corporate – Penfluky

In the world we live in there are many weird things that happen around us. We cannot know all of them, but we sure do see a few and feel bizarre. We all use a mirror to see our reflection. The mirror is like a common household item in every house. However, what would be your reaction if you see a mirror in an office work desk?

You would feel that person is self-obsessive and needs a mirror even while working. Or you may think they are protecting themselves from intruders and stuff who come from the back right? What if I tell you it was the idea of the company to install a mirror at the work desk? Seems a bit odd right? What if I tell you that they installed it on all the desks. It is weird, isn’t it?

No matter if an employee is working for a company, they have their personal life. They have the freedom of expressing their emotions. For instance, a person might be having a rough day at home or might be feeling low. It is okay for them to be in silence, not talk to anyone and still keep working. It is not like you should always smile and keep working right?

If you agree with me, then I got one of the bizarre incidents which personally shook me to the core. Recently corporate giants started installing mirrors at employee work desks so that if they are sad they can simply look into the mirror and “Smile.” First of all, I didn’t get it. I thought what is the need for that? But when they shamelessly said to keep a good face before client, I couldn’t even speak.

This mirror thing has now entered almost all parts of the world, and it is making me very sick thinking about it. This is mainly seen in the customer service department. The organisation specifically states that “Don’t worry if you are having rough customer guys, just end the call, look at the mirror and smile. Then take the next call.” I mean is it not enough that you suck their blood and sweat and give salary which is equal to peanuts? You have to turn them to robots and control their expressions?

We all work to pay the bills and bear the finances. Some of us may have passions, but I’m sure not customer care person would want to do that job. Who would want to get cusses and yelling’s for nine hours in a day? The corporates are not ready to stand up the employee and say to the customer not to be rude or behave professionally. But they want a human to control their sadness and smile.

This is the violation of basic human rights of an individual. Why hire humans and make them do this? Just automate all your processes and get your work done by robots. Sure, the customer has rights and all and they deserve the service they need. But it doesn’t matter if the employee is happy or sad. They can have a rough day and they have all the rights to express their feelings.

If you have faced this situation or going to face, my friend you are a hero and an inspiration. Just hang in there and you will have the best days coming!

The world goes on, the world moves as it is. If there is a change that happens that destroys the order in the world, the world destroys it. If it survives, adapts and changes, the world changes, and the order changes. It recurs and some activists fight for the unfair things in the world and the world again fights the activist to remain as it is.

It is the activist that is bothered with the unfair things in the world. And this unfair thing begins personally, it is unfair to the activist first and then they begin to realise there are other people like them who find these things unfair too. It is only then it becomes an activity. The activist carries the guilt of the world, but the world doesn’t carry their guilt. For the world they are just another speck of dust making unnecessary sounds and destroying the order for some logic that has never occurred to anybody.

The origin

Veeru, like all these activists, decided to fight for something he found unfair. It all started with a glass of milk. He was 17 then and he woke up to the cold chills of winter. Hyderabad is funny, the temperature during nights and early mornings are single digits but the afternoons burn your skin.

He woke up feeling a chill in his bones, he wanted to drink something warm. He checked his fridge and found a packet of milk. And he poured it into a vessel and started heating it. As he poured the hot milk into his cup, a thought occurred to his brain. “What is this liquid?” he thought. This liquid which I drink, which I crave to make some chai tea. Without it the tea tastes bad.

He instantly remembers a chapter in his school. “Cow gives us milk” and he told himself that milk is necessary. An essential need of humans. But again “What does this milk give me?”, “Oh! It gives me calcium. So, humans need milk for a lifetime” he sat on his couch sipped some hot milk. He recalled his brother drinking milk from his mother. “Kids need milk” he thought. “Kids need mother’s milk” he corrected himself. He switched his TV on and put National geographic.

There is some documentary about cubs of different cats. “Cats need milk, beings need milk” eh thought as he saw kittens sucking milk from their mother. He clicked next and there’s some another channel of leopards mating. “I have never seen an adult cat drinking milk” he thought. This thought remained and disturbed him for some time. All this time of thinking, he never sipped the milk. “It is a cow tit enzyme” he though. And he couldn’t sip the milk another time. In fact, he felt nauseous and almost puked the milk he drank. “It is weird” he stood up poured the milk back into the vessel.

The Problem

He went out for a walk to divert himself from this disturbing thought of himself sucking milk from a cow. “The grass the cow eats that allows the cow to produce the milk that it produces for its calf. Why am I even drinking it?” he thought. He turned around as a bus honked and his eyes went upon a big billboard. That board has a big poster of a cow smiling while holding a packet milk. “My fresh milk, just for you” the board read. It made him nauseous again.

“If a human ever said that sentence, it would look like a weird fetish” he thought. He could smell cow dung. He looked around and he saw a shelter where there are buffaloes tied up. It was 5 in the morning and a man came holding a tin from the shelter. He sat down and started milking the cow. Veeru looked around and saw a calf looking at all the milk being poured into a tin. “It surely is hungry” he thought. After the man collected enough milk, he let the calf suck remaining milk.

Veeru couldn’t control his urge and went up to the milk man. “The calf looks male” Veeru shouts to the milk man. “Yeah it is” milk man replied while pouring the milk into small tins. “Well, what do you do with it? I mean, it doesn’t give milk” Veeru asks. Milk man smiled and said “We sell it to the dealers, they either sell it to farmers or sell it to the beef factories” he said. Veeru looks at the calf drinking milk from its mother that’s tied to a pole.

The unfair

“It’s unfair” Veeru whispers. “What?” the milk man asked and Veeru turned around and started walking towards his home. “Do we even need milk? Or is it because of these farming industries promoting us to drink milk? No animal drinks milk after growing up. We are animals, right? We are drinking milk for its taste! Not for the need. It is not essential. It is a corporate propaganda for all these people to live by selling milk. But if we understood that we don’t need milk, will we buy milk? It is everyone that is brainwashed and addicted to milk. They told us that it is essential! And now we buy it from them. It is their livelihood”

Veeru stares blankly at the stairs without getting up to his home. “It is us who are paying these people to tie cows, buffaloes, and steal its baby’s food because of the common delusion that we all need milk”. Veeru felt like he found out something big. He was happy that he understood something out of the world; found something unfair to him. He understood that it is unfair anywhere in the world. He set foot on the stairs going above to his floor. And while climbing up these stairs, Veeru knew that he is going to fight for it; that he is going to gather more activists.

Hence the activist!

He decided to take all the guilt of human race to fight against this common unfairness; wanted to save humanity from the burden of mistreating and stealing the calf’s food. He decided to be an activist. And he wanted to find more people who consider themselves an activist, and just go for it! But the world is already in a structural format of drinking milk. It is an order of the world now. Will the world adapt to Veeru? Will the world take up on his guilt the way he took everyone’s? Or will Veeru remain the speck of dust while we sip milk and kill cows?

Tag: corporate

MIRROR: NOT A REAL REFLECTION.