I don't fit in this group anymore

...or what I see of it anyway.

They're so much more affluent and powerful and just plain money-smart,
politics-smart, and street-smart than I ever will be or want to be.
Are we really all products of the same college?

Someone said something praising Pratap Reddy for bringing Apollo to
its supposed greatness, professionalism, and whatnot from supposedly
corrupt beginnings. I had already had 2 drinks by then, but that
would not have mattered anyway:

"I wouldn't go to Apollo even if I were dying". Not my drink
speaking. Stone cold sober I'd just say it louder and include my
family and loved ones also in the statement. I've had personal
experience of Apollo's "professionalism".

"That's your problem, not theirs. They're making money" [or words to
that effect; can't quite recall now].

It's amazing how big a disconnect there is between me and the guy(s)
who said/endorsed this. None of these guys will ever be "middle
class" like I am. They'll never feel "the system" is getting them
down because they *are* part of the system, or help to sustain it.
One guy is an entrepreneur whose turnover has doubled in the last year
(we're talking more than a few millions of USD). One is a very senior
person in the state bureaucracy -- pretty close to the top. The other
are all construction and real-estate czars, or at least mini-czars, in
their own right. One is a CEO of a small part of one of India's
largest (and IMNSHO most corrupt) industrial houses. One of the
absentees is a guy who's already made so much money he's on a 1-year
sabbatical to play golf. What a life...

And what a contrast to a guy whose most expensive possession is a flat
that cost about 32 lakhs (about 70,000 USD) and still has 11 years of
the mortgage to go.

That doesn't mean all 160+ of the batch are like this -- not at all.
But the group that tends to meet often... They'll never be able to
explain to me how they can idolise someone who essentially made his
millions the way I firmly believe he did (and they aren't even
contesting it; they seem to agree it is true but it is just not
relevant!)

And I'll never be able to explain to them how much fun I'm having,
say, building and supporting gitolite, or any of the other things that
drive me (all, sadly, to do with computers... maybe it is true I don't
have a life!)

I definitely don't fit. Too bad... they're really nice guys inside,
every single one of them. But sometimes that's just not enough.