sarcasm at work!

..after spending 20 odd non-productive working hours in the office, I refuse to let die the old me. The stage was set as the so called "Campus to Corporate" instructor started a presentation. An old story of a rabbit and a tortoise. As soon as I read the title of the slide, I remarked "Oh! I got this on email", loud enough to be audible. "So you know this? Very Good. Now sit in front and click next to move through the slides". Was the response.

I did as ordered. These days there is a lot of talk about business ethics and integrity. Every one is forced to believe that being good has its virtues even though they are not evident at the first go. So there we were. "moral of the story" the slide said !. The instructor asked us the same. People say something or other. There are some who say too much. anyways.. some one knocked the door and the instructor had to leave.

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There was this colleague of mine sitting right opposite to me and he shook his head leftwards twice, I made an attempt to pretend as if I was too lame to catch the signal. He wished himself to be heard "Next Slide... Next Slide" He shouted. Incidentally this gentleman was the one who wants himself to be noticed in front of every one. From innocuous looking HR ladies with barely a couple of years of work experience to the Vice President who was extremely quick witted and had an IIM-A guy moving with him to click next to his slides. He had great ambitions for sure and certainly I had no plans to be in his way either. I was just trying of myself to be what I am...

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So with a wicked smile and subtle voice I said "Business Ethics! .You forgot didn't you ? ". He was not of the kinds who seem to give up easily when his "talking" was at stake. "But we never had our session on that" was his retaliation. " In that case this is your first lesson I guess.", there was it. I said it all the same tone and expression to bring this interesting conversation to a grinding halt. And I guess that was enough to soften him up.

The idea was never to overpower him. The consequences of having a similar conversation with someone senior must have been catastrophic. Now as I look back, I realize that all this happened in a quick succession. I barely took time to respond.

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We were bare strangers before this point of contact and this incident made something to happen. We met after the session had a chit-chat. I always noticed him speak in the three days session so far and he did noticed me, may be for the first time :)

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Sarcasm may have never killed anybody. It certainly made people sulk thoughl,and for the like minded "sarcasts" they became friends the moment they discovered the "mutual sense of sarcasm" they posses!

late by 60 minutes

..this Monday morning, was the first day at my csc office and traffic did it to me. Exactly late by 60 minutes I was welcomed by a bouquet of pink flowers, with two female HR's saying "Welcome to CSC" in tandem. There were few pink roses in that bunch I least bothered to count as I hurried on to AG-31. Well that's the room I hurried on to and went to the extreme end of the as it was almost occupied by then. There may not be many people who travelled 50 Kms to reach there, I just thought in my defence.

I was prepared for the first day. That was in terms of selecting the shortest path with minimum traffic. Anoop was my friend whom I relied on this time, a frequent visitor to Noida he told me the shortest possible route in the longest possible time. After wasting six A4 size sheets for the map and almost 140 minutes on this route discussion, guided by the Google maps tool I tried to authenticate his road-map to the real one.

Half way through, I was lost. "Why men don't listen and women cant read maps" a book by Mr. Pease immediately came to my mind. Oh ! boy I always believed in this book until this precise moment of time. Or was my brain too feminine ? Falling back to the main road was like diving in to a sea of sharks. I counted on my instincts. "Move on..." I instructed my mind. After a while the ill-drawn lines in the map started making sense. Oh-yea!! that's the pillar i see as drawn in the map. Landmarks are so very important and I am glad that inspite of my reluctance to hear him, Anoop did recite this map to me thrice. I stopped by an auto rickshaw driver and almost pleaded to guide me through.In retrospect I think he may have been an angel that god just sent from heaven that morning to tell me to turn right and then go straight until i meet a dead end. These types of instructions are easy to remember and more simple to execute. Keep yelling "right turn" until you turn and then "Dead end" unless you see one. Some how I managed to get to the office. Entire day returning back was on my mind. This not what I was supposed to do at my first day. They asked us to fill some 20-25 sheets of paper with some redundant information five or six times. Records are important for sure.

