Interesting weekend (part 2/2)

ok so you cut him some slack thinking he is a car enthusiast (I talk about Toyota prius a lot, but then I do that with a sense of civic duty) the only thing this guy was interested in was himself! and I thought teens ends at nineteen but 'Mr. Super 40s' was kicking and screaming '18 till I die'.

Now comes the next morning, all of us went to listen to Adil Najam speak on Sustainable development and climate change (which is a subject dear to me and I will blog in detail on this) this guy decides to skip this event (he is too busy sustaining himself) has no interest in it and decides to meet us for lunch after the event.

The rest of us decide to go for halwa puri at a Pakistani restaurant, now all of us are at this restaurant and 'Mr. Valley Girl' decides that he cannot eat halwa puri now if you don't like halwa puri thats fine I can respect your taste in food, but to make it sound as if its beneath you because 'ALL PAKISTANIS like it ' is frankly intolerable, he has a knack of saying all the wrong words at the right time, I bet he keeps his mouth shut during board meeting and does most communication in writing just to avoid having the taste of foot in his mouth too often.

Interesting weekend (part 1/2)

living in Washington DC is like having front seats to a live comedy show where you see all kinds of characters zipping in and out, trying to stand out in one way or the other, especially now that the overall US economy is taking a hit people from all over the country can be seen flaunting there credentials in the town that holds the keys to 20% of the US economy.

This week was interesting for many reasons, on Saturday we met a Pakistani technology executive now working in California, people who know CresSoft may know him too, CresSoft, in the good old days use to be one of the more prominent software development shops in Pakistan, but then due to there inability to pull through a few key projects and a string of some very bad management decisions lost its prominence.

Nevertheless, meeting this guy was quite the disappointment. One would expect to have an intellectual discussion about technology or hear anecdotes of a experienced past from someone like him. Yet, this guy made every attempt to sell himself through his posessions. I think conversation starters shouldn't include going down one's list of assets but instead a hearty discussion on world politics, civic issues, current events, etc. I think this type of an approach exhibits qualities of someone with an inflated ego coupled with a severe inferiority complex seemingly rooted in their ancestry. A decent chap would usually come and introduce himself by telling you a little about himself and then perhaps soliciting introductions from others, but 'Mr. Desi Inferiority Complex' had his own agenda, the conversation went from cars, to health care to taxes and the guy never disappointed once, he goes from establishing BMW ownership to how he is in a high income tax bracket to basically how he is so much better then everyone else.

Anyways, by the time the evening ended, even a dog in the room would have puked, for crying out loud he was in the city to see colleges with his teenage son (who sounded so even keeled), but 'Mr. Shallow' was so busy talking about himself we didn't hear much about anything else.

you would think the torture would end there but nope it gets even more interesting read on :) ...