Every year, we celebrate Halloween in office. But unlike other offices which throw a grand party in which people where costumes and have a blast, we, at Marley Management celebrate it with a difference.
"Hey JD. What are your plans for Halloween." asked Pete as we jumped into the elevator.
"I don’t know Pete. It is a surprise." I said calmly without showing agitation. In our Halloween, we don't celebrate "just party", but by a competition. The rule is very simple, scare any person the most and the victim will get "Most coward Award." And if you manage to scare most people in 5 days, will get "The Scariest Award." There is one more award, "The Greatest Trickster Award", given to one who played the ultimate scariest trick of all. The reason why competition last 5 days, is because earlier we used to celebrate it on one day and everybody becomes alert. Thereby not many winners were there. Hence, the competition is now spread 5 days of Halloween week.
Day 1
Suddenly, out of blue, the elevator stopped with a jerk and the lights went off. The backup light was brought back on.
"Humm, looks like a power failure." I said calmly to Pete.
"Yes. Most certain it is...... righttttt JJJJDDD." Pete by now has lost his nerve. This is something which I always knew. Pete is scared when such things happen. Be it a roller coaster ride last year, when it stopped at bottom of the ramp.
"AHHHHHH.......... AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH..... AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH"
"Pete. Pull yourself together." said Tina, who was sitting behind Pete, during the ride.
"Yea, we are AT THE BOTTOM of the ramp. Why are you screaming?" I said out loud trying to suppress Pete voice while sitting next to Tina.
"SO WHAT!!! THE RIDE IS STILL STOPPED........AAAHHHH HELP ME.... HELP ME..." Pete was crying like a baby by now. Alexia, Pete's wife was sitting calmly next to him all the time.
"Alexia, why don’t you do something?" I asked her. "You are kidding? This is more funny part of the ride. Watching my hubby cry all over like a baby. He He He He." Finally, the ride began back and Pete calmed down. Alexia was smiling all the time during the ride.
I was waiting for the bubble to bust soon in the elevator. It wasn’t for long, just took a minute and....
"AHHHHH HELP ME... HELLOOOO... ANYBODY THERE..... HELPPPP." Pete's bubble had bust.
After a good long 4 minutes. My cell phone rang. "JD, are we done yet?" It was Tina's voice. "1 more minute Tina and then you can switch power back on." I said with an evil smile. It was Tina and my plan to scare Pete on the very 1st day of competition. Last year, Pete won the "Most Scariest Award" and "The Greatest Trickster Award." So, this time, it was a payback time.
Ding...
The elevator landed on our floor. Pete by now was like a crying baby and Tina and I were smiling. But we both knew Pete would not give up so easily. We just needed to be alert all the time.
In afternoon when after lunch, everybody was half asleep at work.
"YIKESS! WHAT IS THIS!", the boss came out of his office shouting. He was holding a plastic roach. "The one who tried to play it is very immature. A plastic roach. Ha Ha Ha. You cannot play prank on me so easily. This one will not count for I did not get scared at all." said boss laughing like a devil.
"Sir, it is not a plastic one. It’s a real one." said Tom.
"AHHHHHH.... SOMEBODY GET HIM HELL AWAY FROM ME..." the boss by now had started dancing holding away the roach as far as he could. Soon, his grip got loose and the roach fell on floor, seeing this, boss ran back into his office and started screaming from there to get the roach away from there. Good thing for us, his office is sound proof. We all gathered around his office watching his dance as he still continued in his office.
"I wonder who did it to him." whispered Tina.
"Who ever did it, sure loved our boss sooo much." said Pete.
Among all who were surprised and trying to hide our smile. There was 1 face having a grin smile. As he proudly went up to the score chat placed in our conference room and added his score. "That’s one for Tom."
The chief accountant had finally even his score with the boss; which could make it as "The Greatest Trickster Award".
Stay tune for Day 2 ...to be finished in 1 week.
JD.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
google wave
There is been a lot of hype of google wave invites over the internet. This is not the 1st time I am seeing such rush. It happened before, when mozilla launched Firefox 3, when google launched chrome and when microsoft launched Windows 7.
The hype is just part of marketing. Creating interest among people and spreading word to many more. They also implemented a cruel marketing strategy of sending limited invites only. This technique is not new. It goes way back in history during time of Caesar, Henry, Nefertiti and many more.
These influenced people (or kings & queens) organized a great ball to celebrate. (Celebrate what? It could be anything, from a new dress to new shoes. They are kings and queens, they don't need reason to celebrate, they can make up their own). So when they organized such great ball, it is understood already that ministers and distant kings and queens will be eager to participate. This rush of excitement is short lived, when they start spreading the word of limited invites. Kings and queens have to show their status and the only way they can do so (apart from throwing a great ball) is by limiting the number of invites. They can obviously have a ball in their big palace garden, but space is not the case. Who attends is the matter.
Due to this, high profile peoples like ministers, associates and distant neighbourhood kings and queens, always try to maintain good relationship with the king/queen. After all, the invite is one thing they can show around and make others jealous.
Only the time has changed. Scenario is the same. Today, people like us go over the internet trying to get an invite to such buzz. If you ask me this is not the first time I had adrenaline rush.
My marketing firm is more like a busy fruit market on Saturday afternoon. Many days come and go and I do not have any feeling of what just happened. Thursday, was one such day.
My boss called me up for some discussion. It is never a good thing. My boss is like a devil. If there would be any certification course on how to be a devil, I am sure he would have aced it. From looks of his, I can tell that he would not be the most popular kid in school. In fact, he would be the one who will be beaten up by most popular kid in school. And now, since he is "the boss", he would like to beat the hell from us.
"May I come in, Sir." - I opened the glass door slightly peeping inside.
"Come in my fellow. You are right on time." - Cheerful boss said. When my boss is in a real good mood, he is like a Ginni. He can make any wish of yours true, from taking a leave to getting a vacation. Before, I can decide which one I wanted (leave or vacation) he opened his mouth.
"So make your pick? Which one you want?" - he said glancing to the devices kept on table. Ahh, this is second reason why boss are happy, the first is obvious, good performance from the team. This is the second one. The time when bosses feel they haven't penetrate much into lives of ours and now they found out just how. I can see a line of blackberry pearls kept on his table.
"Pick anyone you want. Your color." - he said smiling.
I can see his evil smile and if you look closely at his face, you will see two devil horns too. I was still thinking..... Not on which color I wanted. (there were just two colors, black and grey.) But I was thinking on how to get out of it.
"You see Mr. JD. Our team is really doing well and so we have decided to make our team more productive by giving back something.So here it is. It will be your work phone. Technician will sync it up with your office number and so you will be able to get your calls anywhere you want."
That was the last thing I wanted to hear from him. It is not that I hate blackberry. In fact, I love blackberry phones. They are one of the coolest phones. But when your company is offering you one, that is sooo not cool.
This means that I will have to be available anytime, anywhere. This means that mine work hours are no longer 9 to 5. It means that I will be slave to my work. In olden days, people used to tie slaves up in chains. Now a days, it is business phones turn. I have seen people in subway during mornings busy with their blackberries. That was the last thing I ever wanted. Since there was no escape route of this situation, I picked up a black blackberry pearl and left the room with a sad face.
I sat on my desk and was thinking about how to get rid of the phone, when I saw Alice sobbing in tears walking out of boss office with (guess what) holding in her hands.
So how is google wave different. As cool as it looks with new features and concept. It is a communication tool that (which in not so later run) can be used as company's integrated chat client.
I turned towards Peter (pete) and told him, "He just found out how to beat the hell out of us."
The hype is just part of marketing. Creating interest among people and spreading word to many more. They also implemented a cruel marketing strategy of sending limited invites only. This technique is not new. It goes way back in history during time of Caesar, Henry, Nefertiti and many more.
These influenced people (or kings & queens) organized a great ball to celebrate. (Celebrate what? It could be anything, from a new dress to new shoes. They are kings and queens, they don't need reason to celebrate, they can make up their own). So when they organized such great ball, it is understood already that ministers and distant kings and queens will be eager to participate. This rush of excitement is short lived, when they start spreading the word of limited invites. Kings and queens have to show their status and the only way they can do so (apart from throwing a great ball) is by limiting the number of invites. They can obviously have a ball in their big palace garden, but space is not the case. Who attends is the matter.
