Opinion The job market

The current mood of aggressive competitiveness and a downturn in many fortunes has had an impact on the job market,with some positions becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and others posing a real challenge in terms of execution and successful implementation. Here’s a look at some jobs which may have become endangered in today’s climate.

A sweeper in the PM’s house: Electronic sweeping is one thing,now we know what the Yanks have been up to,but a race is on for a regular sweeper’s job at 7 Race Course Road. Nota Beni,which the Italians translate as Please Note,but Sonia translated as Please Not,is now a job that,according to another Beni,even a chief minister is not qualified to handle. There’s not much domain expertise required but it looks like the ruling party,at least,needs a new broom to clean up its Cabinet stables.

Manmohan Singh’s speechwriter: A dream job,one would imagine,but not if the person doing the hiring is in a dream state himself most of the time. Being a man of few words,Manmohan Singh rarely appears in public,gives very few sound bites and believes in the mantra that silence is golden,hardly appropriate for the leader of the world’s most vocal democracy. On the rare occasions he does speak,usually at 30,000 ft in a noisy airplane,he also leaves the questions up in the air by speaking largely in riddles,as demonstrated by his non-answer to the query on whether he will seek a third term in office. Being his speechwriter could be a dream job only because there is so much free time.

Vijay Mallya’s employee: A text book case of how high-flying jobs become high-risk ones. Anyone working for ‘The King of Good Times’ is having a bad time right now,starting with Kingfisher Airline employees who haven’t been paid for months,and those employed in the other prime assets he is currently stripping like a cabaret artist. A prime example is his spirits business,but unfortunately for the employees,they have to grin and beer it.

Robert Vadra’s real estate broker: Now that’s a job with high rise prospects,literally. If what the whistleblower from Haryana exposed is true,Vadra’s real estate holdings have expanded as much as his biceps and pecs have over the years,but much of it is now under the Official Secrets Act,according to the PMO,so his real estate empire is literally behind closed doors. However,his broker is not complaining. Considering the market value of the real estate shown to be owned by Mr Vadra,the broker must be giggling all the way to the nearest bank.

Minister in Narendra Modi’s cabinet: A job with limited career prospects one would imagine,considering that NaMo hogs all the limelight and media space and speaks on all aspects of governance in Gujarat,leaving his ministers quite faceless and invisible. Not many people outside the state even know who they are,such is NaMo’s dominance and larger-than-life image,not to mention the flood of self-promotional activities which breached political bounds in the Uttarakhand tragedy,projecting him as a one-man army with supernatural powers. For his ministers,however,it must be a ruinous reminder of the old saying that nothing grows in the shadow of a giant tree.

Rahul Gandhi’s travel coordinator: One job that must be the most challenging in the world,considering that the Gandhi scion does travel quite extensively and frequently but not many people seem to know where,when and how. A case in point is his annual escape abroad for his birthday in June to avoid people claiming he has his cake and eats it too. It’s a mystery,even to close friends and people in his party office,where he goes but even when he’s home or on his visits as during the Uttarakhand tour,he remains as elusive as the scarlet pimpernel of whom it was written: “They seek him here,they seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. If you should see him,please do give a yell!” That’s a line tailor-made for his travel coordinator.

Ranbir Kapoor’s dating service: Being India’s most eligible bachelor,with a string of girlfriends,girlfriends turned friends,girlfriends turned co-stars,co-stars turned girlfriends,no star turned girlfriend and mysterious sightings of various women being smuggled in and out of his house,his dating service must be constantly on speed dial trying to keep track of who’s doing what and with whom.