Foxes, Crows and Las Vegas
It starts at the airport. The jazziness, the lights and a promise of heaven are all at display once you get off your flight in Las Vegas. No one expects any less and people seem extremely happy to have escaped the constrained monotony of their daily lives to have a taste of freedom.
I had come to Vegas for some expo and that means work. The true taste of Vegas was not on offer unless of course, if I could make short work of my work. That was not to be but the good thing was, staying at a Casino hotel and being a victim of jet-lag provided me with an opportunity to have a cup of coffee at the Casino restaurant every morning at 300 AM, a rather Godly hour for Vegas. And thus, I assumed, it was nothing but a twist of fate that allowed me to have another ring side view of life as it unfolded at a Casino.
Now what all this has got to do with Foxes and Crows might not be an invalid question to ask at this point in time. And it also might not be too bad an idea to bring into context the educational system in India. I know, it does sound crazy and it probably is. Hey but in the world we live in, craziness is considered a virtue until you start pelting stones at those who are considering it. Anyways, to understand all this and more, you need to know the kind of parental peer pressures one is subjected to when they, rather proudly, put their kids in one of those fancy schools in India.
And so a couple of months ago, I was reminded gently by my better half that the time has come for me to go and make a presentation at my daughter’s school. I need to tell a short story to a bunch of 4 year olds and the story has to be short and sweet with a moral. It was also mandated by the teacher that just talk will not do but an accompanying chart with pictures depicting the story has to be shown to the kids. And also, my wife reminded, my daughter’s friend’s father has done a fantastic job of it the previous week. Suddenly, there was panic (For some reason the first thing I feel whenever there is any thing concerning my daughter’s school is panic!). We rushed about to find charts containing pictures of short stories with a moral. No charts were found and so we started looking for picture story books as an alternative. The story books presented a challenge as they had pictures on both sides of the page and to convert that into a chart, we have to buy two copies of the same book, tear off the pages and paste them on a chart. As we made our walk to the near by book store to implement this rather innovative solution, serendipity decided to give us a break from this stupidity and we chanced upon an enlightened soul who, after having a good laugh at our solution, gave us directions to a shop where charts containing pictures of short stories with a moral could be found.
The story that I presented at the school, backed by the years of experience I had gathered making presentations in board rooms to bored people, was about a Fox and a Crow. It is a simple story and it has a moral. The crow finds a piece of fried chicken on its flight over a small village. It risks its life as it is chased by a man whose meal the chicken was. It holds on to the same and flies home to a tree branch where it settles down to eat the food. Just about the time, a hungry fox comes along and decides to trick the crow into losing its lunch. The fox spends a lot of time chatting up the crow and flattering it. The crow understands the fox’s intention and pays no attention to it in the beginning but as the flattery continues, it starts believing the fox. Finally, it succumbs to the fox’s praise that there is no better singer in the world than the crow. The crow starts singing, the chicken piece falls off and the fox runs away with it. Moral of the story – do not fall for flattery and false promises.
So, finally, we know the story of the Fox and the Crow but we still do not know what that has got to do with Las Vegas. Patience pays (so does a patient!). Sitting in the Casino café having my cup of 3AM coffee, I used to notice the goings on in the Casino. The anxious people with a beer in hand sitting in front of slot machines with a concerned look on their face – losing money while gaining calories, the scantily clad waitresses, and the work men who come along to clear up the slot machines and pack all the money into neat stacks of steel boxes – it was all on display. Add to this a slightly over weight middle aged man with a coffee in hand and a smirk on his face and that would complete the picture.
The first morning I came across a gentleman from Peurtorico, let’s call him Pablo for convenience though his real name is different, only slightly. I watched Pablo try his hand at the slot machines, shake his head and then move on to one of the black-jack tables. I followed him out of curiosity and he, seeing me, started a conversation. Pablo works for an Indian store in New Jersey. He said he liked Indians in general but was concerned that his boss did not respect him enough. After some idle chatter and couple of beers, he suddenly pulled out a mobile phone out of his pocket. He asked me to call his boss in Jersey and speak to him in “Indian”. “Tell him Pablo a good guy”, he said. I had no idea how to call a stranger and talk to him and tell him another stranger is a good guy. But Pablo insisted. So, I went ahead and called the boss in Jersey and made some nice comments about Pablo in Hindi. The guy on the other side was slightly confused but for whatever reason was polite and played ball.
