Let me start with the First Blast this time. This is the title of a TV show on the Dawn News. Look, the name of the show. Does this not suggest Pakistani obsession with blasts? However, the content of the programme does not contain anything explosive. Instead, it is a programme that discusses the present day state of affairs in and around the world, especially in Pakistan.
Though I am not so appreciative of Dawn news, occassionally I tune to this. We do not have access to any of the Indian news channels here. The other two channels we get here are BCC and CNN. Both,in my view have their own agenda. There is no independent reporting in these news channels. At least this is my opinion
Prima facie, Dawn News is a replica of NDTV of India. Pretend to be elitist in a way. They too repeat the same news items round the clock, till some other news occur or created. The other day the theme of the show The First Blast on Dawn News was about increasing suicide trend among the Pakistanis. Of course, they dealt with the suicide bombings too. Nothing to hide per se!
A very interesting observation was made by the gentleman participated in the show. A common Pakistani driver breaks any rule in the rule book on the Pakistan roads. He does not care for any rule. Put this same guy on a plane, fly him to Dubai, which is just 90 Minutes from Pak. Upon landing there, the same guy will be the first person to abide by every rule in the book over there in Dubai. Why this 180 degree shift in attitude? Consequences. That is the only answer to this. People behave according to circumstances.
As I have been typing in the confines of my cell, guys sitting in the next cell over a drink in this chilled weather are discussing about punch list, termination details, pre-commissioning and check sheets. Look, they are just not enjoying the nectar; they brought the work also with them. They take all the work to the mess hall too.
We got an Indian cook recently. He makes sambar, rasam, moru kolambu alias pulissery, vegetables and umpteen number of meat based dishes. He even made aviyal the other day. Guys are expected to have merry time in the mess. But, sadly, the Indian benches in the mess always have only one subject to discuss – work. Indian menu is very tasty after the arrival of the cook, but we were denied of enjoying it due to enthusiasm of our colleagues.
When I was in Qatar, our Indian mess had a few thousand customers. Still the food that we used to get was of extremely deplorable quality. The chapattis were like rubber gaskets. Every lunch and dinner had only one menu, with daal as the presiding dish. We were eating food only to sustain life. Back home, there are so many hungry bellies waiting to be fed with pizza from the Dominos and chicken fry from the best restaurants in the locality. We had to eat for them!
I do not know many things. Let me be more specific. I do not know most of the things. But then, who knows a lot of things? Even Isaac Newton claims that he knew very little. Eistein might not dare say he knew everything. But, the most irritating thing in the construction field is the ignorance of this fact. I come across a caustic comment almost routinely- “that fellow does not know anything”. It is impossible to correct anyone. Let us all live in our ignorance and pretend that we know everything. There is a beautiful couplet in jnanappana. The rough translation of it is that - look, because of me, this world is surviving. It is true, if we observe people around us, especially in a construction field.No denying the fact that, the number of such people in other field is nothing less, but I have constant brush with the guys in construction field and I can vouch for the behaviour here..
Demob has started. What is this demob? It took a few days for me to decipher what was meant by the word demo. I came across this word, when I was in Qatar. There, as the project was nearing completion, the administration team started preparing list of workers to be demobilized, or in a simple term, sent home. As I mentioned in an earlier part of this sequel, workers in that large camp used to get midnight knock on the door only to be told by the administration’s dreaded soldiers that they have been given marching order.
Around three hundred workers were asked to discontinue their work at site here. Use and throw has a sugar coated name- demoilisation. Three hundred poor Syrians were thrown to the streets, yet again. In sharp contrast, the babus look forward to the demob with great enthusiasm. They even demand demob. Back home, in the circle of kith and kins, life of extravaganza unfolds. A short lived one. Though, the expats of the olden days lived their vacations at home as if there was no tomorrow, the more sensible newer generations are cautious in spending the hard earned money. They tend to spend more time within the notorious 1200 sqft world where the inhabitants are a spouse and a maximum number of two kids. They need not worry about bank balance as thousands of dollars have already piled up in the account. The only effort one has to take when holidaying at home is to just walk into an ATM counter and withdraw wads of currencies as he/she pleases. Look, the two diametrically opposite scenarios emerging out of demob!
As the babus move out of the site upon being demobilised, they promise to make phone calls and send mails regularly to the hitherto friends. They do keep the promise after reaching home, well, almost, as a sincere effort towards keeping the friendship warm. Slowly but surely, the warmth dissipates away and within a short span, ice develops. Again another site and another set of friends. The routine is repeated. Nothing different happens there too, nor anyone tries to do anything different. It is always convenient to keep old friendships in the cold storage. It never gets spoilt, at the least. I too have a number of such friendships in my cold storage .
