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Thursday, July 12, 2012

frugal living and sailing through instability

Job hunting in Sri Lanka is worse than losing your virginity - why do I say this is because even after losing your virginity there are plenty of takers excited at the thought of experience, but in the case of a job hunt for mature people the restrictions narrow down to such a slim extend that what is left is worse than bread crumbs ! :(

I have been hunting for full time work since the last three months. I will be very candid in writing in here that the three months I pulled through without a steady income gave me enough time to attend countless job interviews. The drama that unfolded during those very formal moments were something that I have been reflecting on the why's, what if's and how come's ..hmmph quite tiring I must say...

The truth is there is no place in the job market in Sri Lanka for an old goose like me. I guess in the minds of employers we tend to look like nothing but trouble - and the real trouble is insecurity for mature employees usually being more smarter than the very youthful looking top dons now running most of Colombo's upcoming enterprises. Sadly I have reached that stage in the human phase where rejections are more than acceptance and the reason is just being older :( ..It doesn't bother me the least, actually what stresses me is the stinking attitudes of many Sri Lankan top dons. I recently saw a stunning photo of an ex teenage prostitute now turned a super model in one of our Sunday newspapers. For a split second I thought I was staring at a new model of the Barbie doll but on reading the comment I realized she was alive and going great guns !. Maybe I need to learn the art of sounding dumb or developing curves close enough to match Barbie..Out of the two options, learning to look dumb would be easier and faster than trying to give it a go at the second (I am sure gonna break my other knee - one collapsed after extreme exercise and was fixed)

The Sri Lankan dons want more of looks and less of brains and I do see that there are an increasing number of job adverts asking for photos of the candidate. I don't get it do you need more of brains, boobs or butts to run the enterprise ? I have all of them but it's not shaped in the way the live barbie doll has hers. So what is my problem ? Nothing major !!! except I don't understand how brains can be just shoved aside for curves and shapes eh ? I ain't surprised to now see why many Sri Lankan enterprises choke under the pressure of employees intellectually challenged and are not competent to do a job. That's why we have Anarkali's, Paba's, Geetha's, Malini's Sanath's sitting at the top and talking their curves out ! Well all of them aside in the regular workplace I find there are plenty of the Sri Lankan equivalent of the pretty dumb blonde whose brains tick at the speed of a galapagos tortoise and keeps this old goose wondering as to whether it will ever tick at all. :(

I only wish I was financially stable enough to just lounge at home, spend most of my hours on long road trips, read, and just do anything to stay off from this new trend in the workplace insanity. BUT this goose is as poor as a church mouse and needs a steady pay cheque to come her way. I got no choice but just deal with this baloney in the name of money. and so I put up with different new insanities that generously rolls into my life and end up very worn out and more tensed than I have been. Its because I see no direction nor vision.having to work with these nitwits. It's the same bullsh** everywhere and it really is nerve wrecking.

There is so much hype about the country being on a threshold towards the golden runway of development, opening towards achieving more and being new trendsetter not forgetting the rosy statement that its poised to be the miracle of Asia blah blah blah. I don't understand how can we soar like an eagle when we have a farm full of turkeys and chickens eh ? anyone got the answer ?

old fashioned ethics need to be resurrected !

Kindle, Tabs, Pads and Pods are in, gradually occupying the seat of importance in wealthy local families. It is now the in thing to be seen with either a pad, pod or a tab. Thanks to the Chinese, those who secretly crave to look hip and flow with the crowd, can settle for any of the lower cost smart phones that sometimes can be mistaken for a pad, pod or tab :) I am being catty but I have a Samsung that gives me a good deal on everything I need to stay in touch - frills, ribbons and laces in all, (a used phone by a Japanese who decided to get rid of it after 3 months) and arrived into my life through a trade in deal.

My spring chicken days are gone and I find I am settled with increasingly young colleagues who I deal with at work. Interacting with them, I am deliberately slow to comment to whatever they say because I am pretty curious to understand their pulse and then respond. My answers are often limited to ugh, uuhhm..hmmm and they are happy cause they think they know it all. Well I was in that stage once and that feels like the age of Moses now.!!!

