A Game Well Played

My organization's flavor of the month happens to be a certain ongoing T.T. tournament, that has generated enormous enthusiasm amongst both the players and the crowd alike.

As last year's undefeated semi-finalist (sounds odd - but the tourni got scraped since i went onsite), and co-winner of the 'sledger of the tournament', an award i had shared with my team-mate Aman, my team was again the dark horse this time around. Initially seeded in the top rankers, i pursued a course of Aggresive Negotitations (as Anakin Skywalker would term it) with Iyer sir, the tourni organizer, and got myself ranked lower. I mean, seriously, given the quality of players we have this time around, it was an insult to them to put me up there in their league.

Paired in the draw with Varun as my strike partner, and given a 1st round bye, we were confident of atleast winning our first game against Raunak/Amrita. But i went off on a leave for about 10 days, and the organizers un0kindly decided to put me out and continue the tournament. As fate couldn't see me so harshly treated so early (there was humiliation waiting for me ahead), another team also had a member lose out and so when i returned, i found myself paired up with Chirag.

Now the guy can play well, on his day, and given he does not tense up under pressure. Some critics found our team combo to be too strong and argued against such a formation. Most had written off Amrita and Raunak. They expected us to blaze through past them with 2 under-10 wins. On match day however, it seemed an upset was on the cards. Not only did Raunak/Amrita fight well, they pulled the crowd behind them. Every point they rallied and won was cheered voraciously. Needless to say Iyer was totally on their side, without least bit bothering to realize he was the refree. Ishan who was also assisting with the score-keeping and line calls, now faces a tough time ahead when i prepare his project review.

The first set went down to the wire. In order to make the game interesting, Chirag and I allowed some loose shots to keep the excitement. But it proved a little too lax. With Raunak/Amrita already winning a lot of points, they soon raced to a 8-2 lead, and kept us under pressure. Raunak was smashing away all of Chirag's returns and Amrita was managing to keep all her shots on the table. Iyer declared we would forfeit the match if our opponents reached double figures, over and above wanting to provide them a 5 point handicap advantage. We almost lost the first set when the score read 20-15 to them. With a single point away, i got my serves right and pulled all 5 back, to setup a deuce. From there on we regained our touch a bit (both in sledging and TT) and killed the first set.

With our nerves quite jittery and Chirag perceivably tense at the near escape, we played a bit better in the 2nd set, and won it with relative ease. Grabbed a 7-0 lead and thought officially it was Jig'saw' (remember - Game Over). But Iyer as usual, decided to give us his respect instead of the points and play continued. 21-14 i think it was, and that too when we were 18-7 up. Obviously, we were both out of form - i, perennially always am, but i didn't expect Chirag to perform under par, given my reliability of smashing the opponent or the water cooler.

With a tough first match behind us, the crowd had realized that we probably were not the team who could go on ahead given this showing. In the second round where we were facing probably the toughest team of Murarka/Kunja, we were expected to lose easily, given that they had dispatched of 2 very strong teams - Ishan/Major and Dilip in the previous round (Ninja not accounted for - actually it was Ninja's tough luck that he had a player as good as Dilip, otherwise he would have won single-handedly using some SAS macro that would control his and his opponent's serve, smash and returns).

But in today's game, we had different intentions. Deciding that we would play safe, keep the ball on the table, and let the opponents make mistakes, we started off positively. With a highly charged encounter on the cards, lots of people had gathered around to cheer the other team (not us unfortunately). But i looked in super sublime form (aka totally vaporised). Didn't know what got into the two of us, but we responded to the task and played well. With nobody to egg us on, except referee Iyer sir, who as always was sledging against us, every point that we won, silenced the crowd and only the "yes" that we shouted was audible. I had this feeling of "pin drop violence".

All dusted and done, we surprisingly shocked everybody, ourselves most of all, by winning the first set very convincingly. Iyer whispered audibly enough to Lakshmi - "was he so happy at even getting promoted?". With all the shots that i managed to make and gain points on, i would walk upto Iyer and return the jocular stare, not considering the fact that some shots which i hit at the left corner, ended up at the right. But who cared. And with all the points i lost, i was the first to joke about my weaknesses.

