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Terms
Maska is a Hindi term meaning to flatter, butter up, or impress. Sharma often accuses some of his coworkers of practicing maska, implying that they have advanced not through genuine achievement but by currying favors with their superiors.
Maska Quotes in Sharmaji
The Sharmaji quotes below are all either spoken by Maska or refer to Maska. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Sharmaji
Quotes
‘Oh, sit down,’ said Sharma. ‘Even my boss is after my life. They are all like that, these managers. They think that only they work. Just because they stay here after office hours they expect people to believe that they work. Ha! All that is to impress the general manager. How else can they get their promotions? All maska.’
Gupta sat down.
‘Jagdish,’ called Sharma. ‘More chai.’
The third round of tea arrived.
The electricity went off.
‘Bas,’ said Sharma. ‘Now who can work? These power cuts will kill us all.’ He sat back in his chair.
‘My boss says that it is no excuse,’ said Gupta gloomily. ‘He says that if a power cut lasts three hours it doesn’t mean that we don’t work for three hours. He says that we are here to work.’
‘He can keep saying that,’ said Sharma contemptuously. ‘Does he think we’re animals? They all think that we have no feelings. Work all day, work when the electricity goes off, work without increments, work without promotions, work, work, work. That is all they care about. No concern for us as human beings.’
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Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Sharmaji LitChart as a printable PDF.
Maska Term Timeline in Sharmaji
The timeline below shows where the term Maska appears in Sharmaji. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Sharmaji
...lately, but Sharma dismisses the managers’ threats and other employees’ attempts to appease them as maska. They drink a third round of tea, and the power goes off. Frequent power cuts...
(full context)