Due to this, high profile peoples like ministers, associates and distant neighbourhood kings and queens, always try to maintain good relationship with the king/queen. After all, the invite is one thing they can show around and make others jealous.
Only the time has changed. Scenario is the same. Today, people like us go over the internet trying to get an invite to such buzz. If you ask me this is not the first time I had adrenaline rush.
My marketing firm is more like a busy fruit market on Saturday afternoon. Many days come and go and I do not have any feeling of what just happened. Thursday, was one such day.
My boss called me up for some discussion. It is never a good thing. My boss is like a devil. If there would be any certification course on how to be a devil, I am sure he would have aced it. From looks of his, I can tell that he would not be the most popular kid in school. In fact, he would be the one who will be beaten up by most popular kid in school. And now, since he is "the boss", he would like to beat the hell from us.
"May I come in, Sir." - I opened the glass door slightly peeping inside.
"Come in my fellow. You are right on time." - Cheerful boss said. When my boss is in a real good mood, he is like a Ginni. He can make any wish of yours true, from taking a leave to getting a vacation. Before, I can decide which one I wanted (leave or vacation) he opened his mouth.
"So make your pick? Which one you want?" - he said glancing to the devices kept on table. Ahh, this is second reason why boss are happy, the first is obvious, good performance from the team. This is the second one. The time when bosses feel they haven't penetrate much into lives of ours and now they found out just how. I can see a line of blackberry pearls kept on his table.
"Pick anyone you want. Your color." - he said smiling.
I can see his evil smile and if you look closely at his face, you will see two devil horns too. I was still thinking..... Not on which color I wanted. (there were just two colors, black and grey.) But I was thinking on how to get out of it.
"You see Mr. JD. Our team is really doing well and so we have decided to make our team more productive by giving back something.So here it is. It will be your work phone. Technician will sync it up with your office number and so you will be able to get your calls anywhere you want."
That was the last thing I wanted to hear from him. It is not that I hate blackberry. In fact, I love blackberry phones. They are one of the coolest phones. But when your company is offering you one, that is sooo not cool.
This means that I will have to be available anytime, anywhere. This means that mine work hours are no longer 9 to 5. It means that I will be slave to my work. In olden days, people used to tie slaves up in chains. Now a days, it is business phones turn. I have seen people in subway during mornings busy with their blackberries. That was the last thing I ever wanted. Since there was no escape route of this situation, I picked up a black blackberry pearl and left the room with a sad face.
I sat on my desk and was thinking about how to get rid of the phone, when I saw Alice sobbing in tears walking out of boss office with (guess what) holding in her hands.
So how is google wave different. As cool as it looks with new features and concept. It is a communication tool that (which in not so later run) can be used as company's integrated chat client.
I turned towards Peter (pete) and told him, "He just found out how to beat the hell out of us."
Planning Ahead
There are two things which I deduce from life.
1. Your actions decide your life.
2. You plan most of your actions, leaving a few unplanned (or so, because it happened unexpectedly.)
I try to live my life with a plan. However, there are times when a lot of things happen out of blue. Apparently, those moments tells me to think again of what just happened.
Planing is good, as long as we follow it. :) I had a friend of mine, who would plan out a lot of things, but was not able to achieve most of it. Sometimes, I plan out so much that I myself does not know where to begin.
Yesterday, I happened to look myself in the mirror. A strange feeling ran across me. I thought to myself, where is my life going to? Is it under my control? Is everything as per plan? That made me ask one final question, "What is my plan?"
To be honest, there is no plan. I want to go with the flow. Do things that I want to. Do things which happens suddenly. There has to be no plan. If everything I do is planned out, where will be the fun enjoying it?
Before, I had planned out a lot of things, now it is time to let life loose and go in anyway it wants. After all, if you spend too much on planing, you would not have too much time to enjoy it.
(Special thanks to Times of India for the picture.)
JD
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
On the wrong side
Every morning before I begin reading my newspaper, I have a habit of going through the comic strips first. They laugh me every time I read it. The same thing, happened today. Take a look at this picture below.
When I first saw it, I laughed. Every time I see it, it makes me laugh. The situation described here is perfectly natural thing. We all, at every point of life, must have faced the very same question. "what am I doing here?" or "why am I doing it?" or my personal favorite "Why is this happening to me?"
WE make our own life. We do actions, which define our course of life. And even then, in spite of us shaping our lives, at one point of time (be it today, tomorrow or moment from past) we ask to over selves, "What am I doing?". If we were the ones to shape our lives, then why are we asking ourselves about it?
The answer is very simple. When we do actions knowingly or unknowingly, we are setting up the direction of our life. However, we never thought through it. We might have believed we did, but it is not the case. So when the life starts moving ahead in our pre-decided or decided course due to our actions, we tend to believe that this is how it should be. But, after a certain point of time, WE; ourselves, start thinking about as to why is all this happening? This is something we have never figured it out. Or it is something which we have never expected to be. We get this feeling not in beginning when we started the journey, but it happens somewhere down the line. The feeling as to why the life for us is not working out the way it should be.
When we do actions, we leave a part of it to faith. We believe whatever we did, will pay off. That part... the part which we left out, plays an important role in our life's journey. And all that happened in our life due to that faith which we left out, is the one now bothering us. The answers to all the questions we ask to ourselves, lies in that part.
So, take a moment over here to think about it.........
and enjoy the comic strip with a laugh.
JD
P.S. (special thanks to timesofindia.com for the image)
Friday, August 21, 2009
Obsession
"I never knew, people are obsessed with work." I said to Pete in a disappointing tone.
"Me neither." Pete was nodding his head in agreement. "I mean, she is crazy, she wants everything to be done. The dishes, the cleaning. She has gone mad."
"Yes, Pete. She............ she? Pete, I am talking about the boss."
"Ohh. I thought we were talking about my wife, Nancy." Pete, was now looking confused all over.
"I cant believe, that any person can get so obsessed with work. I mean look at him. Our dear boss, when he started working here, he was so cool, calm and always rocking. And now, .... now......"
"He rocks us!". said Peter.
"Yes, he rocks us. He is driving me insane now."
"3 days ago, he gave me the work. I told him, it will be done by next week. Next week, Pete. And still, helloooooo, 4 days to go. But he is all over me. I just dont get it. How can somebody get so obsessed with work. I have seen people getting obsessed with things, their principles, but with work. He is not even obsessed, he is crazy now. He is going mad, Pete. We need to do something."
"We ??" Peter was in no mood to support. "Naaah. I think we should leave him like that."
I couldn't stop me from thinking as to which parameters drives any person obsessed. One theory could be that he grew up in such atmosphere. Imagine a bunch of financial managers still on a table having dinner.
Father manager, pointing towards the pasta. "Pass, me the debit shares, honey."
Mother manager, "Sure dear. But you should take care of your assets too." while she points towards his stomach.
Father manager, "Oh, I have got it all covered. It shall be deposited using compound interest, next day."
Mother manager, "Ohh darling. dont forget the bonuses." while she pushes the plate of desert towards husband. And the boy boss. Poor child, sitting quietly on the table trying to figure out whats going on.
My second theory, tell me that my boss would have been total dush. He would be dush bag in school, then in high school, then in college. And so now, he is trying to live his life (or making our lives hell) by satisfying his bully needs.
Whatever be it with him, it did not stop me from making more theories, during which I realized a few more things. I have seen people obsessed with things. My distant cousin, Charlie, is obsessed with team T-shirts. He happens to collect all such T-shirts of entire team. And not just one team, every single MLB team. My ex-girlfriend, Stephanie, was obsessed with two things. Shopping and cleaning. She would spend her entire paycheck in just 3 hrs. All in shopping. Her house would be clean and sparkling all over the place. I wonder if she ever sleeps on her bed or cooks food, because from the point I see it, they are all cleaned up. One thing, I still dont understand is how she happens to manage her closet. If she is shopping a hell lot of things, he closet should be looking like hell by now (I know, mine would). However, she was not the only obsessed person I met in my life. My old neighbour, is still obsessed. She is an old lady, who has nothing much to do everyday. So all she does, is looks on the street from her apartment window and whenever, I am climbing the stairs, she would open her apartment door and would say the same old thing, "They didn't do it again. I knew those basterds are no good."
"Mrs. Locksmith. I know that the fruit guy is a honest person. I am sure, there is no reason to feel terrified." By now, I was exhausted and was trying to convince her.
