Cynic

A. adj.
Belonging to or Characteristic of a Sect of humanity called Sentient; distinguished by a capacity to see what exists, to understand what is seen, as well as an equal lack of capacity to understand when not to speak thereof

B. n.
A person disposed to disbelieve in what does not exist, such as sincerity and human goodness, and is wont to express such by an understandable, but inexcusable, lack of tact
(obs) A strange person who sees things only as they are, not as the public would have it be, one who insists on believing all that he sees and hears
(obs) a man who refuses to close his eyes when he sees something which does not exist, nor yet closes his ears when he hears something which cannot have been, but is, spoken
(of animals) a lamb which persists in asking impertinent questions of the leader of the flock, while the flock is being ably led by the butcher or the shearer

Cynicism:
a. An instance of the truth being spoken; a truthful utterance.

Note: There is an (unpardonable) confusion regarding the definition of the cynic and the critic; we note here that the simplest difference between the both pertain to their domain of influence; a Cynic is one who is persistently, if tactlessly, truthful about most issues, a critic is one who is exceedingly truthful in only one aspect only.
The distinction between them maybe likened to that between the rapier and the bludgeon; one who has had the (mis)fortune of encountering the latter rarely, and barely, escapes, while one encountering the latter has enough time on hand to find any handy individual to substitute for oneself, one individual being as good as another for the bludgeon.

Software allava ?

Caveat: Note that this is not intended to be a reflection of a real conversation, and is merely the offspring of the marriage of an over-wrought imagination with an equally intense inferiority complex. I disclaim the truth only in the discussants, not in the content being discussed!


The conversation begins thus, between the mother of our pro(an?)tagonist, a non-software engineer, in a world populated, so at least it appears to the protagonist (and even more keenly, to his parents) by two types of male individuals, the Software engineers, let us call them the successes, and the Others, including "failures" like our protagonist (the "third way", to use Confucian terminology, of Successes in other fields are rare enough to be discounted rightaway), a student, that lowest of all creatures, without any possible position in the hierarchy, in a very hierarchical world; and an acquaintance, not quite close enough to be a friend but someone who might someday be quite useful .