The second set started well again. But this time it was more competitive and we were going neck to neck. With two points away from winning the set and the match, a crucial 'twist' occurred, literally. With nothing to do as simple as finishing off a weak 6 ft high return from Kunal (that just landed across the net), i stumbled on my own toe with Chirag's foot just behind me and managed to sky the shot from the top edge of the racket. And the next instant, i lost my balance and squatted down. IT was a laugh riot. A Kodak moment that needed capturing. I couldn't stop grinning at the glaring error, and the crowd just exploded. Nearly 2-3 minutes passed before i got up and we resumed playing. As Iyer quipped, i had just dropped the cup.

And the words rang out true only a moment sooner. With both Chirag and I fatigued, with all energy spent till now, and dripping sweat, I asked Iyer if the organizers would atleast provide us some towels. But equal in sarcasm, all i received were some tissue papers. Now almost out of steam, we could just hold on to get to deuce. Finally, we lost the 2nd set with Chirag also under pressure and none of his smashes hitting the board.

Set 3 was a disappointment for us and a cake walk for them. I was too tired to even serve properly and the one weapon i had effectively used failed to get us through. An incorrect line call and some wayward returns later, finally at 18-12 (or was it 19-11) down, we were able to grab a few points that inspired us back. But it was too little too late, and we succumbed.

We weren't sad to lose, we hadn't expected to win in the first place. On the whole, whatever said and done, i think what we got as a result was an excellent game of table tennis, thoroughly entertaining, full of sledging, the stronger team winning (with a reality check nonetheless) , and a respect well earned by both teams for fine skills, a high level of commitment, and the will to fight it out till the end.

This TT tourni has been as good as the last one. The teams are definitely stronger, more skilled and each plays with wanting to win, but without being serious. There is always a fun quotient around in each match. Some of the highlights of this tourni include - Ishan/Major to be the first to get eliminated, Gaurav Iyer and Lakshmi progressing ahead and getting kicked out of the tourni on the same day itself, the all serious Rahul Pandhi storming through to the semis with no effect of sledging on him, Varun and Vicki quietly and consistently playing themselves through to the other semis, Gautum/Neha duo practicing the most and not winning, dark horses Ashish Garg and Tushar also sneaking through to the semis with a bit of 'knocks' between sets, Gidra and his sliding maneuvers which he himself could not keep pace with and thus slamming into the floor flat (another Kodak moment), and yours truly sky rocketing the simplest shot of the tournament.

A special mention to the success of the game goes to the towels that were never provided, the new bats that were never used, the referees who couldn't remember the scores, the players who couldn't stop sledging, and the audience who cheered at all good and bad shots alike.

And most importantly, the constant reminders of Iyer sir to all participants asking them to smash their shots while thinking of their lead project managers (no names named) ...

Silent Ramblings

'Eudosin d'orheon korhuphai te kai pharhagges'
'Prhones te kai charhadrhai.'

ALCMAN. (60 (10),646.)

(The mountain pinnacles slumber; valleys, crags and caves are silent.)

Starting lines of Poe's short story Silence - A Fable. Reminded me of my blog. Its been as quiet and calm out here as the lines suggest. There has been no zing to spice up any reminiscences to mention here as of now. A few people have been wondering where i have disappeared. To them, i say, in the words of Joe Strombel - "Give me a scoop, and i will give you a blog."

Its been boring these past few days. Nothing much has been going around. Almost had a near 'tryst with peanuts' again. Thankfully, recovered quickly with timely medication and a day off from work. Apart from that, the last excitement was in the shape of a lame fresher's party given by the company to welcome new hires. Obviously gone are those days when such parties used to be fun. Now, it was a necessity to get the party 'done and dusted' in order to boost employee morale. Still, I consider it a change for the better given the situation over the past few months. Some nominees have gotten around in trying to address this problem, and events are enroute to see that it gets implemented.