"Terrified ! Huh! If he shows up to my apartment, I will shoot him with my shotgun."
"Mrs. Locksmith. He is just a fruit vendor. He is not a criminal. And you dont have a shotgun."
"He is a cheater. He gave me 2 apples less. You know what that means. In my days, we used to buy pounds of apples for a dollar. Now, all I get is 3 apples. Last week, there were 5 apples a dollar. He is a cheater and I call cops everyday to get him out of there. I will ruin him." said the old lady shouting. While I try to hurry back to my apartment.
I cant believe, how much the old lady is obsessed with that thing. Maybe because she has nothing to do the whole day rather than sitting in her window and looking down the street to see if the fruit vendor is still there.
Sometimes I feel I am the only one who is not obsessed with anything. In tube, I see people texting, emailing on their cellphones. Especially, guys with blackberries. They seem to be obsessed with those things like they have never seen one before. The minute, they seat in the metro, they start emailing, calling and working. Looking at them, I would always say in my mind, hellooo, get a life dude. look at you. you are like a monkey with a banana. wake up. I cant blame them too. Technology has got into us in a very bad way. Pete, would be working on his laptop while watching movies.
"Pete, why dont you just shut off the laptop and enjoy the movie." I said in a frustrating voice due to his constant typing.
"I am JD. I am enjoying the movie." Peter said while keeping his eyes fixed on the tv screen.
"Which part of enjoying you dont understand. And what are you doing on the laptop. I told you we will get project slides done by tomorrow afternoon." I told Pete.
"Its not work that I am doing."
"then"
"Check it out, I filled up the wikipedia page of the movie. See, its all complete now." Peter was smiling while he showed me the page on laptop, which, I felt like hitting on his head.
It is good to have obsession. It is something like too much of ambition. Too much of desire. But one should be careful, if this too much, does not become Too much. One should control every desire. Or else, one day, one will become a monster, like my boss. I can picture him clearly like a big red version of hulk. Except he is bad and ugly.
It just took him 1 week, to get over it. I did my job and he was happy to see it. So his obsession went by, from me to Patrica. Now, I would love to help Patricia. But I can't. After experiencing all the heat of obsession of my boss. I think I needed a break.
"Me neither." Pete was nodding his head in agreement. "I mean, she is crazy, she wants everything to be done. The dishes, the cleaning. She has gone mad."
"Yes, Pete. She............ she? Pete, I am talking about the boss."
"Ohh. I thought we were talking about my wife, Nancy." Pete, was now looking confused all over.
"I cant believe, that any person can get so obsessed with work. I mean look at him. Our dear boss, when he started working here, he was so cool, calm and always rocking. And now, .... now......"
"He rocks us!". said Peter.
"Yes, he rocks us. He is driving me insane now."
"3 days ago, he gave me the work. I told him, it will be done by next week. Next week, Pete. And still, helloooooo, 4 days to go. But he is all over me. I just dont get it. How can somebody get so obsessed with work. I have seen people getting obsessed with things, their principles, but with work. He is not even obsessed, he is crazy now. He is going mad, Pete. We need to do something."
"We ??" Peter was in no mood to support. "Naaah. I think we should leave him like that."
I couldn't stop me from thinking as to which parameters drives any person obsessed. One theory could be that he grew up in such atmosphere. Imagine a bunch of financial managers still on a table having dinner.
Father manager, pointing towards the pasta. "Pass, me the debit shares, honey."
Mother manager, "Sure dear. But you should take care of your assets too." while she points towards his stomach.
Father manager, "Oh, I have got it all covered. It shall be deposited using compound interest, next day."
Mother manager, "Ohh darling. dont forget the bonuses." while she pushes the plate of desert towards husband. And the boy boss. Poor child, sitting quietly on the table trying to figure out whats going on.
My second theory, tell me that my boss would have been total dush. He would be dush bag in school, then in high school, then in college. And so now, he is trying to live his life (or making our lives hell) by satisfying his bully needs.
Whatever be it with him, it did not stop me from making more theories, during which I realized a few more things. I have seen people obsessed with things. My distant cousin, Charlie, is obsessed with team T-shirts. He happens to collect all such T-shirts of entire team. And not just one team, every single MLB team. My ex-girlfriend, Stephanie, was obsessed with two things. Shopping and cleaning. She would spend her entire paycheck in just 3 hrs. All in shopping. Her house would be clean and sparkling all over the place. I wonder if she ever sleeps on her bed or cooks food, because from the point I see it, they are all cleaned up. One thing, I still dont understand is how she happens to manage her closet. If she is shopping a hell lot of things, he closet should be looking like hell by now (I know, mine would). However, she was not the only obsessed person I met in my life. My old neighbour, is still obsessed. She is an old lady, who has nothing much to do everyday. So all she does, is looks on the street from her apartment window and whenever, I am climbing the stairs, she would open her apartment door and would say the same old thing, "They didn't do it again. I knew those basterds are no good."
"Mrs. Locksmith. I know that the fruit guy is a honest person. I am sure, there is no reason to feel terrified." By now, I was exhausted and was trying to convince her.
"Terrified ! Huh! If he shows up to my apartment, I will shoot him with my shotgun."
"Mrs. Locksmith. He is just a fruit vendor. He is not a criminal. And you dont have a shotgun."
"He is a cheater. He gave me 2 apples less. You know what that means. In my days, we used to buy pounds of apples for a dollar. Now, all I get is 3 apples. Last week, there were 5 apples a dollar. He is a cheater and I call cops everyday to get him out of there. I will ruin him." said the old lady shouting. While I try to hurry back to my apartment.
I cant believe, how much the old lady is obsessed with that thing. Maybe because she has nothing to do the whole day rather than sitting in her window and looking down the street to see if the fruit vendor is still there.
Sometimes I feel I am the only one who is not obsessed with anything. In tube, I see people texting, emailing on their cellphones. Especially, guys with blackberries. They seem to be obsessed with those things like they have never seen one before. The minute, they seat in the metro, they start emailing, calling and working. Looking at them, I would always say in my mind, hellooo, get a life dude. look at you. you are like a monkey with a banana. wake up. I cant blame them too. Technology has got into us in a very bad way. Pete, would be working on his laptop while watching movies.
"Pete, why dont you just shut off the laptop and enjoy the movie." I said in a frustrating voice due to his constant typing.
"I am JD. I am enjoying the movie." Peter said while keeping his eyes fixed on the tv screen.
"Which part of enjoying you dont understand. And what are you doing on the laptop. I told you we will get project slides done by tomorrow afternoon." I told Pete.
"Its not work that I am doing."
"then"
"Check it out, I filled up the wikipedia page of the movie. See, its all complete now." Peter was smiling while he showed me the page on laptop, which, I felt like hitting on his head.
It is good to have obsession. It is something like too much of ambition. Too much of desire. But one should be careful, if this too much, does not become Too much. One should control every desire. Or else, one day, one will become a monster, like my boss. I can picture him clearly like a big red version of hulk. Except he is bad and ugly.
It just took him 1 week, to get over it. I did my job and he was happy to see it. So his obsession went by, from me to Patrica. Now, I would love to help Patricia. But I can't. After experiencing all the heat of obsession of my boss. I think I needed a break.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Lost and Found
Everybody tries.
What depends upon is how much anybody is willing to go further in it. Few gets lucky to get it in 1st try, while few keep on trying.
..........
The office was busy today. There were loads of things to do. Alice was running up and down the corridor while Tina could be seen nervously working on her project. Peter was busy looking around. It is not the first time I am seeing him do that. Peter has a good history of missing things out. I am not talking about losing pens, pencils and other stationary. Once while we were in gym. He forgot his trunks out there. Once in a restaurant while he was out dinning with his wife, Nancy; he forgot his wallet. Luckily the hotel manager called him up. Once, he happened to lose his coat in grand central station. I can still remember that day. We decided to go through tube instead of driving. As we reached out for our train,
"JD. I seem to lost something." said Peter.
"What is it?"
"Something... " - said Peter while still trying to figure out what is it. "Oh shoot. I forgot the coat, man." - says in a panic voice. "I had it when we got the tickets. Now, I don't know where it is."
"Okay. Lets not panic. The train is moving now, so ...."
"What !!! JD, we need to get off."
