The recession makes for good small talk.

5-Jan-2009 - 7AM :
Am on the train to Chennai after my long vacation and in 2.5 hours the train should be at
Chennai Central. It was quite cold at night (by Indian standards ie.) and I am still lazing under
the covers, when I hear a guy nearby talking over the cellphone. He makes a series of calls,
discusses the price of something, places orders etc, effortlessly switching between English,
Hindi & Tamil. I can't make out what commodity he is trading in though.

I sneak out of the covers and see a man in his late-forties being the owner of the voice
mentioned above. He is returning from a trip to the Sabarimala shrine of the Hindu deity
Ayyappa. He continues his business calls while I walk to the restroom to freshen up.

When I return, the rest of the passengers in the coupe are also up and about. Apart from
our man, we have a group of 5 youngsters (mid-twenties), all from Kerala and who look
like the typical IT sector employees working in Chennai.

Having finished his business calls, our man is still in the mood for conversation and looks
out at the group of youngsters sitting near him and targets the guy sitting exactly opposite
him.

Our man : You are working or studying ?
IT guy : Working at Chennai.

From the way he replied, he made it clear that he is not in the mood for conversation, but
our man is least deterred.

Our man : Which organisation do you work for ?
IT guy : CTS. (Cognizant Tech Solutions).

I can make out a a hint of pride in the way he replied. Especially because our man looked
very ordinary and seemingly very far from the tech domain the youngster belongs to.
Which is mainly because Ayyappa devotees are not supposed to remove any facial hair for
the 41-day period preceding their visit to the temple - overgrown hair, moustache & beard
can give a dishevelled look. They also should not wear any footwear and their attire is a
simple black sarong or trousers.

Our man : Oh, CTS. My sister's son works there too.
IT guy : Just nods his head. (Oh, so you know about CTS).

Our man : Is it true that you guys have had to take a drastic salary cut due to the recession?

The whole group freezes on hearing this and the IT guy somehow mumbles an almost
inaudible "No, nothing like that", which did not sound very convincing to our man.

Our man : Is that so ? I keep reading about pay-cuts and even worse stuff. Especially in
the US, where I hear about people abandoning homes and living inside their cars.

The IT guys are silent, not knowing how to respond to this.

Obviously with the constant media bombardment we all face today via newspapers/TV/net,
access to information is available to everyone. No wonder, the main topic I hear today being
discussed everywhere is the global slowdown, loss of jobs in IT/manufacturing etc.