Handshakes and Milkshakes ?? !! :-)

“ For such a momentous event it had a remarkably casual and at times banal feel to it….”

Guardian has this report – ( news link via The Hindu) – about the “casual Meeting between Libya’s CEO (???!!! :-) ) Colonel Qadhafi and Tony Blair. They are exchanging pleasantries – filler talks like “ You Look Young..” “ Oh, I have aged…” etc..etc..

Going through the entire conversation I was amused. Well, if only the world was full of such polite conversations!!! And coming from a person who was ruling high on terrorists charges only a few years ago the talks ringed too good to be true. But then you know and they know and everyone who read the report knows that things are not as simple as that and there is more to talk behind the curtains than in the drawing room.

Meanwhile the report reminded me of some of the jokes we – family and friends - used to share whenever we watch wives of dignitaries sharing the platform on major events along with their spouses as part of the ceremonial welcome / reception. When the heads of state discussed (presumably) affairs of state, what would the spouses be discussing?

For instance what was Mrs. Venkatraman (remember the wife of a former President of India ?) discussing with the First Lady of USA / Britain/ and so on. About weather? About recipes? About husbands? ( well, why not?) when their heads bents towards each other what was that engrossed conversation? We used to have real fun in our fancy dialogues. But what took the cake was our imagination about what would have been the kind of conversation, when the spouses of heads of state from the opposite sex met!! Like for instance what would have been the kind of conversation between Mr. Margaret Thatcher ( If there can be Mrs. Clinton, why not Mr. Margaret? ) and Mrs. Venkatraman ?? !!

Continuing the topic on the previous post, I agree with the comments given by Ripples.

I think it happens everywhere. But my point is not against reservation for minorities per se. Sometimes the weaker sections of the societies need special attention - to correct a past imbalance and bring the society to a level playing field - like in the case of Sc/St reservations here in India. But aren't we stretching it a bit too far? at the cost of meritocracy? So, my point is where do we draw the line? and who decides the line? women - me being part of that segment - have indeed reached phenomenal heights and are on par with the other half of the human race.

Having said that I must also admit that women in certain segments of society still have a loooong way to go. If you can read Tamil, please read my Tamil blog on this.

On the one hand we are treating women with kid gloves in certain parts of the social map; and in certain other parts of the society women are still considered as underdogs and children of lesser gods !

Curious mind sets !!!

“To those of you who think that India Inc; is still fighting shy of moves abroad, here’s some news: Almost 50 M&A deals were struck overseas by Indian companies last year, valued in excess of Rs. 8000 crore. The previous year, the respective numbers were a mere 28 and Rs. 941 crore. As for 2004, get ready to be swept away by a deluge of such deals…..”

So goes the leader for Business Today’s special issue of celebrating Young Super Performers.

Well, the choice of the trio is good. R. Subramaniyan of Subhiksha Trading Services, Sulajja Firodia Motwani Joint MD, Kinetic Engineering; and Prasoon Joshi – National Creative Director, McCann Erickson.

But what intrigues me is the choice of one lone woman!! As if sticking to a norm of ‘choose – at least – one- woman-“ an unspoken rule in every field today. Well I would be delighted to have a sneak re-wind view into the discussion room of Business Today to get a candid picture J Of course with due respect to the selection process, I still wonder, why not all three were men? Why not all three were women? Or why not 2:1 ratio in reverse? Etc.. etc…!! Perhaps the selection process stuck to the ratio of candidates available. After all, men still rule the rooks in Business ; isn’t it? So better stick to a 2:1 - 2 men and one woman ratio?? !! Picture perfect!!

P.S: you know what? when I signed in at blogger.com to post this piece, I actually forgot my login name !! so much for my memory - worse still it reminds me of the long gap between my posts. I am sorry for the missing dates. I'll try my best to be more regular and ensure that such memory lapses don't happen again :-)