"Cant". - I said calmly.
"What do you mean cant?" - Peter was now looking everywhere as if trying to find a door open.
"Hey. Pete. The doors are shut. We will get off at next station and come back. Relax, okay. The next station is just 3 mins away."
What seemed to be 3 mins for me, it was like 3 years for Peter. I can see him running up and down around the car. As soon as the door opened. Peter rushed out and starting walking up and down the train station.
"Pete. You need to relax. The next train is in 1 min."
"What if somebody took it ?" - said Pete anxiously.
"well, they might have taken it already." - I said in a mumbling voice making sure Peter does not hear it.
"Said anything, JD?"
"huh... no. Don't worry. People don't touch stray things."
I know this. We all are scared. After the terror attacks, we make sure we don't touch any stray things. Instead we just call the cops. So I was hopeful that we will get the coat back.
Finally, what seemed to be like a decade, we reached back to grand central station in 10 minutes. Peter was now more like a German Shepard dog looking for a bomb. He was holding his head up trying to sniff out his coat. We walked all the way to the car parking, as if following a trail. Peter narrated out in detail as we walked the trail.
"JD. Here we were standing watching the schedule for next train arrival."
"right." - I nod my head in agreement.
"No. I was watching the schedule, while you were checking out the girl in pink dress out there next to ticket vending machine."
"okayyyy. So lets go further." - I said with little disagreement.
"We then walked up to the hot dog stand. We got 3 hot dogs and we sat on that bench out there. I remember it, you spilled the mustard on your shoe while you were trying to spin your head around looking for babes." - said Peter, who by now was looking like Sherlock Holmes to me.
"Okay. My detective friend. Lets just stick to your version of the story and not mine." - I said in agreement.
"So, did you had the coat with you on the bench?"
"No. I don't remember." - said Peter looking confused.
"Great! He remembers what I did, but does not remember where his coat is." - I said to myself. Looking at hot dog stand again, made me feel hungry.
"Well, since we are here, lets have a hot dog." - I tried to offer Pete.
"JD. I have lost my coat." He shouted this time.
"Relax Peter. Get a new one."
"No, I cant. Nancy gave it to me. And that too, two days ago."
"Ohh boy. Good luck then."
One thing I learnt was not to lose stuff of your girlfriend (In Peter case, his wife.) She will believe that we don't love her anymore and that's why we deliberately lost it or kept it in attic. It is best to keep a smile and wear those things, if you want to be alive.
"Okay, Peter. Look, lets go to lost and found department. They might have it there." I was sounding too optimistic. I know that majority of people believe that once they loose things on a train station, they have absolutely no chance of getting it back. Airports, will still have some chance, but not train and bus stations. So after much searching for lost and found department, we ultimately reached there.
"Boy, they do keep lost and found department ... lost. Ha ha ha ha ha." - I said to Pete. Trying to bring up his mood, who by now was looking sad than ever. I guess he must be wondering what Nancy will do to him, once she finds out he lost the coat she brought for him.
"Yes, gentlemen. How can I help you?" - said an old lady over the counter.
"Yes. I am looking for my coat. It is deep dark blue in color designed by Kenneth Cole Collection." - said Pete. Who was trying to impress the old lady as to how much he loved his coat. (Also, giving her a hint on the consequences that would happen if he lost it.)
"What time did you lost it?"
"humm.. I didn't lose it actually. It just got misplaced somewhere." - said Pete, still trying to persuade the old lady.
"You lost it, didn't you? And let me guess, your beloved one gave that to you."
"How did you know?" - said Pete looking shocked.
"Son, I have been in this profession since last 35 years. And I know every inch of it. So why don't you have a seat and I see if I happen to find it for you." - the old lady said mockingly as if we both were preschool kids.
It look a long time before the old lady came back. "Son, I am sorry. But your coat is nowhere to be found. Why don't you come along tomorrow and check. I have asked all the stations in central line, but nobody has information on missing coat.
Disappointed we reached office. The time passed quickly for me with loads of work, but for Pete, I was going like dead slow.
"Hey, Pete. Office is over. Lets go." - I said to him.
"Na man. I don't think I should. If she finds out, I am a dead meat." Peter was disappointed more than he looked in morning. "Hey, why don't I tell her that I kept it in office or kept it in your car."
"Pete. we came through tube today." - I said disapproving his theory. "Lets stick to leaving in office version."
"Right." - said Pete.
3 days later one night, I got a call from Peter. It turned out that Alice found her coat in grand central station which she was heading to work. She found it when she was waiting for her colleague to show up. She picked it up and kept with her.
"Was she mad at you, Pete." - I asked.
"Nope. In fact, she thought of a way to punish me. She didn't tell me she had the coat for 3 days." - Pete was angry on himself.
"Well, that's something. Woman are good in those matters."
..........
There are many things we lose in our lifetime. From material objects to soul mates. The whole life is all about lost and found of these things. Sometimes when we find it, it brings joy; sometime it doesn't. The same feeling goes when we lost a thing. It is so strange as to why we change our moods when we lose/find things.
Strange, isn't it?
What depends upon is how much anybody is willing to go further in it. Few gets lucky to get it in 1st try, while few keep on trying.
..........
The office was busy today. There were loads of things to do. Alice was running up and down the corridor while Tina could be seen nervously working on her project. Peter was busy looking around. It is not the first time I am seeing him do that. Peter has a good history of missing things out. I am not talking about losing pens, pencils and other stationary. Once while we were in gym. He forgot his trunks out there. Once in a restaurant while he was out dinning with his wife, Nancy; he forgot his wallet. Luckily the hotel manager called him up. Once, he happened to lose his coat in grand central station. I can still remember that day. We decided to go through tube instead of driving. As we reached out for our train,
"JD. I seem to lost something." said Peter.
"What is it?"
"Something... " - said Peter while still trying to figure out what is it. "Oh shoot. I forgot the coat, man." - says in a panic voice. "I had it when we got the tickets. Now, I don't know where it is."
"Okay. Lets not panic. The train is moving now, so ...."
"What !!! JD, we need to get off."
"Cant". - I said calmly.
"What do you mean cant?" - Peter was now looking everywhere as if trying to find a door open.
"Hey. Pete. The doors are shut. We will get off at next station and come back. Relax, okay. The next station is just 3 mins away."
What seemed to be 3 mins for me, it was like 3 years for Peter. I can see him running up and down around the car. As soon as the door opened. Peter rushed out and starting walking up and down the train station.
"Pete. You need to relax. The next train is in 1 min."
"What if somebody took it ?" - said Pete anxiously.
"well, they might have taken it already." - I said in a mumbling voice making sure Peter does not hear it.
"Said anything, JD?"
"huh... no. Don't worry. People don't touch stray things."
I know this. We all are scared. After the terror attacks, we make sure we don't touch any stray things. Instead we just call the cops. So I was hopeful that we will get the coat back.
Finally, what seemed to be like a decade, we reached back to grand central station in 10 minutes. Peter was now more like a German Shepard dog looking for a bomb. He was holding his head up trying to sniff out his coat. We walked all the way to the car parking, as if following a trail. Peter narrated out in detail as we walked the trail.
"JD. Here we were standing watching the schedule for next train arrival."
"right." - I nod my head in agreement.
"No. I was watching the schedule, while you were checking out the girl in pink dress out there next to ticket vending machine."
"okayyyy. So lets go further." - I said with little disagreement.
"We then walked up to the hot dog stand. We got 3 hot dogs and we sat on that bench out there. I remember it, you spilled the mustard on your shoe while you were trying to spin your head around looking for babes." - said Peter, who by now was looking like Sherlock Holmes to me.
"Okay. My detective friend. Lets just stick to your version of the story and not mine." - I said in agreement.
"So, did you had the coat with you on the bench?"
"No. I don't remember." - said Peter looking confused.
"Great! He remembers what I did, but does not remember where his coat is." - I said to myself. Looking at hot dog stand again, made me feel hungry.
"Well, since we are here, lets have a hot dog." - I tried to offer Pete.
"JD. I have lost my coat." He shouted this time.
"Relax Peter. Get a new one."
"No, I cant. Nancy gave it to me. And that too, two days ago."
"Ohh boy. Good luck then."
One thing I learnt was not to lose stuff of your girlfriend (In Peter case, his wife.) She will believe that we don't love her anymore and that's why we deliberately lost it or kept it in attic. It is best to keep a smile and wear those things, if you want to be alive.
