New Age Slavery
Its quite alarming when in the corporate enviornment the basic human rights of individuals are voilated,and no one seems to mind.It seems that slavery was never eradicated, we simply stopped acknowledging it.This violation comes in various shapes and sizes, be it the abolition of writing the email signature of your choice (God forbid it might offend some psuedo political correctness of a FIRANG)or "Parallel constitution" that is run and diligently enforced in the name of "policies".
This weekend something happened that really shook me and affirmed my belief in what I said in the previous paragraph.I am in the habbit of wearing a Kurta in the office at weekends. This particular weekend I was stopped by Mr.X(the Big Boss) and was told that a Kurta is not allowed in our organisation, and a thickbooklet of a redundant document(the "Company Policies") was thrown on my face.This was done at the same time when Mr.Y(A smaller fish than Mr.X but bigger than me ) had been blatantly violating the same set of rules that were so diligently quoted to me.When I raised this question the answer that came out was really a work of art. Like any Bollywood movie it had drama(In the way I was convayed that I did not matter), Action(In the way I responded and the argument thereafter), It had Tragedy(The fact that I have to follow it coz I dont Matter), Comedy( The whole system of "Policies"), a sense of style(The way Kurta was linked to its known cliche` of Jurnalists and Social Workers) and finally the Climax( The way Mr.X ensinuated the "Consiquences" of non observance)I was spell bound and angry at the same time. Angry coz I feel that Wearing a Kurta is my right as an Indian citizen and spellboundby the way the whole episode ended up with me on the mat instead of Mr.X(He is Amaizing).
So let me be the first one to say it out loud. Its my right to wear what I want as long as I am not wearing something offensiveIts My right to say what I want , write what I want and I wish some day that I am detached enough to not care about the money I get out of this slavery.
This weekend something happened that really shook me and affirmed my belief in what I said in the previous paragraph.I am in the habbit of wearing a Kurta in the office at weekends. This particular weekend I was stopped by Mr.X(the Big Boss) and was told that a Kurta is not allowed in our organisation, and a thickbooklet of a redundant document(the "Company Policies") was thrown on my face.This was done at the same time when Mr.Y(A smaller fish than Mr.X but bigger than me ) had been blatantly violating the same set of rules that were so diligently quoted to me.When I raised this question the answer that came out was really a work of art. Like any Bollywood movie it had drama(In the way I was convayed that I did not matter), Action(In the way I responded and the argument thereafter), It had Tragedy(The fact that I have to follow it coz I dont Matter), Comedy( The whole system of "Policies"), a sense of style(The way Kurta was linked to its known cliche` of Jurnalists and Social Workers) and finally the Climax( The way Mr.X ensinuated the "Consiquences" of non observance)I was spell bound and angry at the same time. Angry coz I feel that Wearing a Kurta is my right as an Indian citizen and spellboundby the way the whole episode ended up with me on the mat instead of Mr.X(He is Amaizing).
So let me be the first one to say it out loud. Its my right to wear what I want as long as I am not wearing something offensiveIts My right to say what I want , write what I want and I wish some day that I am detached enough to not care about the money I get out of this slavery.
posted by Segwar | 5:28 AM
4 Comments:
Gagan,
I completley agree and understand the situation that you had faced. Its not very uncommon for spineless people to have such bouts of ego bloating. Have had several such first hand experiences over the span of three that I worked before I took this sabbatical. Infact if you go through the posting on my blog (http://mynobrainers.blogspot.com) thats around July 2006 you will get to see a lot of things in a newer perspective.
Keep venting.
Cheers.
Ashutosh
wish we were there...i donno why i always miss all the masala
Very true. Happens a lot. However the fact that a Kurta is disallowed does not surprise me and to be honest I dont disagree with it as well. Lets face it, a Kurta is a traditional indian outfit but in organizations that require their employees to be dressed in smart business wear, there's no debate on the fact that a Kurta doesnt quite qualify. Very hypothetical but for arguments sake, you will see my point more clearly if your new scottish colleague turned up for work in a kilt (you know they dont wear any underwear under a kilt, dont you?)and claimed that he should be allowed to wear his traditional outfit :) However what I do disagree with is the redtape allowing your senior to violate the rules but not you. Practically speaking what can you do about it? a) Crib and Whine, blog it
b) Follow the system, lose your Kurta and reprimand your senior using diplomatic tools (you can even email a complaint to HR)
c) Sit back, kick back with the traditional Indian "Chalta Hai" attitude. The most popular solution, but somehow I cant seem to swallow it, maybe you cant either.
Sean,
Its interesting that you used the example of a Scottish people.
In fact one of my managers is a scott and he did come to the office in a kilt on a friday.
I do agree that Kurta cannot be considered as a business attire however I was arguing the following:
1)Why cant I wear ethenic cloths when women and scotts are allowed to do so.
2)Kurta and jeans cannot be considered as formal attire so why was `nt it allowed on a friday(casual attire day).
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