The devil does wear Prada…or a really good suit!

I was on the train back to college and since I had nothing better to do I caught up on few of the movies I had. I don’t know how, but I ended up watching ‘The Devil Wears Prada’. Before you jump to any conclusions, I think you ought to give the movie a watch. It isn’t a chick-flick and it isn’t all fashion. At the end of the movie, it turned out to be a human story. For someone looking to make it big in the world and willing to try whatever it takes, the movie found a certain resonance with yours truly.

How far or how low would one go in their career to get to where they want and to get there quickly? At times, greenhorns entering the big bad world with dreams sometimes find themselves a little lost. You come into the business world with ideals and principles, but you soon tend to find yourself questioning them. The movie is about this girl who wants to make it big as a journalist. To get there she takes up the job of secretary to a Fashion Magazine mogul just so that the name on her resume would get her ahead of the crowd. Sounds fairly simple. Grin and bear for a year and you’ve got your way. But then, the movie would have been quite boring had it all been hunky-dory. Time goes by, protagonist is given a hard time and finds herself becoming the very thing she loathed and made fun of. You’ll get what I am saying once you actually watch the movie.

How many times in our lives have we found ourselves at this juncture? We get so greedy, so opportunistic (which is not a bad thing) that we almost start to ignore the people around us? We become arrogant and tend to think about only us. Some of us ruthlessly get away with it, some don’t. Now, I don’t want to sound like a self-righteous bastard for I too have found myself stepping on people’s toes and maybe ruffling a few feathers to get ahead. Call it part of a vicious circle. Some of us have been fortunate enough to live in a society that has been good to you and has presented you with ample opportunities. You get the inch, you take a mile. But for many of us, the luxury of the inch does not exist. We need to make that inch, and convert it into a mile. And it isn’t unconsciously that one is arrogant, but understands that the world is a mean and nasty place roaming with wolves who will gobble you up if you show any weakness. But even in this arrogance and self-centered approach, how far are we willing to go? Far enough that we become someone else completely? We change so much that we soon become part of this system which we hate, and before we know it, we’ve tumbled far too down the rabbit hole to return? I know of people who would stoop to any level to have their way. To a point where they come off as perpetually kissing the back-side of anyone who’d give them the advantage. Give them boots and they shall lick it.

In the years to come, I know I am going to find myself at this juncture. While I can take every opportunity that comes my way, somewhere, to get that extra jump ahead, would I be willing to become everything I hate. Would I be willing to stab people in the back, people I know and care about? Would I take the high road and choose not to get where I want a little quicker than the other guy? For some of us, we tend to realize where we went wrong, but then, we’re too far down that road to turn back. Soon enough, we have what we want, but at a cost of friends, family, honour and integrity. The devil would tempt us, show us a fat pay package, and that corner office with the cute secretary and a company jet and Mercedes benz…… what would we do? I guess that’s a choice I need to face when the time occurs.

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