"Okay, Peter. Look, lets go to lost and found department. They might have it there." I was sounding too optimistic. I know that majority of people believe that once they loose things on a train station, they have absolutely no chance of getting it back. Airports, will still have some chance, but not train and bus stations. So after much searching for lost and found department, we ultimately reached there.
"Boy, they do keep lost and found department ... lost. Ha ha ha ha ha." - I said to Pete. Trying to bring up his mood, who by now was looking sad than ever. I guess he must be wondering what Nancy will do to him, once she finds out he lost the coat she brought for him.
"Yes, gentlemen. How can I help you?" - said an old lady over the counter.
"Yes. I am looking for my coat. It is deep dark blue in color designed by Kenneth Cole Collection." - said Pete. Who was trying to impress the old lady as to how much he loved his coat. (Also, giving her a hint on the consequences that would happen if he lost it.)
"What time did you lost it?"
"humm.. I didn't lose it actually. It just got misplaced somewhere." - said Pete, still trying to persuade the old lady.
"You lost it, didn't you? And let me guess, your beloved one gave that to you."
"How did you know?" - said Pete looking shocked.
"Son, I have been in this profession since last 35 years. And I know every inch of it. So why don't you have a seat and I see if I happen to find it for you." - the old lady said mockingly as if we both were preschool kids.
It look a long time before the old lady came back. "Son, I am sorry. But your coat is nowhere to be found. Why don't you come along tomorrow and check. I have asked all the stations in central line, but nobody has information on missing coat.
Disappointed we reached office. The time passed quickly for me with loads of work, but for Pete, I was going like dead slow.
"Hey, Pete. Office is over. Lets go." - I said to him.
"Na man. I don't think I should. If she finds out, I am a dead meat." Peter was disappointed more than he looked in morning. "Hey, why don't I tell her that I kept it in office or kept it in your car."
"Pete. we came through tube today." - I said disapproving his theory. "Lets stick to leaving in office version."
"Right." - said Pete.
3 days later one night, I got a call from Peter. It turned out that Alice found her coat in grand central station which she was heading to work. She found it when she was waiting for her colleague to show up. She picked it up and kept with her.
"Was she mad at you, Pete." - I asked.
"Nope. In fact, she thought of a way to punish me. She didn't tell me she had the coat for 3 days." - Pete was angry on himself.
"Well, that's something. Woman are good in those matters."
..........
There are many things we lose in our lifetime. From material objects to soul mates. The whole life is all about lost and found of these things. Sometimes when we find it, it brings joy; sometime it doesn't. The same feeling goes when we lost a thing. It is so strange as to why we change our moods when we lose/find things.
Strange, isn't it?
Friday, July 31, 2009
Superpower in marriage
Been in management means one needs to be ready for anything. Like the day when the big fat guy showed up in our office. Turns out, he has a chain of bakeries and he wanted to market it all over the city. The mean guy who once wanted to market his super size vegetables in farmers market. We have seen pretty much everything... or so we thought. Till one day, a beautiful redhead came to the office. (wow, what a nice perfume she had put on). She was representing a comic company and wanted to market their latest book on superpower girl.
"JD, look at her." - said Peter, during the briefing with the beautiful redhead.
"Yeah, I know Peter, she has amazing brown eyes and beautiful voice."
"Voice!! Heck, I didn't knew this sketch was speaking out to you. And tell me how can this pencil sketch tell you the color of her eyes." - said Peter while holding out the superpower girl sketch on my face.
"I meant her, Pete. Come on look at her, she is sooo "
"beautiful. I get it JD. Damm you. You need to get married."
"Sorry, Pete. I wont fall in the trap you did."
"Na man. Marriage is not a trap. It is the most beautiful thing happening in your life. Before marriage you were all alone in this world. Now you have a life partner, who will be with you all the way in your life. Who will support you, stand with you, be your hope ..."
"Yes Pete. I got it. Please save the remaining speech after I drink 2 full beers."
"You know JD. You may not realize it now, but someday you will." - said Peter, as we walk out of the meeting room.
"So, what does this super girl do? Fly in sky, super strong, climb on rooftops, walk through walls." - I said, trying to change the topic.
"For that, we need to read all this. Its the characters file. Everything you want to know." - said Pete, who by now, was not looking happy about my view on marriages.
That night, I was in my apartment; trying to watch TV and planing to eat some leftovers. The show was "home improvement". (One of my best shows.) While watching how Tim handles his married life and giving Allan suggestions if he should go ahead and propose his girlfriend or not, I got lost in my own thoughts.
I kept thinking as to what defines a successful married life. Is it, the amount of years we spend with each other or the amount of love we have for each other or is it trusting each other or believing in your life partner. I have seen many weddings. I can see how the bride and bridegroom look to each other with love and passion. Somehow, I dint see that same glittering thing after a few years. Whats that something which was there during the wedding, is now completely disappeared.
I have seen couple of my friends marriages, which didn't last long. Somehow, they were done over with each other. While some marriages are still intact and going strong. Some are okay, they go along each other in some mutual understanding like a cruise control car.
It seems like having a successful married life needs to have superpower couple in it. Earlier it was only you... but now its us. So the things we did it out all alone is now no more. We don't have to think of just us, but ours is the new word. Hence, now we are doing things beyond capabilities of just 1 person. Now, that's superpower.
Rinnnggggggg ....... came the sound of the alarm clock.
"Ohh shit... I am getting late."
Today was the beginning of weekend for me and it was 7 in morning. Though I was suppose to lay down in my bed and enjoy the sleep till the sun is on my top, but today, I had to visit my parents in nearby town. We were having a get-to-gather of our family and cousins. Its the tradition we follow. Every year, we will get to gather around somebody house and celebrate the whole weekend. Its almost like a carnival. The whole farm house gets filled up. We see kids running along, entertainers performing, cousins chatting, big wooden table under the oak tree decorated with lavishing meal.. it is just pleasant.
I tried my best to reach home by 11 AM. Its 2 hrs drive, but during weekend mornings, apparently everybody in the city wakes up early and shows himself on the interstate. I cant believe, why people want to rush out of the city so early. Hey come on, its Saturday... sleep in bed for gods sake. My mind, was yelling all that loud, while I find myself stuck in the traffic.
Finally, when the traffic got cleared, I drove as if I was flying in the air. Talking with wind, listening to sound of birds and siren.......
"siren.... damm it. Its the cop." - I said looking in the rear view mirror.
The time I reach my parents farm house, it was noon. It seemed like all my cousins had already arrived and the atmosphere was in full swing.
"Ahh, there you are. What took you so long?" - said mom, when she saw me sneaking into the house.
"I ... I .. huh... rain... yes, terrible rain .... flash flood... traffic all over the interstate."
"Let me guess...." - said my Dad from behind. "Overslept... huh and a ticket."
Mom and dad burst out laughing. "Drive safe honey, don't rush. Its okay to be late rather than to lie in hospital... remember?" - said mom. "Come on now, get fresh. The brunch is almost getting over. So hurry up."
The carnival was great. I got to meet my cousins. Caught up with whats going on. Meet my uncle's and aunt's. It was lovely out there. In night, we had camp fire lit. People singing along the fire, country music playing, everybody seemed to have good time.
That night, I was sitting out in the veranda when.
"Having a good time son?" - uncle Earl said, while walking down slowly trying not to spill the drink.
"Yes, uncle Earl. Having one of the best times in my life."
"Ha ha ha ha. That's good my son. Your parents and I always wanted to have this idea when all of our family, all generations can meet up together for a family bonding time." - said Uncle Earl, while trying to sit in the arm chair.
"Uncle Earl. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, go ahead. But I told you, I am not going to dance tomorrow."
"ha ha ha ha. No, that's not a problem uncle." - I said smiling. The last time when Uncle Earl danced was last year, he broke a table, 2 chairs and placed the dent on the floor. "What I wanted to ask you uncle is, what do you think defines a successful marriage."
"Said what!!!.. are you dating anybody young man? .. huh.... or is it the vegas thing? Because tell me. Your parents will not say anything against your love once I say my word."
"No, uncle Earl. I have nobody. Nor I got married with anybody in Vegas. Its just that I wanted to know what lies in the strength for a successful marriage."
