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08:22 PM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
March 23, 2013
It's a little bit of expat nasties. And very Caesar-like in that the good is interred with their bones and the evil lives after them, never mind if the evil is spawned in a fertile imagination.
But the moment someone is packed and ready to leave town on even a legitimate transfer the gossip mill goes into full swing and chop chops the person to little pieces.
If you thought so little of him why were you genuflecting when he was in position? And why does courage of these convictions only mature when the individual is literally checking in at the airport.
It is almost as if all those virtues being stuffed into him right through his tenure have suddenly evaporated and there is nothing now but a carcass to vulturously peck at.
It would be comical to watch the way people change if what they do wasn't so hurtful.
Time and again I have witnessed with slack jawed awe as people have slagged off some departee and told the throng how he or she actually was and they did look a bit suspish from Day One.
Oh really. If I remember correctly, these critics were the ones dancing attendance and lavishing sickly sweet praise upon them when they mattered.
The higher the person reaches the more mean spirited seems to be the aftermath, especially if that person did not concede space to all the little homespun VIPs who take themselves very seriously and spend much of their time seeking slight.
From my part of the world, I believe the government servants, the top management officials, businessmen and other high profile professionals are the worst off.
They seem never to be able to just quit and go elsewhere or sign out with grace and dignity because they have decided to turn their footsteps homewards. There is always some know all telling you the inside story of what really happened and don't you know, he was dumped, caught out, hanky panky stuff, had to go, gave him a week to get lost, no, no, no question of getting a better job, who'd leave such a super salary.
Maybe he would, maybe he just wanted to leave, so how come you are such an expert on the subject.
And yet, there is always such an expert and what makes it all so horrible is that we form ever increasing circles of listeners quite willing to feel smug and pious because we are only listening and not contributing to the malice except that we forget that by offering an enthusiastic audience we are no less guilty of being mean spirited.
It is as if we get some sense of reprieve that we continue while the other person has been derailed.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
If my call is so important to them, why don’t they answer it for 22 minutes?
How come when I want to, but something specific online is the only item out of stock.
When I get into a queue or lane going fast, the moment I get in, it becomes the slowest and refuses to budge.
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