Oh and yeah, given that "the day ended" on 13th Sep in Jeetender 'badminton' style (read as Dhall gaya din ...), we celebrated with a trip to the sparkling vineyards of Spain. And i always thought the men fought in Sparta, while the women led combat in the Amazons.

The most buzzing thing these days is sports - Cricket and T20 - managed to catch Zim 'massacare' the Aussies (though not without some drama) - and then India's late night fight back to win a dramatic match and maintain a 100% world cup record against our neighbours. As Rameez Raja quoted, "Can India-Pakistan matches ever not be without romanticism?"
Champions League is back on track this month on, and i cant wait for Rooney-Ronaldo to return back to Porto and Roma and blast off. ManU are ticking me off by slender goal-margin wins. Its time to cut loose.
TT fever also has gripped the office. With a tourni likely to kick off soon, its time i spent practising getting my smashes on the table rather than at my opponent. It brings a new dimension to 'hitting below the belt' tagline.

I intend to watch 'Memento', considering rave reviews from fellow mates. If it does turn out to be a cult movie as they say it is, i'll be pleased. Anything to break this boredom from silence. And when i say silence, its not as if its got boring and dead all around. Its just about breaking away from the monotony, and trying to do something different, something interesting, something challenging, something exciting, something fruitful. Not all of them together, but probably even one will do.

Till i find a more suitable topic to lambast about, adieos !

The Portrait - Musings of AAA batteries personified ...

I am sick.
And I am tired.
Not of my own life though.

But of every Tom, Dick and Harry blabbering away like a "AAA" battery on a topic they have no inkling about (i hope this particularly quoted sarcasm doesn't go waste on the people intended, though i doubt since they have limited comprehension of what black humor might be), trying to make a tea-party out of it. Well it made me change one of my gibberish mood swings to this - "Money people earn for work they don't do ..." - and then probably go on to act as if the work got done because of them. Well, its not hard to put 2 and 2 together for people who inter-visit 'common' blogs often.

Well, i don't want to harp on these petty issues (oops - i really meant people)

All my frustration apart, i do not deny a couple of teeny-weeny truths probably there are in all these writings and stuff. But there has to be a way of putting it effectively across, without making it sound so gung-ho and repetitive and blatantly obscene. Take for instance the chai-waala dhaba postings by Dingy and AJ. I couldn't kind of really find one different from the other. No hard feelings AJ. But man, get your creativity going dude. I am sure you can phrase out the same thing in a much better manner using a decent (if not better) idea.

/* PS with Edits */
I am sorry AJ - it was NOT meant to be a personal attack on your creativity what-so-ever. I simply beg you to use your creative talents on something which is not so trivial. Reading the same issue day in and day out with half the junta not knowing the correct info and trying to provide their 2 cents on everything pissed me off. I apologize if what i meant actually came out incorrectly (which i accept it did when i re-read it) and i caught you in the line of my frustration firing. That is what blogging is meant for :)

I cant respond to comments right now due to some proxy issues on this stupid network.
As i told you, dil pe mat lena - lets put together our heads much more "creatively" and try and loosen Mr. AS of some of his hard(ly) earned money during lunch on wednesday ...
/* End of PS with Edits */

And apart from these 2 blog posts, there were a couple of others, but too insignificant for me to mention here ...

All in all, i decided to fall back to my only form of creativity - poetry writing. I had ended up reading one of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories called "The Oval Portrait". So i decided to use it as my theme to fire up a few lines by myself which could probably describe the situation in a much more positive/optimistic outlook rather than the mundane-sombre-deadbolt approach people try to take. I personally don't look down upon my chai stall. In-fact, i consider it to be a piece of art. As opposed to the contrary notion of a chottu chai waala, tea-preparation techniques can be vocational in themselves. I am sure many wouldn't agree with the lines crafted below, in that light - but to them i say - who cares - i blog because i like to - "i blog because i think" (OK, thats stolen from Descartes, but he is not going to turn in his grave for plagiarizing it)

So here goes my le' imbecile. Without any visible firm bashings like the others !!
For people who cannot link the artist, or the exhibition, or the lady-love to known events and surroundings - well shame on you !!
I truly think that with a little effort and vodka (reference: Unni) you will understand it. There are a couple of interpretations, i as a poet thought out.
Good luck ...