"Son, to tell you the truth. It is a mixture of a lot of things. There is not just one thing, that can hold up the marriage together. There are a lot of things. So many that I can use a keg instead of this glass. ha ha ha ha." - said uncle Earl, who by now, I was not sure, if it is the drink speaking or himself. For he is always in jolly mood. "Here is what I will tell you my son. Marriage is about love, it is about believing in your life partner, the more you believe in it, the more trust you earn, it is about respect for each other, having faith in one another. If I blindfold you, your partner should be able to guide you in your life. That's what I am talking about."
It was almost 2 of night, when Uncle Earl finally ended his speech. Or I would say, when the drink had finally got him. When you live in a small town, the time stops. Literally.... by sunset, everybody is back home and in an hour or two, the whole town is asleep.
The weekend got over and I bid my farewell to my parents and to my cousins who decided to stay for a couple of more days. While driving back to city. I noticed that Peter had left the sketch book in the seat and I saw the sketch of the super girl.
That reminded me about the last few lines uncle Earl said.
"Son, you or your partner does not need to have superpowers to run a healthy and successful married life. All you need is trust and love amongst you. There is no magic or secret formula, blah.. its just you and her. Two souls who discover goodness among each other and give strength to each other for fighting out bad things in life. That's marriage."
"JD, look at her." - said Peter, during the briefing with the beautiful redhead.
"Yeah, I know Peter, she has amazing brown eyes and beautiful voice."
"Voice!! Heck, I didn't knew this sketch was speaking out to you. And tell me how can this pencil sketch tell you the color of her eyes." - said Peter while holding out the superpower girl sketch on my face.
"I meant her, Pete. Come on look at her, she is sooo "
"beautiful. I get it JD. Damm you. You need to get married."
"Sorry, Pete. I wont fall in the trap you did."
"Na man. Marriage is not a trap. It is the most beautiful thing happening in your life. Before marriage you were all alone in this world. Now you have a life partner, who will be with you all the way in your life. Who will support you, stand with you, be your hope ..."
"Yes Pete. I got it. Please save the remaining speech after I drink 2 full beers."
"You know JD. You may not realize it now, but someday you will." - said Peter, as we walk out of the meeting room.
"So, what does this super girl do? Fly in sky, super strong, climb on rooftops, walk through walls." - I said, trying to change the topic.
"For that, we need to read all this. Its the characters file. Everything you want to know." - said Pete, who by now, was not looking happy about my view on marriages.
That night, I was in my apartment; trying to watch TV and planing to eat some leftovers. The show was "home improvement". (One of my best shows.) While watching how Tim handles his married life and giving Allan suggestions if he should go ahead and propose his girlfriend or not, I got lost in my own thoughts.
I kept thinking as to what defines a successful married life. Is it, the amount of years we spend with each other or the amount of love we have for each other or is it trusting each other or believing in your life partner. I have seen many weddings. I can see how the bride and bridegroom look to each other with love and passion. Somehow, I dint see that same glittering thing after a few years. Whats that something which was there during the wedding, is now completely disappeared.
I have seen couple of my friends marriages, which didn't last long. Somehow, they were done over with each other. While some marriages are still intact and going strong. Some are okay, they go along each other in some mutual understanding like a cruise control car.
It seems like having a successful married life needs to have superpower couple in it. Earlier it was only you... but now its us. So the things we did it out all alone is now no more. We don't have to think of just us, but ours is the new word. Hence, now we are doing things beyond capabilities of just 1 person. Now, that's superpower.
Rinnnggggggg ....... came the sound of the alarm clock.
"Ohh shit... I am getting late."
Today was the beginning of weekend for me and it was 7 in morning. Though I was suppose to lay down in my bed and enjoy the sleep till the sun is on my top, but today, I had to visit my parents in nearby town. We were having a get-to-gather of our family and cousins. Its the tradition we follow. Every year, we will get to gather around somebody house and celebrate the whole weekend. Its almost like a carnival. The whole farm house gets filled up. We see kids running along, entertainers performing, cousins chatting, big wooden table under the oak tree decorated with lavishing meal.. it is just pleasant.
I tried my best to reach home by 11 AM. Its 2 hrs drive, but during weekend mornings, apparently everybody in the city wakes up early and shows himself on the interstate. I cant believe, why people want to rush out of the city so early. Hey come on, its Saturday... sleep in bed for gods sake. My mind, was yelling all that loud, while I find myself stuck in the traffic.
Finally, when the traffic got cleared, I drove as if I was flying in the air. Talking with wind, listening to sound of birds and siren.......
"siren.... damm it. Its the cop." - I said looking in the rear view mirror.
The time I reach my parents farm house, it was noon. It seemed like all my cousins had already arrived and the atmosphere was in full swing.
"Ahh, there you are. What took you so long?" - said mom, when she saw me sneaking into the house.
"I ... I .. huh... rain... yes, terrible rain .... flash flood... traffic all over the interstate."
"Let me guess...." - said my Dad from behind. "Overslept... huh and a ticket."
Mom and dad burst out laughing. "Drive safe honey, don't rush. Its okay to be late rather than to lie in hospital... remember?" - said mom. "Come on now, get fresh. The brunch is almost getting over. So hurry up."
The carnival was great. I got to meet my cousins. Caught up with whats going on. Meet my uncle's and aunt's. It was lovely out there. In night, we had camp fire lit. People singing along the fire, country music playing, everybody seemed to have good time.
That night, I was sitting out in the veranda when.
"Having a good time son?" - uncle Earl said, while walking down slowly trying not to spill the drink.
"Yes, uncle Earl. Having one of the best times in my life."
"Ha ha ha ha. That's good my son. Your parents and I always wanted to have this idea when all of our family, all generations can meet up together for a family bonding time." - said Uncle Earl, while trying to sit in the arm chair.
"Uncle Earl. Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, go ahead. But I told you, I am not going to dance tomorrow."
"ha ha ha ha. No, that's not a problem uncle." - I said smiling. The last time when Uncle Earl danced was last year, he broke a table, 2 chairs and placed the dent on the floor. "What I wanted to ask you uncle is, what do you think defines a successful marriage."
"Said what!!!.. are you dating anybody young man? .. huh.... or is it the vegas thing? Because tell me. Your parents will not say anything against your love once I say my word."
"No, uncle Earl. I have nobody. Nor I got married with anybody in Vegas. Its just that I wanted to know what lies in the strength for a successful marriage."
"Son, to tell you the truth. It is a mixture of a lot of things. There is not just one thing, that can hold up the marriage together. There are a lot of things. So many that I can use a keg instead of this glass. ha ha ha ha." - said uncle Earl, who by now, I was not sure, if it is the drink speaking or himself. For he is always in jolly mood. "Here is what I will tell you my son. Marriage is about love, it is about believing in your life partner, the more you believe in it, the more trust you earn, it is about respect for each other, having faith in one another. If I blindfold you, your partner should be able to guide you in your life. That's what I am talking about."
It was almost 2 of night, when Uncle Earl finally ended his speech. Or I would say, when the drink had finally got him. When you live in a small town, the time stops. Literally.... by sunset, everybody is back home and in an hour or two, the whole town is asleep.
The weekend got over and I bid my farewell to my parents and to my cousins who decided to stay for a couple of more days. While driving back to city. I noticed that Peter had left the sketch book in the seat and I saw the sketch of the super girl.
That reminded me about the last few lines uncle Earl said.
"Son, you or your partner does not need to have superpowers to run a healthy and successful married life. All you need is trust and love amongst you. There is no magic or secret formula, blah.. its just you and her. Two souls who discover goodness among each other and give strength to each other for fighting out bad things in life. That's marriage."
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Honesty ...
When we were kids, we were taught a lot about honesty. Right from kinder gardens we were taught stories that reward handsomely to people who are honest. As we grew up, we somehow divert away from the path of honesty. Ofcourse, we are still honest people! I know I am. Only when I told lies that did no harm to anybody. Like lying why I was home so late all due to a flat tyre, when the fact was, I was busy in my friends party. Ofcourse, there are numerous such small lies that I have said in my life. And it always felt good. Such lies did harm to nobody, so overall, I am still a honest person.
It was a regular day at work. Nothing out of ordinary. Peter and I were playing after lunch. Throwing soft ball to one another. That what we do when we need to get our minds working. Sometimes, we get so caught up giving exercise to our mind that we dont remember how long we were playing. The game normally lasts for 30 mins, unless we see "the boss" around.
