1. Who or what is a snob? It is not just some guy who is ‘To the Manor Born’ (remember the English serial?) or some Lord in the UK. Many of us are snobs. Here is the definition of a snob..

   a person with an exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth who seeks to associate with social superiors and looks down on those regarded as socially inferior.

   “her mother was a snob and wanted a lawyer as a son-in-law”

   • a person who believes that their tastes in a particular area are superior to those of other people.

     “a musical snob”

For many of us who JUDGE a person (be careful of the index finger it has a terrible job of pointing). If you take a small portion of a man and project how he/she will be..you are being a snob. So by that definition, most of us are snobs, are we not?

Some of the dreaded questions that this gen asks is so scary….

1. What do you do? (in the last 30-40 years it has got scary)

2. What is your educational qualification?

3. Where do you live? (location: Country including PinCode)  and 4. What car do you drive?

Frankly there is a big mafia out there which will size you up on ANY one of these answers.

What do you do has some sexy answers which people love – ‘I am a neurosurgeon’ – and ‘I am a dentist or a gynaec’ or ‘I am a CA’, ‘I am a Venture capitalist’, ‘I am an equity trader’ or ‘I am a fund manager’…obviously there are others who will say ‘I am working in…..’ or ‘I am a school teacher’………..

Imagine a Class Reunion with a Surgeon, an Investment Banker, ..and a guy says “I am a school teacher in a municipal school’. I think one of the worst places to go to is a school reunion where everybody is judging and being judged. Unless of course you are beyond caring.

Similarly the car you drive, the location where you live, the clubs to which you belong, – each of these are a ‘leading’ question!

Based on your answer, the person will evaluate you, bracket you, and generally decide where you should be in life. Then they will compare you to THEIR mental image of where they think you should have been (if they know you for say 40 years or 80% of your life whichever is smaller)…and say ‘you remember that dodo in school, can you believe …..he is now a….Surgeon driving a Merc!!……’

This is good fun, if you can step out of your body and enjoy the thought process. Is it possible that you have inherited a lot of money, got a fantastic degree in Fine Arts, work as a school teacher, be a good photographer, drive around in a fantastic car and stay in a pathetic house?

Well these guys will pull their hair, because they will not be able to typecast you – and that for them, THAT  is traumatic.

A friend of mine was learning astrology from his father. One day his father gave him a horoscope and said ‘tell me is this a good horoscope”.

My friend looked at it and said “Omg, no!”.

His father said: “Tell me why?”

My friend said: “No college education, no recognised degree, no foreign trips, no marriage, no kids, no house, no car…..yuck this is really lousy.”

His father said: “This is the problem. I asked you for a view…you have given me YOUR VIEW, not just the facts…

This, my dear son is the horoscope of Kanchi Kamathoti Peetham’s Shankaracharya.