THE PORTRAIT

Oh ! What a painter he was, an artist so fine
He could sketch from gothic frames, to a mural with intricate design
Never did art exceed its greatness so, in that era
Those pictures were more real than Gods Zeus or Hera

Once to the Paris Art Exhibition he went
where he fell in love with an angel, from heaven sent
He married her and brought her home
with a single desire to paint her, standing next to the Elyssian Dome

She was a maiden unparalleled in beauty and form
to be challenged only by the genius' artistic storm
Never did she like his involvment to become so deep
that he completely forgot her, even in his sleep
But a gentle, loving, obedient wife she was,
so she allowed herself to be portrayed for his cause

To capture that face on paper, he would like a madman work
never would he budge from his seat, though the night shadows around him lurk
For weeks together with the eisel in front of her spread
she sat in the dark high turret, a single window overhead
But he, the painter, took glory in his work, which stretched from day to day
that he shut himself up, keeping even his loved ones at bay

He could not see the dark, despaired health and spirit of his bride
who even in this time of gloom, yet had never cried
From the ardour of his work he never rose
to see the shattered, dying countenance of the lovely lady he chose

When finally his masterpiece had been completed
and the bristles of the paint brushes with the oil color reserves had depleted
then did he rise to admire his art, his child
none could achieve such greatness, even with an imagination so wild

"This is life indeed" , looking at the portrait he said
and he turned around suddenly to regard his beloved - SHE WAS DEAD

Say "NO" something to "They" Uncle ...

It seems like this blog is turning out to be a transcript of my proceedings in the office on a regular (daily i think) basis.

Who said working wasn't supposed to be fun. According to a certain Mr. 'They', you should always enjoy working. Thanks to him, the 'day' never goes without some spice and spruce to it.

Take for instance yesterday. Sun-Tzu would have been put to shame over his Art of War book. A master of cornering people and then ripping them apart shamefacedly is somthing our Mr. 'They' does exceedingly well. We were on a conference call with him for a continuous 3 .5 hours, and the ultimate takeaway of the whole meeting was - "So Guys, Hold on. Learn to say NO".

First thought in our mind - can we say No to your "gyaan" and have our dinner. Or, can we say No and move on with the scheduled piece of work, which otherwise could be completed without YET another night at the call center (oops i meant office - though doesnt make much difference - we are after all "Culturally" a BPO company).

We had a long series of lectures over 'incompetent' communication skills, time management, project management, our inability to put our foot down and say NO to client requests, push them back blah blah blah. There were 9 subpoints highlighted by our team where we thought we were facing issues. It so happened that Mr. 'They' blasted us on our own issues. And when he asked - "You with me?", we were supposed to say "NO" ???

The high point of the call came when he asked our manager if he could do a particular piece of work. We were so into the NO philosophy by this time that after much deliberation, we were put into the classic Calvin situation as shown below.



Considering it to be a trick question, we felt we knew the answer - yet another Calvin classic to illustrate the situation

And then the answer from our side was - NO. We cannot do what you are asking us to do. But, it truly was a trick question, and we got blasted once more for saying a No where we were not supposed to say it.

Coming out of those stressful 200 minutes was a relief - but whatever said and done, throughout the night our team continued to be in a good spirits often joking about the NO factor.

We named our manager "Dr. No" henceforth. And the team singing in Daler Mehndi style - "No no - no no - no re - no re - no re ...". So the 2 important lessons we learnt yesterday were that - first, Pinpoint who is 'they' (else it would give him a complex) when you accuse someone and secondly, Say "NO" something to "They" Uncle ...

