Al burj, Team India, Lucky numbers etc.

The past couple of weeks had been quite busy for me and I didn't have much time to think up rants about anything. While the election scene etc., in India are good sources I decided to keep away from them for the time being. One thing that caught my eyes recently was this strike by workers building a Dubai skyscraper. To be honest, it was not the strike, but the money that was being paid to the workers that caught my attention.

This was reported in BBC, New York Times etc. and described how the mainly S. Asian labourers (read mallus) toil their bums out for the Arab masters at low wages. I used to think that these guys were making decent money out there, at least by Indian standards. Doesn't seem so. BBC says a skilled carpenter gets $7.50 (about Rs. 330) and a labourer gets $4 (Rs. 180) a day.

I had mentioned about my travails with carpenters et al. back in India. Well, those guys were making about $5 to $6 a day in Kerala. No fancy headgear, uniforms and all. Guys come around 9 am. Change into lungis. Loiter around for some time reading newspapers and having tea, and slowly start off on stuff. Kind of reminded me of my days as a regular employee, though I never did the main thing of "starting off on stuff" (and also changing into lungis). So, I appreciated those guys very much. They took their appointed breaks from 12 to 1 for lunch plus a li'l bit for siesta and a 4pm tea break. And, all packed up and out by 5pm.

There is a shortage of hands, skilled as well as novice in Kerala for everything, probably because most of them have gone to places like Dubai. But, why? Why would anyone want to do that, when they can make about the same amount at home under better work conditions? Beats me. Perhaps they like getting shafted by unscrupulous Arabs. Look at the name of the building. "Al burj". It even sounds like something that would show up in a third-rate porno novel. "She removed her negligee and his al-burj..." OK guys. Use your own imagination. This is not a third-rate porno journal. This is just a third-rate journal. Anyway, I have but one thing to tell those guys. Come back! Do an honest day's work (described above) and have fun.

(There was one guy who impressed me. One day when my wife and I came back to our house, there was this guy, who looked as if he walked out of a National Geographic report on some lost tribe, standing with a hoe in our yard. My wife was taken aback a bit, but it turned out that he was someone sent to clear the yard. He was meticulous and was done by noon and made more than the labourer in Dubai. I wanted him back the next month but he seemed to have walked back into that National Geographic article and instead I got a young, lazy idiot. Well, he also made as much as that Dubai labourer. Guys, come back!)

Another thing that I have been brooding over for the past many months is this thing called Team India. Seems like it's the new euphemism for the cricket blokes. Used to be the Indian cricket team or just the Indian team. Now, it's Team India. Sounds catchy, but that's all there's to it. It's the same old bunch of mostly mediocre players, fat idiots at that, playing an elitist game. Indians have been conned into believing that these guys somehow qualify as athletes and they have been giving generously to it. Lots of money in there (not counting the illicit betting money), legit money, and so you have hypes such as Team India shoved down your throat. Then there's the mallu guy, SreeeeSunth. How can you take such a guy seriously? He changed his shirt number because some dude said another number is his lucky number. What if the real lucky number was something like 13.9765 x 10³³. Would the cricket board have allowed such a number? Though I'm not a cricket expert, I don't think he's a great bowler from what was on display so far. He might become a moderate success but he is not going to be a Malcolm Marshall or even a Kapil Dev. Maybe, just maybe, a Srinath. Frankly speaking, I don't get choked up about the Indian cricket team winning or losing. It's all fixed anyway. And the name "cricket". It's an insect! Doesn't have the main term in it - "ball" as in football or volleyball. Mallus used to be good at those sports. Some unlucky numbers somewhere.

Incidentally, my lucky number is a negative fraction. It's -(13 / 993423.21), though I don't have a place to use it.

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