who have low self esteem. pathetic.!! totally..

Everything_is_Normal said...

their state does u on ur face when u look at them closely.Sometimes a small chat .few jokes or respect toawards them really brings a smile on their face.
Example :Back from tirupati i had tons of ladoos,took it to office.Gen tendency is to send a mail to all and ple come over and ask "HAD U BEEN TO TIRUPATI (even though tht was written in the mail) comment bout calories and take their lion share and disappear.
But i did happen to up to the security ,transport desks and offer the office boys.It did get a smile on their face.Even they are lost in teh sea of engineers a lot of them much younger to them and still they are forced to call them "SIR" especially in malls where school kids boss around a old lady at food court for not being there to clean their tables.Maybe even there a softer tone would have helped her perform their duties with a happy face.
End of the day everyone is somebodys aam aadmi.

Caution : smile at a drunk rickshaw guy/parking attendant at your risk

Anonymous said...

We had similar situation at our office also....all the aam aadmi in the lifts are given stools and they happily started sleeping (post lunch)... and hardly bother abt who is coming in and out of the lift.... I dont think MD is wrong but he has been lil harsh....the point here is when he is in such a high position .. some respect should be shown.....AAM AADMI should have been lil careful....as everyone cant be soo soft at heart like us...[:)]

FreaKick said...

There is always a chance that the new recruit did not know who the MD actually was. Anyway, why punish the mass for the doings of an indivigual? Maybe he could've reprimanded the individual if an example be needed.

Anonymous said...

Nothing revealing about the incident. It's the office power structure at work.

You piss off your boss, you miss out on the promotion. Or the jaunt abroad. The stakes are different for different people.

-Anil

Everything_is_Normal said...

boss getting pissed does not mean its the sub-ordinate's fault.And blaming a entire group on single person's fault even though they are individual contributors just shows a lack of appropriate power structure.

By the way who is the MD ??? :D

elpis said...

Way of the world. I'd say we are constantly interchanging positions, that of the MD and the lift operator.

Srivatsava Vajapeyam said...

This is going to happen in future as well.. We only need to remember these instances, so that we do not repeat them as administrators...
I witnessed a similar incident last week here in Singapore.. Just that it was a construction worker on the recieving end.. So, dont get frustrated with the nation!!