ADDENDUM

I recently came across two well-travelled guys, one a research scholar & the other a scientist, both young; the same day I chose to wear my brand new 'Benetton' tee shirt & favourite 'Guess' jeans. They struck up a conversation that obviously precluded me. I mean....
What would I know about the 'National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme' or God forbid 'phenotypes'?? Better to talk to me about Charlie Chaplin or Zindagi Na Milega Dobara.

I 'dared' to ask them a question about Bt cotton. They glanced at my 'Week' magazine & smiled,
"You see Bt means ..."
"Bacillus thuringiensis"
"well..you see in our department we modify the phenotype of plants.... phenotype you see means..."
I couldn't believe it, so I replied "appearance, more or less; differing from genotype, where you REALLY change the organism"
At least he kept quiet.
Next guy - "You see the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is no good."
"I think its a pretty good thing" I added
"Did you know that the BIMARU states are not as bad as they are painted out to be? You see BIMARU means...."
I couldn't believe these two guys... "Bihar, M.P,Rajasthan and UP. Also, since your work revolves around NaREGA, that's what we call it in short", I 'informed' him, "can you please tell me more about the Pakistan team that came to study the NaREGA scheme?"
"What? Pakistan knows about our NaREGA scheme? I had no idea..."
"By the way, WHAT do you do?" he quickly asked
Hmmm... good question. Now, no ones looking thaaat much...
Anyways, we all ended up as buddies with promises to visit each other in Spain, Delhi etc etc...
And they're not all that bad.