No more "Lee"way ...

17th of August will probably be recognized henceforth as the saddest day, a Black Friday, in the history of the 3rd largest American P&C Insurance company, and for our project team as well.

No, we did not screw up the project (whats done is done - it is beyond us now to screw it up further)
No, we did not mess up getting an extension.

What then could be so catastrophic you ask?

Well, attrition (due to work pressure, tough bosses etc.) finally caught up with our project team, and one of our most "crucial" members resigned.

No, not here at my workplace - but - guess what - at the client side ...

Its now doing the rounds in the entire office that our project will probably live in the annals of the firm as the first to lose an analyst from the client team. Well the fault is not (completely) ours. The poor fellow probably succumbed to the blastings from his boss just about as much stick we keep receiving from ours. However, Indians, even with all the cribbing, are known to bow down and slog in with late nights and weekends if required. That perhaps is not the culture I expect in a US office, where you come in early morning and leave early evening. Our poor boy it seems was pushed to the limit and veered off the edge.

It is not that i would miss him because he was so dear to me - even though i haven't met him till now, i feel this bond with him. He brings humor to the calls, and with all his antics, keeps the meetings interesting. More importantly he was always made the fall guy and held accountable for all the mistakes anybody did on the team. I say this as the bare naked truth. Yes, we are highly indebted to him for soaking this pressure up on our behalf as well. Okay, he was at fault most of the times as well, but then give the poor guy a break. We all make mistakes. As long as they are not made daily and you can cover them.

I have seen the guy go from pathetic to awsome in over the 7 months that i have been interacting with him. What started out as a communication problem, seems to have been solved. I have lowered my bar and now think like him and talk in his language (which is a shock to my manager and team-mates). It is difficult. At times exasperating. But the joy of finally knowing you have made a point across makes you happy. You receive your share of taunts - "He understands what you are saying - you must be really retarded for that to happen".

Over a few weeks, i started maintaing logs of our meeting notes. If you thought notes about the project, you are dumb. Your just not 'thinking' at the right level. Notes about the amazing one liner the guys keeps throwing around, that he thinks are superbly intellectual, unknown to him that our team here in the office is on the floors, with their stomachs aching with laughter.

Take for instance the comment on him using a procedure "Funk Merge" to extract some data (which ultimately is so screwed that its taking weeks for his boss to re-extract it himself). For the uninitiated in SAS, there is NO procedure that goes by that name. Atleast not known to us lesser mortals. Given the way he talks and behaves, it was a shock to us to know that he had his "own personal laptop" and "drove a car with bluetooth in it". Whatever said and done, the guy was doing good data quality checks. I mean, OK, if you pull the obviously wrong data in the first place, it shouldn't be difficult to point it out.

We were also stunned by his "I know how CART works comment". Its a complex tool used for profiling/regression etc. which most users still haven't had a hang on, while we, who are practically experts on it, dont feel as confident as he did. He used words like "backfilling" and "re-engineering". He was training people in his company (i cant even guess wildly on what), working late hours, and even weekends. It seemed like the rubber band had stretched a bit too much. The point of no return had come.

Towards the end (i mean just before he resigned), even his manager had started taunting him publically in front of us. Attributing all errors to him, making him write explanatory notes to the VP, perform "sniff tests" and so on. The poor guy always took it in good fun, but he did realize that all his boss cared was for meetings and presentations, and not for him.

On Thursday, when he finally broke the news, i personally was in tears. My team was happy thinking it would be easier for the work to proceed in his absence. But they did not realize that the one link that maintained the axe from falling on our heads directly from the client boss was this guy. For him, he felt that the upcoming presentation to the Board of Directors would take a backseat with his resignation. The VP would have to bring in a new fresher. After all, He was the "Subject Matter Expert" in his own little nichest of niche domains.

