Humour: Bold, sharp or blunt?

You think you’ve heard it all, and then a friend in HR tells you that her German bosses keep a remote eye on the desks of employees, judging, if not rating them, on what they find there. The horror, the horror. Work desks – as every wise person knows – are those all-forgiving spaces where the conflicting hopes and ambitions of one’s disordered life clandestinely meet. It’s where the sublime van Gogh print and tacky calendar from the animal charity share space with the empty Old Monk bottle from that unforgettable night at the bus stand in Bengaluru. Or maybe we’re getting too specific here.