Stop! This is Madness

I think everybody in the IT service domain would have gone through this harrowing experience. This specific use case happens when you are in a social situation forced to make a conversation with a human (especially inquisitive male) twice your age. After all your initial formal pleasantries and when you are just about to log out of the conversation, the inevitable happens

Inquisitive male: So tell me Mr.xxxx, where do you work
You: Well, I am with working < an Indian IT MNC> for an aerospace client, Boeing.
Inquisitive male: Thats great, so do you know how much they sell the 787 for?
You: What? How would I, No, I work in the comp ....
Inquisitive male: Thats ok, what is the problem with their 787, they talk about some production and labor problems?
You: Well, .... eh ... you see there are various divisions ....
Inquisitive male: Hmmm ....

At this very moment, he just stops looking at you and walks away without even acknowledging your presence. You can hear him telling this to your dad or mom

Inquisitive male: I think the young people now are lazy and they dont know anything outside their computer. In our time, we used to know everything that happened around us and blah blah blah ....useless generation!

This is not just one instance, the very tidbits about the Western companies provided in the form of news over "The Hindu" and "The Indian express" is killing every IT guy. If you are with a retail client like WalMart, a staple question is, "How can they sell things cheap?". I pity all those folks who are with financial institutions, don't attend any social gathering now, forget the 'what is credit rating ?' question the focus will be more on 'why was US downgraded?'! So much for studying Computer Science.

Another instance i hate the most is,

Prerequiste: You don't need to engage in a conversation with a person twice your age, anyone who is not in IT can/will ask you this

Person Not in IT: Hello Mr.XXXX, where do you work? (the 'Mr' is a very important part of addressing someone, Damn you British!)
You: I work in < an Indian IT MNC>
Person Not in IT: WOW, that's a big company, do you know Mr.Prabhakar? He is also with your company.
You: Oh is it so, not really, i dont know him.
Person Not in IT: No man, you should be knowing him, he is been there for more than 20 years.
You: Well, my company is big, there are vari ......
Person Not in IT: You got to be kidding me, how can someone be in this company and not know Mr.Prbhakar
You: ah! eh! hmmmmm .... ??????????

After few irritating instances, i developed my own arsenal to counter this argument, I would randomly choose a name and ask him

I: So you work in < some company >. Do you know Mr.Sethuraman?
Person Not in IT: Sethuraman who?
I: What do you mean Sethuraman who? How could you now know Sethuraman? He was in "The Hindu" Sunday supplement the other day. Looks like everyone in your company knows him and he is the next big happening person in your company
Person Not in IT: I don't know who you are talking about.
I: WOW, that's a surprise, I thought since you knew everyone you might also know someone from your own company ...

Well you don't need to end your line here, the other person would have walked away long before you complete your sentence. Rest assured, the next time you meet this person again, from my experience your conversation with this guy will never go past 'How are you?' :-) You will be tagged as rude and a non-social prick, but atleast you save the pain of explaining!