Though I am not so appreciative of Dawn news, occassionally I tune to this. We do not have access to any of the Indian news channels here. The other two channels we get here are BCC and CNN. Both,in my view have their own agenda. There is no independent reporting in these news channels. At least this is my opinion
Prima facie, Dawn News is a replica of NDTV of India. Pretend to be elitist in a way. They too repeat the same news items round the clock, till some other news occur or created. The other day the theme of the show The First Blast on Dawn News was about increasing suicide trend among the Pakistanis. Of course, they dealt with the suicide bombings too. Nothing to hide per se!
A very interesting observation was made by the gentleman participated in the show. A common Pakistani driver breaks any rule in the rule book on the Pakistan roads. He does not care for any rule. Put this same guy on a plane, fly him to Dubai, which is just 90 Minutes from Pak. Upon landing there, the same guy will be the first person to abide by every rule in the book over there in Dubai. Why this 180 degree shift in attitude? Consequences. That is the only answer to this. People behave according to circumstances.
As I have been typing in the confines of my cell, guys sitting in the next cell over a drink in this chilled weather are discussing about punch list, termination details, pre-commissioning and check sheets. Look, they are just not enjoying the nectar; they brought the work also with them. They take all the work to the mess hall too.
We got an Indian cook recently. He makes sambar, rasam, moru kolambu alias pulissery, vegetables and umpteen number of meat based dishes. He even made aviyal the other day. Guys are expected to have merry time in the mess. But, sadly, the Indian benches in the mess always have only one subject to discuss – work. Indian menu is very tasty after the arrival of the cook, but we were denied of enjoying it due to enthusiasm of our colleagues.
When I was in Qatar, our Indian mess had a few thousand customers. Still the food that we used to get was of extremely deplorable quality. The chapattis were like rubber gaskets. Every lunch and dinner had only one menu, with daal as the presiding dish. We were eating food only to sustain life. Back home, there are so many hungry bellies waiting to be fed with pizza from the Dominos and chicken fry from the best restaurants in the locality. We had to eat for them!
I do not know many things. Let me be more specific. I do not know most of the things. But then, who knows a lot of things? Even Isaac Newton claims that he knew very little. Eistein might not dare say he knew everything. But, the most irritating thing in the construction field is the ignorance of this fact. I come across a caustic comment almost routinely- “that fellow does not know anything”. It is impossible to correct anyone. Let us all live in our ignorance and pretend that we know everything. There is a beautiful couplet in jnanappana. The rough translation of it is that - look, because of me, this world is surviving. It is true, if we observe people around us, especially in a construction field.No denying the fact that, the number of such people in other field is nothing less, but I have constant brush with the guys in construction field and I can vouch for the behaviour here..
Demob has started. What is this demob? It took a few days for me to decipher what was meant by the word demo. I came across this word, when I was in Qatar. There, as the project was nearing completion, the administration team started preparing list of workers to be demobilized, or in a simple term, sent home. As I mentioned in an earlier part of this sequel, workers in that large camp used to get midnight knock on the door only to be told by the administration’s dreaded soldiers that they have been given marching order.
Around three hundred workers were asked to discontinue their work at site here. Use and throw has a sugar coated name- demoilisation. Three hundred poor Syrians were thrown to the streets, yet again. In sharp contrast, the babus look forward to the demob with great enthusiasm. They even demand demob. Back home, in the circle of kith and kins, life of extravaganza unfolds. A short lived one. Though, the expats of the olden days lived their vacations at home as if there was no tomorrow, the more sensible newer generations are cautious in spending the hard earned money. They tend to spend more time within the notorious 1200 sqft world where the inhabitants are a spouse and a maximum number of two kids. They need not worry about bank balance as thousands of dollars have already piled up in the account. The only effort one has to take when holidaying at home is to just walk into an ATM counter and withdraw wads of currencies as he/she pleases. Look, the two diametrically opposite scenarios emerging out of demob!
As the babus move out of the site upon being demobilised, they promise to make phone calls and send mails regularly to the hitherto friends. They do keep the promise after reaching home, well, almost, as a sincere effort towards keeping the friendship warm. Slowly but surely, the warmth dissipates away and within a short span, ice develops. Again another site and another set of friends. The routine is repeated. Nothing different happens there too, nor anyone tries to do anything different. It is always convenient to keep old friendships in the cold storage. It never gets spoilt, at the least. I too have a number of such friendships in my cold storage .
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