Might is Right
Tim Might enters the room singing 'The Internationale' in the capitalist vulture’s (CV) room. His smile is beaming, his eyes are smiling and he walks with a spring in his steps. After years of pushing hard, being the dog in the manger and by creating nuisance where there should have been even more nuisance, he has finally got the CV where he wants - A meeting. Tim was finally showing his ‘might’. He already was visualising headlines screaming – ‘Might is Right’, ‘What might have been is happening now’ and so on and so forth.
For years the CVs have ignored his union and instead directly talked with the members. He has received calls from a few high profile bankers interested in understanding the process of making a trade union of high earning professionals. He has agreed to conduct a few workshops to give them some tips on how to claim that they need a collective body to protect their interests, in spite of them earning millions. He has agreed to do it for free but in return he wants them to promise that they will not strike any of his brethrens (Remember C'Paul putting all his hard earned money with Stanford?).
He had tried so many tricks to get the lost souls of his brethrens from the sub continent in his fold. He had tried cajoling them. He had personally tried to attack the CVs to show his subcontinent counterparts that the CVs were not as powerful as they thought. He had talked of burn out fears, for his members when representing their nations. When THE CV had stood by its players in their fight against WADA testing procedures, he had belatedly tried to protect his members’ interests by whining. As a last resort he had tried the famous Freddie Jesus pose but to no avail.
He smiles to himself content with what the future holds for him. But then with a shake of his head he tries to regain his focus. His lack of focus had prevented his career as a cricketer from taking off. He could not and would not allow it to impact his future as a Union leader.
He enters the room thinking of what his strategy will be. Should he be belligerent from the start or should he behave like a moderate. What should he do if the lord of CVs accepted all his conditions? Should he do the hoola hoops dance or should he do his famous ‘play the banjo’ routine? What if the CVs actually ask him to come on board as a representative of the players? He would look at them serenely and refuse the offer. That would really make him the messiah. He cares two hoots for the ‘messiah’ title. He has had many unspeakable orgies (in his dreams of course) thinking of this possibility and still hasn’t decided on the least obscene celebrations in the meeting room.
“Hey mate, wassup?”
“Good morning Mr Might? How are we this morning?” enquired the LCV (Lord of CVs and not Light Commercial Vehicle)
“I am doing fine but we at FICA are extremely concerned about …”
“Before you start voicing your concerns, and I am sure you have many, I wanted to ask you a question.”
“Shoot, mate! Sorry, think it’s a bit sensitive to say shoot in the current circumstances.” It was one of his better ones but LCV remained unmoved.
“What is the angle between the hour hand and the minute hand of an analog clock when the time is 6:15?”
“Huh? You are joking right?”
“Mr. Might, I am perfectly serious when I ask you this question.”
Tim was flabbergasted. His parents had always given him a digital watch since he was pretty bad at telling time on a conventional watch. He had heard of angles only in his committee discussions. As in “if you look at it from this angle...” He was in a fix now. He asked himself to be excused and called his most intelligent mate on his island (who worked as a taxi driver and was recuperating from a knife attack in a Melbourne hospital). In that weakened state his mate came up with a 90 degrees solution.
“Mr. Modified, I dunno why you are asking me such unrelated queries, but the answer to your question is 90 degrees.”
“Well, the answer is wrong, Mr Might. Even I am not sure about the correct answer myself but my cook said to me that anyone answering 90 was wrong.”
“Now that we have wasted time on such silly puzzle, can we move ahead?”
"Wait a minute Mr. Might. I will ask you a simpler question. I hope you do know your English alphabet. What are the English alphabets corresponding to 6:15? Solve that and you will get our message”
Tim was getting impatient with all this dilly dallying by the LCV. But he tried none the less. This was a simpler one. “It’s F…ummmmm… and it’s an O. So it's FO. Hey!” he looked up in consternation.
He found the room empty.