After that I prodded Pablo some more. I told him, “You probably have a hard time working for this guy but you do it anyway because you need the money. You probably also think twice when buying clothes or going to a fancy restaurant – just to save money. So you risk so much of your time and may be joy to save the money. Why come blow it in Vegas?”. Pablo did nod his head all through this and then said, “Where else will I be treated like this? I sit and chat to big people like you (he didn’t know who I was) , may be owners of some big companies and government officers. And more importantly, they chat with me too. I get served beer by great looking ladies who treat me like a king and don’t mind if I make passes at them. So, why not?”. I was not convinced by that argument so I persisted some more. As we were having the discussion, I started thinking that people like Pablo are the crows, their money the chicken piece and the casino, the Fox. And all the ego building is the flattery that the fox used on the crow !
Pablo lost some more money in Blackjack but continued playing. As we talked more and as he waited for the work-men to collect cash from the machines and walk away with the neat little boxes of steel with money, he said ruefully “it is all about freedom, man”. I did not buy that too. “Freedom? No way. Greedom, may be” I said. It took some time for Pablo to figure what I meant by greedom but once he figured, he laughed and said “ you are funny. But it is not greed. It is freedom. Think about it”. And so after some time we parted ways as he walked out and I walked back to my room.
I spent quite sometime thinking about Freedom and finally it dawned on me. As people lose money to the slot machines and senses to the beer, the mask of sophistication that we all wear, slips off. And then every one is just a human being trying to make up for the lost chicken piece (money) and acting out their true nature. And that is the reason a CEO talks to Pablo as if they were long lost friends. So it is freedom indeed, freedom from hypocrisy. May be Pablo understood it in a much better way and just wanted me to figure it all myself.
I was glad I met Pablo. I was also sad that while I started the discussion with him with a hint of contempt, he ended up exposing me more than I could anticipate. A lot of the people carry a lot more wisdom even if they are short on money and success. And while knowledge of my kind is easily gained from Google, wisdom of Pablo kind is hard to find.
I hate eating pies on a normal day but this humble pie tasted good.
I had come to Vegas for some expo and that means work. The true taste of Vegas was not on offer unless of course, if I could make short work of my work. That was not to be but the good thing was, staying at a Casino hotel and being a victim of jet-lag provided me with an opportunity to have a cup of coffee at the Casino restaurant every morning at 300 AM, a rather Godly hour for Vegas. And thus, I assumed, it was nothing but a twist of fate that allowed me to have another ring side view of life as it unfolded at a Casino.
Now what all this has got to do with Foxes and Crows might not be an invalid question to ask at this point in time. And it also might not be too bad an idea to bring into context the educational system in India. I know, it does sound crazy and it probably is. Hey but in the world we live in, craziness is considered a virtue until you start pelting stones at those who are considering it. Anyways, to understand all this and more, you need to know the kind of parental peer pressures one is subjected to when they, rather proudly, put their kids in one of those fancy schools in India.
And so a couple of months ago, I was reminded gently by my better half that the time has come for me to go and make a presentation at my daughter’s school. I need to tell a short story to a bunch of 4 year olds and the story has to be short and sweet with a moral. It was also mandated by the teacher that just talk will not do but an accompanying chart with pictures depicting the story has to be shown to the kids. And also, my wife reminded, my daughter’s friend’s father has done a fantastic job of it the previous week. Suddenly, there was panic (For some reason the first thing I feel whenever there is any thing concerning my daughter’s school is panic!). We rushed about to find charts containing pictures of short stories with a moral. No charts were found and so we started looking for picture story books as an alternative. The story books presented a challenge as they had pictures on both sides of the page and to convert that into a chart, we have to buy two copies of the same book, tear off the pages and paste them on a chart. As we made our walk to the near by book store to implement this rather innovative solution, serendipity decided to give us a break from this stupidity and we chanced upon an enlightened soul who, after having a good laugh at our solution, gave us directions to a shop where charts containing pictures of short stories with a moral could be found.