In a speech, dedicated to my client counterpart, that Amit made to him over the phone, he called him our "One point anchor".
Come 31st August, we will miss you old pal. There will be no more comic jokes, no musings, no fun, no laughter. There will be No more 'Lee'way for us henceforth at the client side.

Koffee with Rohit (who??)

They talk about monday morning blues.
I was in a total mood to avoid that today.

Infact, i was in such a mood to avoid that and something else associated with it, that i decided to reach the office not before noon. It didnt work out the way it was supposed to - and so i got to (was made to?) have coffee with Rohit. Rohit Kapoor, President/COO, EXL Services.

The invitation for cofee had been extended to a select few, by advertising out the same in a very ludicrous manner over e-mail by our dear fwd-FYI-without-topi-ka-HR. The appointment had been set for an hour at 12 noon on a monday. Some mystic ninjas were enthusiastic about it and reached the office sooner than they usually do for work, while other laggards like me tried coming in as late to avoid making an entry into the conference room.

Unfortunately, the meeting got postponed an hour out, thus making it impossible to make an excuse. At about 1pm the few of us (not more than 12-15) got together in the bored room (no its not a spelling mistake), and "signed" the attendance sheet like little school kids. Masterji was very angry when told that some children will not be able to come to the class because they were ill/watching cricket/bunking etc etc etc ....

In anticipation of the coffee (that is what after all we had come for !!), we were deliberating as to would we get to choose between a mocha and a cappucino or a latte, or would a single brew be served throughout the board. All hopes of a good coffee were shattered when we saw the standard cups, and tea bags, entering the room. It was a disaster. Cold tea, without sugar !!!

Well in the midst of all the tea/coffee drama, we had an hour of discussion (about i am not even sure what??) with Mr. Kapoor. His conversation was somehow reminiscent of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities -

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.

Well, though, it did seem more like it was the best of times for him and the worse of time for me, but none-the-less ...

It was a discussion on a personal front, to know the man who built the company, better. He talked about his education, his work experience (inlcuding the part about managing a trainee for 2 months, who later on ended up being his wife), the way he setup the company, the acheivements and the slides etc. There were some questions from the not-so-enthusiastic audience in terms of a few queries/concerns, a couple of which were pretty emabarassing beamers for the boss and his team, but they ducked well.

Ultimately, the moot point of the coffee charade all came down to what one expected it to be all along - STAY and WAIT and BELIEVE.

The hour long session ended with Rohit giving out 2 autographed coffee mugs, the way KJ does on his show, to the two most enthusiastic members of the group (in short people who asked the most questions and bugged the others). The others received mugs as well, without the signature of-course. With Rohit finally leaving for his flight to Pune, probably for another coffee tete-a-tete there, the group embarked upon their second mission - 'samosas' and 'dhoklas'.

/* Transgressing away */
For the uninitiated, samosas, are snacks to be had piping/steaming hot, made of mashed potatoes, peas and lots of different spices, wrapped in a cone shaped coating of gram/corn flour (not sure which - my culinery skills are restricted).
Dhoklas are dhoklas - dont ask me how and what they are made from.
/* Regressing back */

Back to our original discussion, the samosas were effectively colder than the tea. You couldn't expect them to be less so, given they had been put out there in the open right under the AC vents. I could barely manage finishing one, while ninjas with occult powers helped themselves to probably half a dozen.

Finally, returning to our cubicles, we posed with our priced possesions and heres what it looks like. It was, truly, an "interesting" Coffee with Rohit ...

Mlogging - the Farmer's way ...

Finally got 2 go on a team dinner to Le' Meridien with my kissan bhai behen. Translated 2 english, thats farmers and not ketchup. Had 2 resort 2 mobile blogging given a few late hours at office, no internet at home, 'unabling' me 2 transfer pics or post. Keeping it short. This gets expensive :)

Post addendum - a view of the Le' Meridien lobby 20 floors down from the passage entrance to Belvediere (their restaurant)

A Days of Firsts !!

Today was just one of those days where everything happens for the first time ...

