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06:46 PM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
May 21, 2013
My seven scenarios of the summer holiday, first three today, the next four tomorrow and they will all fit you as you plan your vacation. See if it wrecks your plans.
- Carrying gifts for strangers given by their friends.
"Can you take a small packet for my first cousin?"
No, take it yourself.
Of course, he can, (wife volunteers) no problem just send it to us and we'll carry it.
Small packet turns out to be bulky, odd shaped, grotesque "won't fit into the suitcase", bundle and has to be broken up.
Then you reach Delhi or Durban or wherever you are going and you call these strangers and tell them you have brought their ruddy package and they say, would it be too much trouble to ask you to please deliver it, we live only 16 kilometers away.
So, the next thing you know is you are mounting a safari to this benighted colony in the boondocks and it takes hours to find the B block, flat 26 in which they live and the odds are when you reach there, they are not home.
- Taking presents for relatives and discovering overlooked aunt has fetched up suddenly and there is no gift for her and your wife is calling you into the other room and saying, what do we do now and you say, give her something of yours, dash it, what am I supposed to do, and then you have to juggle the gift list around and give her someone else's and hope that person doesn't fetch up until you get your act together.
- Relative who is opinionated and knows what is best for you displays his bitterness that you are doing well abroad and his son isn't. So, after slagging you off and making rude remarks about those who run away from the country he produces this dog-eared passport copy and little Babloo's CV, which reads about turgidly as a train schedule and he tells you that he feels that his son should gain a little experience, so what are you going to do about it? Can you fit him in somewhere?
By the time the vacation is over you have 27 such applications, half of them being for electrical engineers and IT grads and the other half wanting to do anything, just so long as they have a job, which is of no great help because anything isn't available.
And, whatever efforts you do make, they are never going to forgive you for not getting them a decent job, if you get that far in the enterprise. No one, but no one listens when you tell them you can't get them a flipping job, no one.
End of Part 1; hang in there or cancel your tickets. Save your money.
(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)
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