That day, we played the longest... 1 hr 45 mins .... it was awesome! By the time, the office got closed, we were done with our work. While leaving the office, I saw Patricia running here and there looking upset. When she saw me standing on the way, she looked at me puzzled. For a moment, I just kept looking into her eyes and got lost in my thoughts; which btw got disrupted by her sweet voice.
"JD, did you happen to know anything about my project."
"aaaa.... project... yes, ofcourse, your project. I know a little."
"It seems i have lost my only soft copy of the files, and I need to work on it. Can you help me out with it ?"
For a minute I just looked at her trying to figure out what was going on.
"yes, Patricia. I will help."
"Thanks" - she said with a smile. I always lover her smile.
So it was me and Patricia, only two people left in the office. We worked out through her whole project. Right from projection of guidelines to suppliers things and estimating the construction details.
By the time we got it done, it was 3 AM. The longest I worked in office was till 10 PM, but this sure broke my record. However, it was worth it since I enjoyed Patricia's company.
Though I must say, I enjoyed working with her most of night. I wasn't that happy. While, we were heading towards parking lot, I told Patricia what might have happened. She did seem upset after hearing it, but unlike other girls who would beat the hell out of me. She just calmly said goodnight to me.
I have seen girls in my life which are way to dangerous when it comes to confession by guy. 1st of all she would throw on you anything she has... purse, cellphone, shopping bags. Then if its more athletic type of girl, she would reach out for her sandal to beat you up. And ofcourse, 1 famous line which goes around was, "I hate you. How can you do this to me." She would say as many times she can and ofcourse crying too. Crying is something they are always good at. And, if she happened to drive, then don't expect a return journey. My advice, call the cab. But, if you were driving, she would expect you to still drop her at her place. (again, it depends on situations.) What Patricia, did that night, was something I never expected. Her calmness was killing me.
When I reached home, I felt stupid as to what I said to her. I mean, I could have just pretended that it never happened and she would have believed it. (When it comes to making a speech, I noticed I am lacking that fine quality. Somehow, I always tell the truth.) The next day at office went usual. I happen to see Patricia quite often (in lobby, near cooler, near vending machine) for every smile that I do while greeting her, she would calmly look at me and say nothing.
I could not resist what was going on. I felt as if I am the only person in this world, who has told a lie. I went to Peter's desk.
"Hey Pete."
"Hi JD, whats up?"
"Have you ever told a lie?"
"Ofcourse not. I never told a lie." - said Peter with a confidence. "Like for example your ipod. You were looking all over your apartment last week and you asked if it was there with me. I said no... remember?"
"yes. I remember, pete."
"see there you go. I found it in my car. Below the back seat 2 days ago."
"2 days ago!!" - I said with an angry voice.
"yeah man." - he said calmly.
"Why didn't you tell me."
"surprise!!! I was planing to give you a surprise, man. Imagine you sitting in my car and you happen to find it lying right under your feet. See how happy you would have looked."
"Yeah right, today, you are going to pay for this." - I said angrily.
What Peter said, didn't help me quite much. My next approach was Allan standing next to cooler.
"Hi Allan. I had a question for you. Did you ever lied."
Allan jumped up about a feet knocking the cooler. Good thing, the cooler is much heavier than Allan.
"wha..t wh..ere di..d yo..u heared th...is. Did Alice ... told you that she know it was me who knocked off her time piece off her des..k ..?" - looking around he said shivering.
I didn't answer that and walked off. When it comes for guidance in management, I always looked up to the boss. So I decided to ask him about it.
"Hi Boss, May I come in. I wanted to know something."
"Sure JD. What you have in mind."
"Boss, did you ever happen to tell a lie?"
"JD, please close the office door for me." - he said calmly.
As soon as I closed the door. "Ofcourse, I have.... whatd ya think." - he said with a shout and he seemed to be happy about it.
"Listen, come here JD." speaking close to my hear and still in his top voice he said.
"Look at all those sharks out there. the Board. What do you think about those. If I tell them the truth always, phhat... they will tear me apart and throw me out of building. Its all management my dear. You do whatever it takes." - he said that proudly and happily. "Look at me, I am a management saint. I dont lie in management world. It is called "handling."
"you get my boy."
"Yes Boss. I got it." - I said while trying to get out of his office in a hurry. For he looked like a devil wearing a red night dress and having sharp horns around.
Patricia's great storm silence act lasted for around a week. She will try avoid speaking to me. If she needed anything Tina will ask to me. I tried to pretend that it was no big deal, but somehow I was feeling bad. (bad that I ever told her the truth). After a week or so, while I was busy doing my work, she stood behind me.
"Hi JD."
"Hi Patricia. How are you?" - I tried to greet her as calmly as she did to me. (which I suck)
"Listen JD. About what you told me at the parking lot. I wanted you to know, that I felt bad at first. But then I realized that you were honest to me. About the whole thing and besides you all stayed around to help me out. So I guess, its okay." - she said the last line with a smile.
"So you are not mad at me anymore?"
"no. I am happy that you told the truth." - she said with a big smile. "But, don't ever, ever do this again."
I could see the gleam in her eyes as she said it with a mischief.
"Ofcourse, it wont happen again." - I said with a smile.
"So how about we go for dinner tonight. Allow me to wash off my sinful deeds."
"ha ha ha, okay. tonight's dinner sounds good." - she said laughingly.
So that's how our first date happened. I realized that telling lie is not a good thing. But telling the truth after a lie is the bravest thing anybody can do. When we do that, we are changing our ground and in eyes of other people, it might not look that good. So, the solution is, not to tell lie in 1st place itself. If we are honest right from beginning, sure people will be angry on us, but atleast they know that they can trust us. When, we tell a lie, we are breaking the trust part.
What Patricia did to me was to trust me, even after I told her lie in 1st place followed by truth. Not many people do that.
So, what had happened which made her project got lost. Well, my soft ball apparently hit the delete button when she was doing some file transfer thing to the server. This apparently made her lose most of files, which she thought was a network problem that made her lost those files.
(Thinking of which, I never told a lie. Hey, it was the ball who did it. Not me.... :) )
It was a regular day at work. Nothing out of ordinary. Peter and I were playing after lunch. Throwing soft ball to one another. That what we do when we need to get our minds working. Sometimes, we get so caught up giving exercise to our mind that we dont remember how long we were playing. The game normally lasts for 30 mins, unless we see "the boss" around.
That day, we played the longest... 1 hr 45 mins .... it was awesome! By the time, the office got closed, we were done with our work. While leaving the office, I saw Patricia running here and there looking upset. When she saw me standing on the way, she looked at me puzzled. For a moment, I just kept looking into her eyes and got lost in my thoughts; which btw got disrupted by her sweet voice.
"JD, did you happen to know anything about my project."
"aaaa.... project... yes, ofcourse, your project. I know a little."
"It seems i have lost my only soft copy of the files, and I need to work on it. Can you help me out with it ?"
For a minute I just looked at her trying to figure out what was going on.
"yes, Patricia. I will help."
"Thanks" - she said with a smile. I always lover her smile.
So it was me and Patricia, only two people left in the office. We worked out through her whole project. Right from projection of guidelines to suppliers things and estimating the construction details.
By the time we got it done, it was 3 AM. The longest I worked in office was till 10 PM, but this sure broke my record. However, it was worth it since I enjoyed Patricia's company.
Though I must say, I enjoyed working with her most of night. I wasn't that happy. While, we were heading towards parking lot, I told Patricia what might have happened. She did seem upset after hearing it, but unlike other girls who would beat the hell out of me. She just calmly said goodnight to me.
I have seen girls in my life which are way to dangerous when it comes to confession by guy. 1st of all she would throw on you anything she has... purse, cellphone, shopping bags. Then if its more athletic type of girl, she would reach out for her sandal to beat you up. And ofcourse, 1 famous line which goes around was, "I hate you. How can you do this to me." She would say as many times she can and ofcourse crying too. Crying is something they are always good at. And, if she happened to drive, then don't expect a return journey. My advice, call the cab. But, if you were driving, she would expect you to still drop her at her place. (again, it depends on situations.) What Patricia, did that night, was something I never expected. Her calmness was killing me.