• I drove my car from home to office (a distance of about 75 odd minutes) and then back home as well - all by myself - a feeling of real ecstasy and adrenaline rush - if not for me then for the guys whom i brushed past by :)
• I called up a dear old friend saat samundar paar and talked to her on the phone after 2 years (it was her bday, but no excuses) - it was delightful to hear each others voices after such a hiatus - reminiscent of the good old times
• I watched the cult classic Mithun starrer Gunda with all audio titles in place - last time around i had only caught the video - i was simply stunned by this thunderstrike of a movie - hope to God to give the masses sense enough to appreciate it. The movie is at concept level - a true work of art. I wished for the first time that i get a chance to watch more of such entertaining cinema.
• For the first time on the new project phase there was no call with the client.
• I (my team as well) finished all my work well before delivery time.
• My boss and I had a marathon heart to heart for the first time in two years where lots of feel good things were discussed, but i am still clueless to the actual issue of why I had gone to him in the first place.
• I managed to find a place to stay all by my own enterprising efforts and information gathering.
• I am writing a post with all bullet points for the first time. I am also writing this post without editing it.
  
• Finally, I am tired and sleeping before 12am for the fist time in weeks ...
  

Tryst with Peanuts ...

I have gone 'nuts' over this last week. And simply because of peanuts in my life - both literally and metaphorically.

Monday began with me taking the hardest decision of my life yet - withdrawing my name from the B-school roles, with some finally feeling a relief, and making quick money (Yes, there had been bets over me joining or not to the order of a few K i have heard). I also got to hear an earful from a few others who felt that for 'peanuts' i could have graduated from one of the better mba colleges in India. The ROI would have been amazing given the minuscule fee structure.

The same day there came the devastation - the organizational cost cutting plan which reduced our bonuses to peanuts and increased our salary to Peanuts (please do note that the change in capitalization of 'P' here is discretionary and can be reversed any #$%@ day I want). Reminds me of the Dilbert strip a co-employee circulated in the happening of this event.

And as if that was not enough, i succumbed to my allergy to actual salted peanuts and got my larynx in a bloated state, the consequence of which was high fever, body ache, throat infection et al.

I am still recuperating from all this peanut sickness, and i doubt that, though the physical pain will subside, mental scares will ever get healed.
The only good thing i feel now is by going back and listening to Coleridge and Beck and Pope !!! In the advent of this, i added yet another video clip to the post of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner below, with the recital of some verses. Enjoy it.

And to the one who said that the B-school fees was peanuts, i say, go check my bonus - thats peanuts, the fees refund i got was a 7 course meal compared to that ...

Peanutting off
Perky P

Jeepers Creepers

Apr 18, 2007

Its not about scary horror movies that i am going to follow on about in this scrap. You here the phrase jeepers creepers et al and you kind of synonimize it with a dark room, all alone, 1:00 in the night, horror movies blah blah ...

I wanted to talk about the part about being all alone here, and for a lack of a more imaginative post topic, i ended up using this.

Anyways, the point is : How many times have we faced a scenario, where we are all alone, with absolutely no soul around (living or dead), just "trying" to while away some idle time, simply because there is a petty thing that needs to be done, because it needs to be done and nobody else wants to do it, and you have nothing else to do while it is being done. Stare out into the space maybe - but that's only when you are doing your petty little work out in the open, which generally is not the case (now don't u try and fit a weird connotation to this).

And hence the question - who to blame - what to do ?
I mean somebody should have the decency to give you company - how would it be put - "moral" support by "physical" presence ???

/* Bit of geek talk */
I have realized that the work at hand and output/utilization/efficiency are directly correlated to the number and type of people around you. It seems to follow an abstract kind of a curve - something i know and understand but cannot explain. The more the number of people buzzing around you, less is the work you manage to complete. The inverse is also true. But this is not a tan90 situation, where zilch people around would mean infinite productivity. There is a lower cap to this as well. For some time, being all alone - the silence and the quiet - are actually good predictors of my efficiency model.
/* End of Bit of geek talk */

But then after a point it feels - why the hell am i banging my head on something others are least bothered about. Is it because i am a fool enough to be good and sugary nice to not deny the work laid out in front of me. Or is it that the others are just too shameless to share the burden even after well placed hints that kind of make it so obvious. In the end when realization dawns, the simple statement would be - "you should have said so explicitly - how would i realize that you wouldn't be able to work it out yourself".

