Three Idiots

This post starts a work of Fiction that I intend (actually hope) to complete over many posts that will come over due course. All characters that appear or may appear here are purely fictional and imaginary.

Som Vihar is a quaint little park in the posh locality of RamkrishnaPuram in New Delhi. A prestigious school is also in the vicinity of the park. Students from the school sometimes stray inside the park in the afternoons specially. This afternoon for example, three boys in uniform were seen strolling around, none too happy or too sad, simply lazing, like airport cabs with no passengers or hurries to reach somewhere. From the looks, all three appear to be in the age-group of 14-15. They are Rahul, Satish and John and they are close friends, in fact very close friends. Though they live in different neighbourhood, they actually travel in the same school bus. They not only study in the same class, they always go around together when they are in school and needless to mention, go to same coaching classes. Their teachers and classmates call them '3-idiots' and they actually take it as compliment! Thanks to Mr. Amir Khan, being called an idiot is now respectable in Indian metros among teenagers and kids; in fact it is considered cool. And having fullhouse of 3 idiots? Loooot 'cooler'! In fact lot more cooler that being called '3-musketeers'!
So the 3-idiots were lolling around in the park in the afternoon because their class got over a little early today. The teachers had some important meeting to attend. These boys also decided to have a meeting, the meeting room incidentally is a bench in the park. They call it Open House session, not only the House is open, the meeting also is Open, not constrained by agenda or time limit.
"Man, what this Obama dude is doing, man? He is taking US into another recession! Did you see the news in WSJ, US for the first time in the history got downgraded!"
The other boy corrected, "First time in last 70 years."
"It is still first time in the history of our life-time", the first boy insisted.
"Actually it is not Mr. Obama's fault, US has been living with borrowed money for many years. It had to get out of hand some day", the second boy added his share of wisdom.
"How is US living with borrowed money, dude? They are the richest nation in the world!, Do you know that Mr. Kaushik Basu, the Economic Advisor to the Govt. of India said that, impact on US economy is an impact on world economy. Global economy is bound to be affected by this downgrade?", the 3rd boy who was eagerly looking for an opportunity to interject, was happy now. Some of his lost ground is recaptured, or so it appeared to him.
The 2nd boy was not offended at all. In fact he was happy that he was given an opportunity to demonstrate the power of resources that he has at his disposal. He took out his touch-phone from his pocket. He opened the google page and quickly searched through few pages and gave the phone to the 3rd boy, helpfully, "read those pages."
"Dude, you got an iPhone!", the 3rd Boy almost shouted.
"Dad's phone, man! He flew to Boston this morning. He told me that I could use it till he returns but I must not use his SIM card. So I inserted my SIM"
"He is travelling without mobile?"
"No, man! he is carrying his blackberry. This was his personal phone."
"Your dad is travelling to US now? What is he going to do?", 1st boy tried to show surprise.
"Make some stupid presentation and blabber about his company and his team, what else! That's what they have been doing all the time." His dad is a Vice President with an Indian software company, that they euphemistically call Indian MNC.
"Woh tera Dad hain, Dude!", some reminder of morality from the 1st boy.
"So what, man! Truth is Truth. And I myself heard him telling that to mom one evening".
"what did your mom say?"
"Mom just smiled. Dad tells that his job is to entertain his clients with his little songs and dances so that clients become happy and agree to add few more bodies in his company at the Clients' expense. Mom once asked him why he hadn't left the company when he is so unhappy with his job. Dad said whichever company he would join his job would remain same. Dad said it is not the company per se, it is the industry where the problem lies. He said that he in fact felt pity on his clients since it is them who are in more ridiculous situation. He said his client, unlike him, would have to listen to many other presentations, like his, from executives representing other companies and at the end have to decide who to give him business to when there is practically no difference between any of the presentations and the business discourses that the client went through. Dad said that he could on any day walk into his rival company and make the presentation on their behalf to their clients without looking at the slides and still be applauded for that!"
John said, "Your Dad is so brilliant, man!" John cannot help showing his innocence time to time, probably because he has not suffered affluence and its associated dialectics like the other two boys.
Satish said, "That he might as well be, given that he is a graduate from IIT, but in this case it is rather the lack of brilliance of the industry that he was ranting about."
John's face told that he was hanging between words.