The story that I presented at the school, backed by the years of experience I had gathered making presentations in board rooms to bored people, was about a Fox and a Crow. It is a simple story and it has a moral. The crow finds a piece of fried chicken on its flight over a small village. It risks its life as it is chased by a man whose meal the chicken was. It holds on to the same and flies home to a tree branch where it settles down to eat the food. Just about the time, a hungry fox comes along and decides to trick the crow into losing its lunch. The fox spends a lot of time chatting up the crow and flattering it. The crow understands the fox’s intention and pays no attention to it in the beginning but as the flattery continues, it starts believing the fox. Finally, it succumbs to the fox’s praise that there is no better singer in the world than the crow. The crow starts singing, the chicken piece falls off and the fox runs away with it. Moral of the story – do not fall for flattery and false promises.
So, finally, we know the story of the Fox and the Crow but we still do not know what that has got to do with Las Vegas. Patience pays (so does a patient!). Sitting in the Casino café having my cup of 3AM coffee, I used to notice the goings on in the Casino. The anxious people with a beer in hand sitting in front of slot machines with a concerned look on their face – losing money while gaining calories, the scantily clad waitresses, and the work men who come along to clear up the slot machines and pack all the money into neat stacks of steel boxes – it was all on display. Add to this a slightly over weight middle aged man with a coffee in hand and a smirk on his face and that would complete the picture.
The first morning I came across a gentleman from Peurtorico, let’s call him Pablo for convenience though his real name is different, only slightly. I watched Pablo try his hand at the slot machines, shake his head and then move on to one of the black-jack tables. I followed him out of curiosity and he, seeing me, started a conversation. Pablo works for an Indian store in New Jersey. He said he liked Indians in general but was concerned that his boss did not respect him enough. After some idle chatter and couple of beers, he suddenly pulled out a mobile phone out of his pocket. He asked me to call his boss in Jersey and speak to him in “Indian”. “Tell him Pablo a good guy”, he said. I had no idea how to call a stranger and talk to him and tell him another stranger is a good guy. But Pablo insisted. So, I went ahead and called the boss in Jersey and made some nice comments about Pablo in Hindi. The guy on the other side was slightly confused but for whatever reason was polite and played ball.
After that I prodded Pablo some more. I told him, “You probably have a hard time working for this guy but you do it anyway because you need the money. You probably also think twice when buying clothes or going to a fancy restaurant – just to save money. So you risk so much of your time and may be joy to save the money. Why come blow it in Vegas?”. Pablo did nod his head all through this and then said, “Where else will I be treated like this? I sit and chat to big people like you (he didn’t know who I was) , may be owners of some big companies and government officers. And more importantly, they chat with me too. I get served beer by great looking ladies who treat me like a king and don’t mind if I make passes at them. So, why not?”. I was not convinced by that argument so I persisted some more. As we were having the discussion, I started thinking that people like Pablo are the crows, their money the chicken piece and the casino, the Fox. And all the ego building is the flattery that the fox used on the crow !
Pablo lost some more money in Blackjack but continued playing. As we talked more and as he waited for the work-men to collect cash from the machines and walk away with the neat little boxes of steel with money, he said ruefully “it is all about freedom, man”. I did not buy that too. “Freedom? No way. Greedom, may be” I said. It took some time for Pablo to figure what I meant by greedom but once he figured, he laughed and said “ you are funny. But it is not greed. It is freedom. Think about it”. And so after some time we parted ways as he walked out and I walked back to my room.
I spent quite sometime thinking about Freedom and finally it dawned on me. As people lose money to the slot machines and senses to the beer, the mask of sophistication that we all wear, slips off. And then every one is just a human being trying to make up for the lost chicken piece (money) and acting out their true nature. And that is the reason a CEO talks to Pablo as if they were long lost friends. So it is freedom indeed, freedom from hypocrisy. May be Pablo understood it in a much better way and just wanted me to figure it all myself.
I was glad I met Pablo. I was also sad that while I started the discussion with him with a hint of contempt, he ended up exposing me more than I could anticipate. A lot of the people carry a lot more wisdom even if they are short on money and success. And while knowledge of my kind is easily gained from Google, wisdom of Pablo kind is hard to find.
I hate eating pies on a normal day but this humble pie tasted good.
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