On they way back that night I picked up a wrong lane, and somewhat similar thing I did when going back to the office second day. And the second day coming back a wrong turn cost me 40 minutes. I have learnt a lesson though. If going to office I turned right from a crossing. I have to turn left while coming back !!!

Convocation hues!

So done with my decorous world at IIIT I resume my mundane life now. What is prescribed in these times is patience. Waiting for my joining letter and blessed with a 512 kbps line life's seems irksome, but that's how it is.

It was raining last evening,With my friend I was outside the HDFC bank, and suddenly I backed-off the last moment to withdraw the last supply of money saved for the rainy days like these.

Suddenly Kou calls "Convocation is on 12th, I am booking my tickets you wish to come, I'd book yours too." How can I decide something in the middle of a financial crisis.

"I don't know, perhaps I cant.You book your tickets I would tell you later. Okay tell me how do I get all my money from my bank at Allahabad here as soon as possible ?" I told him my present state, Kou advised me something which I knew of, any how I thanked him for resurrecting my belief.

"Oh boy, its raining hard outside, I'd get it some other day" I uttered, reversed the car and moved on.

Later Tiwari calls " Convocation is on 12th " .
"That's not a news, I know" I said. Then Tiwari's brought economics in to conversation.

"Rs 750 you pay if you get the degree in person, and Rs 1500 if you are an absentee".

"Who said" was my response, How the heck Tiwari remains so well informed without a dedicated Internet connection, I was bemused. Soon I figured out it was the college website which I always considered obsolete that had all these statistics lined up.

"So you coming, I am booking ticket with bengali" Tiwari seemed to be exited at the thought of wearing that red robe and posing for a picture with his hard earned degree, for me it has always been too flimsy. To be honest as to Kou's question I didn't knew the answer to Tiwaris question. "I'd speak with Kou, he is also planning to go there" I told Tiwari.

I phoned Kou told him to book my tickets. Then I called Lalli, he has always been oblivious to anything happening around.

"So you coming" I asked. Lalli asked if I was going, I was affirmative and Lalli too without wasting a second said "Okhay, then lets meet there on 12th"

So everything was set. The deal seem to be done after a series of local and STD calls.

Suddenly phone rang again. This time it was Tiwari.

"I am not going, My plan changed".

"What happened [:x] , It was you, who's idea it was after all to go there" I kind of half-yelled at him.
"Rs 750 plus the travelling expenses and all could well over go Rs 15oo, Whats the point?" Economically speaking Tiwaris retort was logical, perhaps he should have done something in economics rather than computers.

I kind of fell for Tiwaris logic, I was undecided about this convocation from the first time this question was asked to me. It was like an earthquake for those pillars of logic upon which my decision to go to the convocation was based.

I was left wanting for more plausible logic's to go for the convocation. I have always been undecided about 99% of happenings in my life. I read an entire book titled "Deciding" in optimism to get to the crux of my own nature. One learning I never forget from that book was, " In simple issues like how to reach to a place use logic, and in affairs like career and love go by your intuition." So logic was something I was desperately looking for to convince my whims.

I phoned Kou told him about "Tiwari-eco-nomics".

"Why do you wish to go" was a straight question to explore what reasoning goes behind Kou's head for going to the convocation!

"Well, Once a lifetime you do Masters and get the chance to be honoured, there are Nobel laureates present there during the convocation. We may never get a chance to see those many of them together in our entire life, We will click picture's and It would be fun I think" I hate Kou for piling up so many reasons for the things he does.

"..and why do you wish to go?" Kou applied the same trick to figure out why I had my plans to go. "So that I can withdraw the money and need not to wait for 3 weeks " could be the dumbest answer he would have heard for a while.

Now what I said was impulsive I mean it was real for sure and even I didn't knew that was the precise reason I was going for the convocation.

Kou was driven by logic, Tiwari by economics, Lalli by me and Me by non-sense as far as "deciding" on convocation was concerned !!!

and about the pic of the post, well this ghazal fits in perhaps "चाहे मेरे इन हाथों की तलाशी ले लो ..मेरे इन हाथों मैं लकीरों के सिवा कुछ भी नहीं...