Ronen Sen had to apologise to the Lok Sabha Privileges Committee about his “headless chicken” remark and created history of an Indian Ambassador called to the Lok Sabha to explain his remarks. In an interview, Sen, one of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s key men for the Indo-US nuclear agreement in Washington, said: “It has been approved here (in Washington DC) by the President and there (in New Delhi) it has been approved by the Indian Cabinet. So why do we have all this running around like headless chickens?”

Everyone is entitled to one’s opinions but is one entitled to call people names is the question. Regarding the “headless chickens” remark, Sen said it was not with reference to parliamentarians. This, he contended, is a commonly used colloquial expression, which he has the habit of using very often. He said he calls his wife a headless chicken when he finds her move about aimlessly in the house! Somehow we are predisposed to forget that our close family deserves much more respect from us than we are inclined to give.

The liberties we seem to be taking about other people have to be seen and experienced to be believed. Travel on the roads of Bangalore and you will be lucky to avoid the drool that people rightfully spit on public roads from public transport. Let us assume that these people belong to possibly the labour class and are less educated in etiquette. Then what about the little rich people who can own a car and hire a driver but cannot buy an ashtray so much so that they have to shake their cigarette smoke onto the road.

Western dresses are more easily available and affordable, of course. The result being that every lady wearing the traditional saree has to bear the indignity of being called an “auntie”, no matter that the caller has never seen the lady before!

One of the funniest experiences we all have had is with impertinent salesmen who, will stop you anywhere, or haunt you at your doorstep on a holiday, and on being denied the pleasure of a sale will tell you that you have lost a golden opportunity. A petrol bunk assistant is super courteous when filling up my car but otherwise, when topping my two-wheeler.

Men who have arrived later than me are helped first and on enquiry, will tell me that I take too much time to open the tank of the scooter! At a particular petrol bunk in the city I had the absolute happiness of an assistant tell a youngster that not only he, but all others were in a hurry. True, at least I personally had a class of 80 MBAs waiting for the 9 am class.

Take the case of parking assistants, who assume that all lady drivers need driving instructions from them. They will tell you to turn the steering wheel a little left or right or to “cut” your car in a particular way when you least need help. Yet, when someone has wrongly parked against your vehicle and you need the parking assistant to do the honours he has conveniently disappeared.

India has so deeply involved itself in globalisation that we are busy reaping the monetary sides of it but not honing on the soft skills required. Beijing is gearing itself up in soft skills training in anticipation of the Olympics. International businesses are moving out of cities, where the infrastructure is not conducive. It may soon be the case that businesses move out for the low score on soft skills in cities.