It did not start off as a conversation with an idiot. It started off with a simple question. What are your plans for higher studies? I gave an answer, not a very straight one but an answer, all the same. Pat came the reply. This course of yours is not going to take you anywhere. (Thought: Why do people assume that I want to go where everyone is going?)
I oh oked him and then proceeded to ask this very wise person so what will take me where you want me to go? You must do an MBA in Finance. I laughed with silent mirth at the obvious reply and then asked him: Right, And what after that? (Thought: I have this annoying habit of asking people and what after that? That is why I don’t have the patience to sit through a 2 or 3 hour movie. I like agency, that’s what, agency!)
Then that person tells me, so you will know about the international markets as well. And then you come back and apply your expertise in India. (Let me complete that for you: Then you come back, get a job with an investment bank and spend the rest of your life, splicing companies or bringing them together or selling shares or fixing the price. In between, you find a nice boy and get married to him. The next obvious thing is to bear pretty and healthy children. It is picture perfect, just like the Chinese “We love Mao” in the 1950s. )
Then suddenly, there was silence. I knew the idiot was thinking of more questions. Pop came another one: Do you believe in God? (Thought: Wow, when was the last time I asked that?) I said: No. Does that mean you are an agnostic or one step ahead of that? Oh, well I am an atheist. That’s the word for one step ahead of agnostic, isn’t it?
And then, Why? Well, I go, nothing happened, if that’s what you want. I have been this way for 3 years now. He tells me that he stopped going to church because he got bored of religion. (Thought: Yes, we live in remote control world. Boredom is as good an excuse as any other)
Then the car stopped and I got out. I realised I just had had a conversation with an idiot.
