Interior furnishing

Doing up corporate interiors is not an easy job. And while those undertaking this task have to live with it, the bigger sufferers are the neighbours.

Doing up corporate interiors is not an easy job. And while those undertaking this task have to live with it, the bigger sufferers are the neighbours. Not only do they have to tolerate the constant grinding, from morning to night, there8217;s water clogging, smoke, cement powder, granite flakes. Add to it a complete disregard for fellow humans, through actions that adversely affect neighbours mentally and physically.

The guard, after all, was only doing his job. A company building a state-of-the-art call centre began to eject its waste onto the area of its neighbour. The guard protested. A group of managers and workers from the company roughed him up, pushed him around and, in a final climax, ensured he returned, his forehead bleeding. The colour was, surprisingly for those brimming with wealth and power, red.

Some dressing and noises later, when an apology was sought from the company, the managers there disappeared. The suave CEO vanished to play Holi for five days in UP. When pursued on phone, he sought some days for 8220;investigation8221;. His intention was clear 8212; a security guard has no status, no aukad, before a manager, a CEO, a company and if he was left bleeding, so what?

What makes this sort of degeneration in otherwise sophisticated, allegedly well-bred, apparently polished, visibly successful 8212; globally aware, if you please 8212; men? What sort of a leader must this man be if he can8217;t respect basic human dignity? Howsoever low a rung in the financial ladder the guard may stand on, his blood is red, his skin is brown, his hair is grey and his eyes yearn to live with dignity.

I8217;m sometimes, much to my disgust, compelled to believe that financial success is counter-productive to affording dignity to those with less. That once the much-sought-after money pipelines start to flow, they replace the spiritual substance that we are made up of, so essential to keeping a balance in the cosmic scheme of things. This, initially, raises its head through transactional coarseness as with the guard, who 8220;will be compensated8221;. But, finally, this comes around and brings an emptiness with it, leaving the body like shells discarded by molluscs and borrowed by crabs.

It need not be so. Money is, if you allow it, a spiritually uplifting force. And it is not its morality I8217;m talking about, but its spirituality that extends into our thoughts, our bodies 8212; and our interiors.