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!