I cannot sometimes connect the dots that reason out to their strange way...the flow of language either does not exist or is stagnant with many that I come across. I wonder if it's because I happen to often move around or bump into youth of the same social strata. Somehow the levels of confidence to express themselves or even speak clearly, concisely or comprehensively does not exist in their system. I wonder if the modern lingo of hi c u later @ 4 has killed the neurons in the brain to be able to construct sentences using a steady flow of sensible words ?

Once seen reading a newspaper I was given odd looks by many with some even snickering what's there to read so much in the paper? I responded with what is not there to read in the paper ? So I gathered that its not cool to be reading off a printed paper, magazine anymore !..I couldn't care less..The only reading that I ever do now, is the different columns in the newspapers.

As a crawling baby my dad read stories to me while I sat like a fat pie, so said my mom. In a way he injected me with an addiction that would stay with me for ever I guess. What began with Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks expanded into Amelia Jane, Famous Five, Secret Seven and Danielle Steele, Jack Higgins, Laurence Sanders, Mary Higgins Clark, Jackie Collins, Sidney Sheldon and finally just plain daily newspapers and a periodical Readers Digest, Time and other magazines.My mom got second hand books for just Rs.2 from an old store. Those stores don't exist anymore and so does the deal for borrowing books for Rs. 2 !!! When she got home with the books she yelled that I should be done with my homework to begin reading the book :)

I never realized it until I began working with younger colleagues increasingly, but trying to reflect on the reasons, maybe that's how I got the hang of the language.When I began school, I also read Sinhala newspapers to build on my vocabulary and language skills. I never went for extra coaching classes to brush up on either of the languages cause without any effort I managed quite well getting good grades :). Extra coaching classes would have been luxury because we couldn't afford it anyway.

Newspapers are the most affordable reading material that is available and being in a country with so much action (puts Hollywood and all the wood thrillers to shame) reading a dose of the insanity that takes place daily around the country provides great entertainment along with some insight into the flow of language maybe new jargon as well.

Kids like me who grew up in the 80's-90's (antique eh?) didn't have tabs, pods or pads but just good old fashioned books which we devoured better than the best pudding :). I am glad I came from an old fashioned herd where knowledge and understanding of the language had taken place unknowingly. I am glad I am not one of the many youngsters today who struggle to express themselves, think they are on a bed of nails when asked to respond to a customer's email, do not know that it is common ethics to respond to a mail, cannot comprehend written messages or even do not know what to do when a customer writes inquiring about this and that. Simply put the levels of competency even to express their own role in the workplace, listening does not exist. Sometimes I feel so worn out just waiting for a response to come in to whatever I have asked for eeeeeeeeee it's a never ending wait and eventually I end up calling and asking if the mail was received ? hellooooo why do I need to do this if we are all on this blessed thing called email that has occupied the most important agenda of our daily lives eh ?

BUT, that said they can type the modern lingo (c u @ 4 cal me g8) at lightening speed and think that is good enough. Technology may have taken over the modes of communication but old fashioned ethics still rule the world of commerce and that will stay putt despite even more advanced pods, pads and tabs replacing the existing brood. 

I see youngsters interacting and observe them quietly, most times their conversations revolve around achieving stardom at work within the shortest possible time. hmmmm interesting I think how can you do this when you don't make an effort to learn the art of finer points, that will always stay putt in the commercial world but get fascinated with an image of a top guy in suit, carrying a laptop..tab and talking over the most expensive phone. Knowing to peck the modern lingo on a pc and talk in the name of chat is never going to get you anywhere in life ? eh there is so much to learn and the strange thing is these keyboard pecking hip hop wired music lovers cannot connect to reality OR is it that in a world where everything just blossoms instantly the take is that we can strike it big in anyway we fashion ? "

My typical working day after dealing with these young nuts puts me through a lot of questions, to which I cannot find the answers to.. I just take extra long walk to toxicate all the residue that builds up after dealing with them.Somehow this old goose ends up being very confused to relate to this trend of development which in no way will help plug this country into being the miracle of Asia as projected by the dons who rule !