was walking down to dadar station after a totally useless meeting. was an ego massage one. but anyways, am somewhat used to these trips now.
serious skirmishes over the earlier week at the place where we are doing a project. was going there to try to resolve, peace keep, negotiate. classic us vs them and in this case, i am not even sure who is 'us' and 'them' for me.
on the pavement, 2 men were totally at each other throats. a couple of women trying to placate and the usual bystanders agape uselessly.
jumped in. almost forcibly took one of them out of the clinch. he was 'devotedly' invoking the entire matriarchal side of his opponent. never even looked at me. i was in the 'rehne do', 'chod do', 'tension nahin lene ka' mode. so this guy backed off.
went to the other guy who still was full of fight. did the same routine with him too.
in the meanwhile the first friend, comes back into the ring with a huge thick log, fully intentioned to introduce it to his opponents skull.
scary, but i rushed to his side, to disarm him. not much success. but hanging in there. the other guy even more incensed, started throwing tiles. getting worse. am now wondering if i should stay or leave. was with a colleague who was tut-tutting ( i guess).
the tile-thrower picked up a longish hacksaw and that's when i gave up and walked off. disgusted at my weak kneed, lily liveried attempt.
this set the pattern for the day.
at the project site. same results. the earlier confusion on us vs them added to the tone set for the day, no progress. may be some regression.
staff morale down, all eager to pack up and go and abandon the kids.
lot of egos at play. disguised under nice terms like respect, equality, etc.
will play out over the coming week.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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4 comments:
I am sorry, this was supposed to be a serious blog. But i found the description of the fight quite entertaining. I like the way you put it in words.
"fully intentioned to introduce it to his opponents skull" - this one actually made me laugh. You might be pitying my brains... it was far from entertaining for you, i know. May be, I percieve things differently, being far away in a very secure world.
thats classic wodehousian type comic writing.
at some time one needs to laugh at all these 'tough' situations. else it becomes too difficult to manage.
as befits my age, vocation, and what not, i will utter the usual 'hey man you gotto be careful. who knows who has a gun' not that hacksaws and whats that knuckle thing are any less dangerous. its not cowardice, its smart to walk away.
hope your week gets better.
kbpm - thats true to some extent. but really it needed 2 pacifiers, one for each guy.
so when i was with one, the other guy did a kim jong il (i.e., armed himself to the teeth). teamwork could have diffused.
the key is to separate them and take them far away from each other.
next time i wont back off. the key is love :-)
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