"yeenri, nimma maga yenu madta iddane", queries the ever-curious acquaintance (CA); the protagonists' mother (PM-M, for short) squirms in embarrassment, talks of the weather, "ivattu tumba bisilu, male barohange ide, allava"? The other woman, true to her type, persists nonetheless, and extricates a confession from the PM-M, that she has no idea but whatever it is, he is studying in a good university, "avanu PhD madta iddane, America-alli".
This is enough to set off all possible types of doubts in the quintessentially curious woman, who pursues the matter to what she perceives as its logical conclusion; "innu vodta iddana"?, in a tone reminiscent of one whose ears seem to deceive her, mingled with some remnants of respect for the fact that he is, after all, in the US, the most desirable temporal location, at least in this world.
PM-M "haudu ree, avanige adeno vodo huchu, adakke innu vodta iddane";
The CA: "Yaavaga mugistanante ?"
PM-M: "Innondu yerado-mooro varshagalagattante"
CA: "Yenu, innu mooru varshagala ? Yaakante ? Namma maga aagale MS-mugisi 3 varshagalaitu, alle Software kelasadalliddane"
PM-M:"yeno ri, avaneno vodu mugida nantara volle kelasa sigatte antidda; nodona"
CA: "Haudu, yenu vodta iddane, nimma maga: Computer-aa" ?
PM-M: (increasing disquiet, at the turn the dialogue is taking, exerts her rather considerable skills of evasion, acquired since her son took to this Path to Ruin) "Alla ree, adeno ......... (naming a Non-Engineering field) vodta iddane"
CA: (unable to contain her angst at such a desertion of the intellectual rigour of Engineering for
a field of Straw) "ayyo, yaake, nimma maga-nu Engineer-allava"?
PM-M: "haudu ree, avanu Engineering madida"
CA: "Matte; Engineering mugisida mele kelasa sigalillavaa ?"
PM-M: "alla ree (oho, Kelasa sigalillava ante, kelodu noodu), avangige adeno ishta aaghoitu adu, India-alle Master's degree madida, nantara allige hooda"
CA: (unreconciled yet to the enormity of the insult to the field of Engineering, regarding which she, naturally, is entirely ignorant) "yaake, Engineering-alli seat sigallilava, alli ?"
PM-M: (Bristling at this insult to the intellectual heritage of her Son, which she considers quite considerable, on which matter she is generally in a majority of one in any company larger than herself and deciding to teach this Ignorant Woman her Place)
"avanige alli tumba volle University-alli seat sikkide, avare stipend kodta iddare, naavu vondu rupayi kooda kharchu madohagilla" (this last with pride)
CA: (touched upon this sore point, of money paid to some US university) "
houda-re, neevu avana mele lakshantara kharchu madalillava ?; adu henge ree ?" (kochkollodu nodu)
PM-M: "adeno ree, avanige alli fees-katto talenoovu illa, part-time kelasa mado prameya-vu illa; avana hanebaraha channaigttu bidi"
CA: "Nija; matte, avanige maduve innu maadillava?"
PM-M: (touched on a sensitive nerve, a perennial fear of hers resurfaces, and she is debating whether to divulge her fears to this Woman, a well-known teller-of-tales; settles upon a half-way house and decides not to provide details) "illa ree, avaneno vidyabhyasa mugiso tanaka maduve madakollalla antane" (sounds worried, inspite of herself)
CA: "hauda ? adu sari-ne bidi, innu sampadista illavalla" (getting her own back, after having had to live down the fact about having paid tuition to the US university)
PM-M: (almost angry enough to cross the usual feminine lines on insulting each other, drawn in a manner that most Men would consider it on the wrong side of outright insult, and worried enough about the truth of the statement) "yeno ree, naanu antu avanige helta ne iddene, aadare avanu maate kelalla"
CA: (now putting her finger on the nub of the matter) "ayyo, bega maduve madbide, aamele alle iro yavudo hudugina nodkondare kashta; eegena kaalada hudugaranna nambokke aagalla noode"
PM-M: (bristling with righteous indignation, yet relieved to hear her innermost fears divulged) "avanu hagella madolla ree (ankoteeene...aadare helakke aagalla)"
CA: (happy at having had her option to reveal certain, at the moment, unwanted tidbits of information) "nija, illaddageno sariyage idda; aadare allige hoda mele hengo, devare balla: ade, pakkada beede janakammana maga, dina Sandhyavandane madta idda, manelliddaga, aadare US-ge vodokke anta adene hodno, kettu hoda...iga adyavalo jote iddanante, gotta nimage?"
PM-M: (torn between a natural feminine desire to gossip about this most interesting event, and a fear that she would rather not hear how a boy, very much like hers, had Gone Astray) "hauda? ayyo, ghante 5 aaytu, naanu bega manege hoga beku, nanna maga kelasa mugisikondu bartane innenu "
CA: "yaaru, nimma chikka maga na? Avanelli kelasa madta iddane ?"
PM-M: (Chest swelling with pride, and a certain amount of that very feminine trait, cattiness) "avanu dodda Software MNC-alli kelasa madtiddane ree; BE mugusida takshana avanige Software kelasa sikkitu--aa batch-inda itararige Campus inda sigalilla (nimma maganigu sigalilla!)"
CA: (wanting, and having, the Final Word) "nija, manelli yaarigaadru obbairge volle kelasa iddare paravagilla; illadiddare kashta aagatte"

With this repartee, she repairs to her home, content with having put the Snobbish Woman who considers her son intelligent, despite not only not having a Software job but also studying a non-Engineering subject, in her place. After all, she reasons (with, it must be admitted, impeccable logic) in her experience, she had never quite come across anyone who was intelligent and yet was not working in software or studying Engineering (or an MBA).

Moral:
be warned, ignoramus thou,
of the perils of, how,
not pursuing the path, now,
of that everlasting sooth,
that Software Job,
ist thou doubly cursed;
in this world, thou, a sore nursed,
by thine parents, their spirits crushed,
and in the next, your Maker, confused,
admittance to Hell, he refused