Many people want to know the income and such details of others to make comparisons and assess their worth, which in most cases is probably due to the kind of curiosity that killed the cat, and nothing more. For some, such information is useful to add another category to their address book – a kind of class system. Years ago I had a colleague, who had a list of people or acquaintances classified according to their social status, for which income was the main criterion. He married a socially upper class lady after rejecting a number of eligible girls and went on climbing the social ladder at a breakneck speed, so to say! For his frequent parties, he would very carefully choose the guests based on his classified list in which we ordinary mortals featured last. Because of his upward movement on the social ladder at breakneck speed I did not have a chance of attending his parties except once and that was on his wedding. For several years I had lost touch with him because my ascent on the social ladder was not in keeping with his pace. I met him some months ago after a gap of forty odd years and in the short time we chatted in the hotel lounge where I had gone on some business, I knew that he was making an assessment of my present social status. He talked about income tax slabs, surcharge on tax, intricacies of assessment of wealth, section 80C, form 15H and so on. Simply speaking, he could not hide his thirst for knowledge about my income!! I made sure that he did not become any wiser about my present status after talking to me!! Some times it helps to act dumb and not reveal your knowledge of things and outsmart the ones who fish for information. He has not changed very much, but he has come down several steps of the social ladder in his old age after two divorces in succession!
There was this man, a foreman in the tool room in the factory where I joined as a probationer only a few months after coming out of college. He was a well built, flamboyant Anglo-Indian of about 58 years at that time who had a very poor opinion of young engineers who, he thought, knew nothing and he with practically no education to talk about was knowledge personified. He was a good person with plenty of practical knowledge about machines because of his long experience in the factory and I would consider him a jolly good chap in most ways, but for his boasting of superior knowledge. He would ask us questions for which he would find our answers unsatisfactory and then pronounce the correct answer with great relish. One of his pet questions was to define a screw. He would find all our explanations lacking and then take a long breath to give a lengthy definition from the books which he had learned by heart!
A fairly well known classical singer of Carnatic music was one of the distinguished guests in one South Indian gathering in Mumbai. Many in the gathering were experts in Carnatic music and an animated discussion on Carnatic music followed. Some of the guests requested the maestro to give a rendition of the song “Saroja Dala Netri” and he obligingly gave a fairly elaborate rendition of the same, which was enjoyed by every one and the room exploded with thunderous applause after that. Discussions continued and after a little while, a prominent personality in the gathering raised his hand and requested the maestro to give a rendition in raga “Shankarabharanam”. Everyone in the room stopped talking and with a stunned look on his face the maestro told him that he had just finished the song “Saroja Dala Netri” in Shankarabharanam Raga and soon there were muffled noises of suppressed laughter in the crowd. The gentleman could have apologized for the mistake explaining that he meant another Raga or Song but unfortunately he did not know the name of another Raga and he looked very foolish and sat quietly until he left the room when others resumed their discussions. The gentleman must have really felt very small after the foolish fiasco!
Recently, a group of people, all from the same family (except one), formed a club for promoting ancient dance forms of Kerala. The inauguration of the club was done on a grand scale by a famous film personality and danseuse of South India. The office bearers, all of the same family, introduced themselves as great exponents of not only different forms of dance and music of Kerala but also Hindustani music and Western music and Flamingo too!! Their expertise extends to Astrology and Ayurveda too!! All this, they declared, they were doing for the pure love of the dyeing art forms of Kerala without any profit motive at all. To what extent one would go for the sake of publicity and popularity! I am reminded of Bernard Shaw’s Character Freddie in the play “Pygmalion” who poses as an expert in phonetics after learning bits and pieces of the subject from Prof. Higgins!!!
