Jack of Success

Over a game of cards with some friends one day, I came across a very interesting finding.  What happened was that, while playing cards with my friends, the discussion turned towards the importance of “Jack”.  Supremely confident of my general awareness, I fired the first salvo – “Jack of all trades, master of none,” I thundered.

One of my friends immediately shot back, “Come on man, don’t be a bore.  All that stuff is outdated.”  Finding myself outwitted, I tried to sidetrack the issue by telling them of my experiences at a string of interviews for a job.  The conversation from now on, turned back and forth from my performance and my chances at these interviews to the game of cards simultaneously.

“By the way, do you have any Jack?” one of my friends enquired suddenly.  Glancing through the cards in my hands, I declared, “Sorry folks, I don’t have any Jack with me.  All that I have is a Queen of Diamonds, a King of Spades and an ace of the trump.”   My friends could not believe their ears and before long, burst out laughing.  It was now my turn to look in disbelief.

“What’s the matter guys?” I asked a bit sheepishly.  Oops, I realised the very next moment that I had blurted out all the cards in my hands.  “Ok, ok, its’ not that funny.  It happens.   Let’s start the game all over again.”  My friends who had been laughing all this while, could not stand it any longer and doubled over laughing.

After their bouts of laughter were over, I asked them what they had found so amusing.  One of them commented, “Now come on, don’t be so naïve.  If you really don’t know the true implication of Jack now-a-days, you are certainly not cut out for this world.  You better retire to the Himalayas and become a mendicant.”

Putting up a brave face and hiding my apparent ignorance, I tried to carry on the conversation – “Oh right, you were talking about that Jack.  I know these days it is impossible to do anything without it these days, but it is so difficult to find one.”

My shot in the dark had evidently hit the bull’s eye, for now my friends began taking me seriously. Another quipped rather seriously, “You are very right.  It’s exactly like the jack of a car.  Can you replace a tyre without a Jack?  Similarly, just try getting a job without a jack, or a push.”

All my doubts vanished.  So, Jack was after all, a popular slang for the omnipresent and ubiquitous “resourcefulness” or “having the right contact in the right places” displayed by all and sundry for any kind of a job.  I realised that it was people like me whom environmentalists refer to, when they talk of a “resource crunch.”  But, where is the crunch, I wondered to myself.   Everybody seems to be so resourceful in today’s world.

In the light of the recent revelation I had come across, I could see my job prospects dwindling and receding further.  All the hopes that I had pinned on success in any one of the interviews now began to fall apart – like a pack of cards.   After all, I did not have any ‘Jack’ and relying on merit now-a-days is living in a fool’s paradise.

A few days later, flipping through the pages of a book of idioms, I came across a famous saying – “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”  It is now high time that they modified the proverb with the changing trends, I mused.  I’ve since replaced the word “play” with “Jack” in my book.  It now reads, “All work and no Jack, makes Jack a dull boy.”  Also, I have launched a massive hunt for a Jack.  After all, who wants to be a dull boy!!!