And the next obvious question that arises is - what next - so how do i spend this eerie time all alone myself. And the next obvious answer is -

I write this stupid blog entry ...

Ulysses

Apr 04, 2007

The sheer joy of being able to leave my office at 9pm today has just made me more of a lunatic. Given the stress i have been under to continuously slog day in and night out, had taken a toll on my health - physically, mentally and emotionally ...

With suddenly all work materializing to a finish, and no backlogs or pile-ons apparating onto my plate, i simply was overwhelmed with emotions too good to be true or comprehended. I can understand how Sanjay Dutt would have felt in Zinda after he came out of that horrid cell - in his case it was fried wantons - in my case Paneer Tikka Pizza, Focaccia and Brownies.

Its been days since i got time for myself - let alone devoting time to others !!!
Thanks to a very close friends advice, i put my foot down to the inhuman torture (oh ok - it wasnt so bad as i am making it sound, but nonetheless - leaving at 7 am in the morning almost twice a week and coming back by 11 isnt something anyone would want)

I dont know till how long a time my manager would be able to digest my happiness - but that is not something i am worried about presently. As of now, its heaven, bliss and ulysses - all rolled into one ...

The Great Gurgaon Deluge

Aug 5, 2005 (10:48 pm)

If u thought bombay looked horrid in the pics - with the floods and jams and all - come to gurgaon - and u'll know

yesterday, i left office at 7:30 pm frm gurgaon (close to malls) - was on bike with another friend. we encountered the "routine" jam at iffco chowk.

only diffrnce was - this time we were wading through a river.
the road was utterly jam packed - and being on a bike - we managed to zig zag along the narrowest path on the outskirts of the road, barely brushing past the walls and other vehicles.

we almost skidded in the mud and were close to going down in a "watery grave" (read ganda naala, the embankment being broken)

after 40 minutes of trying to cross atleast the 1st DLF tower, we gave up - took a detour, towards maruti, hoping to find the old gurgaon road less congested.

on the contrary, we nvr saw a more stuck up case of jam. ppl were coming in frm evrywhere, trying to go nowhere and god knows wht.

amidst the chaos, one truck waale bhaiya, assuming the road to be his paapas, went off for a stroll - leaving his vehicle in the middle of the road. the haryanavi police jats (u get the picture) got mad - rapped the bonnet a few times - and whn got no response - broke the trucks windshield and headlights.

well, we thought off better to stay there and face the "lath" charge. so we moved on to the jaipur going road - taking the roads inside gurgaon. i visited IBM, MDI, Signature towers (in shrt a gurgaon darshan) - and then retraced our steps back to our office.

so then aftr 1 1/2 hr of travelling on bike - we had managed only 4-5 km of forthgoing distance. we came back to our office at 9pm , to find that - thank god - some poor souls were stil working their ass of on the projects.

the 2 of us "travellers" sat for a while - dried off - studied a bit - and were about to go off for dinner to the nearby mall (sahara or DT or PVR) - however, we were joined in by those other guys as well - so we ended up going to Yo China at pvr mall - having awsome dimsums - and footing the bill to our clients project.

fokat mein acchha khana mil gaya !!!

came back to office at 11 pm - called a cab and went back home - only to find the flooded river and jam stil abhorently existing.

this time my cabbie took the wrong lane and blaring his horn ran past the opposing traffic. thanks to his "intelligent" thinking - i made it to my home sweet home at 12:15 am - only to come back at 9:30 am to office

well - whn ppl asked me today - aaj itni jaldi - kab aaya tu - my reply was - gaya hi kab tha !!!