Anurag Jain's Blog on Bangalore Events, Travel, IIM Bangalore, IIM, IIMB, Management

Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Posted 3:18 PM by Anurag

PhD haircut

Went for a hair-cut at my regular barber outside campus who is ironically named PHD. Now, PHD of course stands for Polar Hair Dressers but I cant help getting reminded of my tough PhD life and my mean brain never forgets to link this with the career options that await me! Also, this PHD place is one of my very infrequent contacts with the real world :) And boy, Did I get a shock yesterday (which I always get whenever I step out of campus. And, which is also why I dont step out of campus unless until absolute necessary!).

This is a story of 3 people: HairDresser, Another customer and me. The other customer turned out to be an employee of our mess. Seated right next to my chair, he was also getting a haircut. Whenever my guy would turn my chair around, I would face the mess guy and vice versa. Now, PURELY from the observational point of view, this situation means that apparently income levels are going up for everyone at the lower rung of the society, which is good. Also in this haircut something happened that has happened never before: my hairdresser offered me tea. Which, inspite of feeling dehydrated, I had to drink because of his brotherly insistence. Now, PURELY from the observational point of view, this situation means that apparently income levels of hairdresser -who would be a rung higher in economic-socio heirarchy- are also going up, which is good again. That leaves me, the 3rd character of story. Well, lets just say, my income levels are nowhere as close as in the vicinity of going up. Instead, they are heading south and trying to pay a visit to their neighbors at the bottom-most rung of society at the time when those guys themselves are moving up north! Now, that is not good. Damn, this 'general' Indian economic boom thingie just doesn't suit me. I need a 'general' Indian economic bust to prosper.

With this visit, I guess an haircut index of income levels can be devised just like the big mac index is for exchange rates. Man, this PhD world-view will be the end of me yet. I gotta get outta here.

0 comments

Comments: Post a Comment