So the big O is getting closer. And I'm talking about the first of October. The date that promises to be a red letter day for many millions of Indian urban execs. In restaurants, in bars and in offices as people bum a ciggie off each other, there is only one hot-burning topic being discussed. And it isn't the recent dastardly bomb blasts in Pakistan. Or the vandalism of religious places.
Or the collapse of the investment bank as we knew it. Or even the ban on music and dancing in the city.
For once, guys are not even discussing the merits of Manchester United or the demerits of silicon-enhanced assets.
Across cafes, the one carbon monoxide-inducing topic is about how one will survive, once cigarette smoking gets banned across public places and office buildings.
The many man hours spent on the office balcony are now, gone in a puff of smoke. All those working hours spent "productively" discussing well, work and admittedly, lots of the office gossip have all disappeared in one sweeping law statement. Somehow, standing around the water cooler with a cup of H2O just doesn't cut the same ice.
The one green lung space in the city Cubbon Park is all set to turn into a smokers' paradise. Morning joggers will get elbowed off the tracks by nicotine-starved sunrise smokers. Ash oaks will be slightly more ashy. And Gold Flakes will be meeting up with Gold Slake trees far more often.
People are now grasping at straws instead of their filter-tipped butts. The smarter ones are already reading loopholes in the ban: After all, the law does say that smokers can still puff on roads and in parks.
So that does include The Park Hotel, doesn't it? I-bar will suddenly become the most popular hangout in the city. Du Parc Trinity, the most favoured office address.
An interview could go like this: "So we have decided to hire you for the xx job at hand. Congratulations and welcome aboard" the interviewer would go, lofty in his knowledge that he's giving a worthy candidate a worthy future.
But the interviewee throws a cog in the wheel: "Thank you so much! But where is the office located? Pickwick Plaza? Oh sorry! Was looking for a perk like a Park, you know!"
Outside on the roads, meanwhile, road rage takes on a whole new dimension. "Milds" are being given up for strong words as guys belt each other because someone shoved past them and caused them to drop their ciggie.
Inside bars, however, smug people breathe easier. As the only smoke around is over the water.