Satish became the history book's noble man again, "Look at this iPhone, dude. It is an awesome product, slick, beautiful. It has so many cool apps, amazing games. You feel terribly happy when you hold it in your hand, don't you? Hold it, man and say it!"
John nervously took the phone in his hand but returned within a moment. He definitely felt that it was beyond his reach.
Satish continued his discourse, "An original product which is also created by a software company. Can you remember seeing a single original product that was from an Indian software company, okay forget original, do you remember any product at all?"
John tried to plug in, " an ad comes in the TV often , I remember. It projects a software engineer fixing an invetment banker's laptop, going to some village riding an elephant."
"Yes, and many more ludicrous stuff like showing a chartered plane waiting on the roadside to pick him up!", cued Satish. All three laughed, John was particularly amused with the way Satish presented. He also thought that the ad was stupidly funny.
"Now..what did you make out about the company he represented", Satish asked.
John lost his foothold. He tried to grope for some hold, "I think..I mean, I thought that ad was trying to tell that his company is helping many people and doing something very hightech".
"Your confusion tells that you aren't sure what they do which apparently is the actual case", Satish gestured as if to tell that he rested his case.
Rahul tried to balance himself between a defence lawyer and an ethical commentator, "High Tech Consulting, you meant, I think. Then again, the dilemma will be faced by any consulting business houses, the very business that they are in makes it difficult for them to define in a clear cut terms what they do. They can only describe in terms of the impact they make."
Rahul is from a very politically infleuntial business family. He hears such kind of arguments more often than most of the other boys in his age-group. With the advantage of being born in elite 0.01% faimily of India, he is far more secure about his future and very much aware of the role he is expected to play in the complex powergame of India's future plutocracy. He knows that he belongs to a very different India than what others think.
"In other words 'Keeping conveniently vague', so that one can use it in anywhich way as one pleases. Dad told once that Software consulting service firms are more about commodity human resources, definitely lot less about Consulting and he hoped that they were at least about software. He said that he hoped because from his position he could not see how much really it was about software. ", Satish was happy that he could remember and use the words of his Dad correctly.
"I also heard a friend, of my Dad, who incidentally is a very respected software entrepreneur in US saying that Indian software industry is still at its adolescence and it lacked the vision and appetite needed to create globally successful products." Rahul wanted to tell his friend that he was not contesting. Being from the family that juggled many hard-nosed politically sensitive issues everyday, he has learned quite early which fight not to pick. John nodded his head, completely missing the point about unspoken communication just happened between his two friends.
John's full name is John Kennedy. He is used to the effect of rising eyebrows that his name creates in the audience. As if to answer to those raised eyebrows he always adds, "John Kennedy without F." Satish, the noble man, does not forget to add his little illustration, John Kennedy without the F-word when he gets a chance. Actually John's family is from Kerala and unlike the way many understood, Kennedy is not his surname. In fact entire "John Kennedy" is his first name leaving the comparison completely out of context. His name is borne out of the deep regard that his grandfather had for the original Mr. Kennedy. John's father migrated to Delhi but not without a stop-over in Dubai. Fact is John's father, Mathew Rejoyce wanted to live in Dubai when he applied for an electrician in a Dubai based company. After landing there, he realised that he got duped. After living almost as a prisoner for six months, he, thanks to intervention from Indian consulate, managed to get a return ticket back to Delhi. He decided against returning to Kerala and adopted Delhi as his new hometown. He still works as electrician in a local company. Sometimes he wonders if his astrologer uncle actually meant Delhi when he said he would flourish in a foreign city.
To Flourish, the Oxford Dictionary defines it as to "grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way, especially as the result of a particularly congenial environment". Mr. Mathew Rejoyce did Flourish in Delhi in the particular congenial environment of fast growing buildings and influential builders. Today he earns more than what he was promised for his Dubai job but he often gets confused on how much of that is white and how much is black. With passing years he has learned not to get confused between black and white since the world is not either black, nor it is white, it is grey. Remaining in grey is easy and benefitial and advisable too when you have particularly grey congenial environment.
So, grey is good! So did John Kennedy learn from his father. He is as comfortable in his Achan's small house as in the company of kids of some of the most influential and rich family in Delhi. Satish and Rahul find him a viable buffer that they use suitably to ensure that harsh edges of their rich, powerful ego do not hurt each other. Friendship, as it appears, only grows when there is clear and implicit understanding of every member's relative worth.