When I reached home, I felt stupid as to what I said to her. I mean, I could have just pretended that it never happened and she would have believed it. (When it comes to making a speech, I noticed I am lacking that fine quality. Somehow, I always tell the truth.) The next day at office went usual. I happen to see Patricia quite often (in lobby, near cooler, near vending machine) for every smile that I do while greeting her, she would calmly look at me and say nothing.
I could not resist what was going on. I felt as if I am the only person in this world, who has told a lie. I went to Peter's desk.
"Hey Pete."
"Hi JD, whats up?"
"Have you ever told a lie?"
"Ofcourse not. I never told a lie." - said Peter with a confidence. "Like for example your ipod. You were looking all over your apartment last week and you asked if it was there with me. I said no... remember?"
"yes. I remember, pete."
"see there you go. I found it in my car. Below the back seat 2 days ago."
"2 days ago!!" - I said with an angry voice.
"yeah man." - he said calmly.
"Why didn't you tell me."
"surprise!!! I was planing to give you a surprise, man. Imagine you sitting in my car and you happen to find it lying right under your feet. See how happy you would have looked."
"Yeah right, today, you are going to pay for this." - I said angrily.
What Peter said, didn't help me quite much. My next approach was Allan standing next to cooler.
"Hi Allan. I had a question for you. Did you ever lied."
Allan jumped up about a feet knocking the cooler. Good thing, the cooler is much heavier than Allan.
"wha..t wh..ere di..d yo..u heared th...is. Did Alice ... told you that she know it was me who knocked off her time piece off her des..k ..?" - looking around he said shivering.
I didn't answer that and walked off. When it comes for guidance in management, I always looked up to the boss. So I decided to ask him about it.
"Hi Boss, May I come in. I wanted to know something."
"Sure JD. What you have in mind."
"Boss, did you ever happen to tell a lie?"
"JD, please close the office door for me." - he said calmly.
As soon as I closed the door. "Ofcourse, I have.... whatd ya think." - he said with a shout and he seemed to be happy about it.
"Listen, come here JD." speaking close to my hear and still in his top voice he said.
"Look at all those sharks out there. the Board. What do you think about those. If I tell them the truth always, phhat... they will tear me apart and throw me out of building. Its all management my dear. You do whatever it takes." - he said that proudly and happily. "Look at me, I am a management saint. I dont lie in management world. It is called "handling."
"you get my boy."
"Yes Boss. I got it." - I said while trying to get out of his office in a hurry. For he looked like a devil wearing a red night dress and having sharp horns around.
Patricia's great storm silence act lasted for around a week. She will try avoid speaking to me. If she needed anything Tina will ask to me. I tried to pretend that it was no big deal, but somehow I was feeling bad. (bad that I ever told her the truth). After a week or so, while I was busy doing my work, she stood behind me.
"Hi JD."
"Hi Patricia. How are you?" - I tried to greet her as calmly as she did to me. (which I suck)
"Listen JD. About what you told me at the parking lot. I wanted you to know, that I felt bad at first. But then I realized that you were honest to me. About the whole thing and besides you all stayed around to help me out. So I guess, its okay." - she said the last line with a smile.
"So you are not mad at me anymore?"
"no. I am happy that you told the truth." - she said with a big smile. "But, don't ever, ever do this again."
I could see the gleam in her eyes as she said it with a mischief.
"Ofcourse, it wont happen again." - I said with a smile.
"So how about we go for dinner tonight. Allow me to wash off my sinful deeds."
"ha ha ha, okay. tonight's dinner sounds good." - she said laughingly.
So that's how our first date happened. I realized that telling lie is not a good thing. But telling the truth after a lie is the bravest thing anybody can do. When we do that, we are changing our ground and in eyes of other people, it might not look that good. So, the solution is, not to tell lie in 1st place itself. If we are honest right from beginning, sure people will be angry on us, but atleast they know that they can trust us. When, we tell a lie, we are breaking the trust part.
What Patricia did to me was to trust me, even after I told her lie in 1st place followed by truth. Not many people do that.
So, what had happened which made her project got lost. Well, my soft ball apparently hit the delete button when she was doing some file transfer thing to the server. This apparently made her lose most of files, which she thought was a network problem that made her lost those files.
(Thinking of which, I never told a lie. Hey, it was the ball who did it. Not me.... :) )
Friday, July 24, 2009
life changing experience
There are times when things that happen in life, changes us completely. We call them as life changing experiences. It can be a huge thing, like an accident or emotional shock. As far as I believe, any experience in the life is called a life changing experience. It may not be so big that it shakes you off completely, but none the less it is an experience.
I decided to take a day off from my work. No special occassion though, just that boss was out of town :). So since it was a holiday for me, I decided to sleep till I wanted to and relax a bit. By the time I woke up, it was 10 AM. When I got down for breakfast, I realized that I was out of eggs. So that afternoon, I made a plan to do some shopping. It would be a while now, since the last time I actually went out for shopping. The last time I remembered, I was shopping out around 11 of night, buying groceries and stuff which my maid happened to give me. I can still remember that morning when she gave me a long list of things to buy saying, "you get all these or else I wont be able to do anything in this house". (She was right though. I was out of food, cerals, laundry liquiod, milk, eggs etc)
As a bachloer, this is one thing which you would always hate..... shopping for groceries. Had it been shopping for electronics or casual wears, I would be hurrying down the road to get my hands on. So here, I was standing in front of a super store, with the list of things I need to buy.
The super store I usually go is huge. Much like a walmart. They have everything. You name it, they have it. This is one thing I always hate. With so many choices to go for, I end up spending more time buying the product. My 1st experience in super store went for 3 hrs. Yes, thats right... 3 hrs of shopping for just 7 items. You can see me going through each and every product trying to figure out whats best. Starting from its contents to narrowing down to price.
This experience has left me with how to deal it in future. Now, all I take is 1 hr to buy 20+ items. Hence, I save on time so it gets classified as life changing experience... :) Ofcourse, when asked about my life changing experience, this would not be the one I will remember. Normally, life changinge experiences will leave a deep mark in your memory.
I can still remember the rainy day 2 years ago. I was driving down to home in city after spending time with my family in nearby town. (My parents decided never to leave the town in which they spent 30 years of their lives and so they prefered to live it that way. So I made a point to visit them when I can. Ofcourse, this visit of mine was after 7 months.) It was a cloudy day when I left and just as I left the interstate, it stated raining heavily. I was barely able to see what was ahead of me. I was now in my city, but rain made it impossible to locate the directions. Good thing for me, I had this gps installed who was guiding me on the way. It was afternoon time, but it was pitch dark with rain poring all over, giving you impression that you are in middle of late evening of winter. I stopped at a regular intersection waiting for my signal. As the light turned green, I drove my car, when suddenly out of nowhere a speeding car from opposite lane, lost the control and came in front of me for a head on collision. The last thing I remember arethe cars flash lights blinding my eyes as they head towards me. After which all went blank.
There is this nice mechanism of ones brain to shut himself down when such accidents happen. (Though I am not sure why it is that way, especially when you needed your brain to work faster in an attempt to get out of this situation.) The last thing I remember, was a bunch of guys pulling me out of my car and a voice of lady calling 911 for assistance.
The time when I regain consicousness, I found myself in bed of hospital with bandages all around. I was told by doctors that I was knocked out for 2 days and had suffered a few fractures on my legs apart from brusis on the body. So in short, it was 3 months of recovery time for me.
The time I spent in hospital was life changing experience for me. My friends visited me every weekend spending the whole day with me, my family was everyday by my side and from what I knew, Patricia was most concerned member apart from my family. My boss also paid visits every month, making sure how I was recovering. I didnt knew he had different plans in his mind when one day he came up to me and said
"Here you go JD. Your office laptop and a few notes. All this just for you ".
I look at him as if I was missing something out there and hoping it would be a bunch of flowers or fruits or choclates rather than my work laptop.
"The doctor said, you are absolutely fine. The only recovery left out to do are your legs fracture. Other than that, you can work. Your brain in intact and everything inside it." - I can see that gleen look in his eyes. He was not evil, it was just his way of missing me in the office.
"Thanks boss. How thoughtful."
So a month and half later, I was working again.
In these 3 months, there were a few instances when I realized how much people love me. They cared for me beyond my immagination. These are somethings which I would have never thought or imagined if accident would not have happened.
I also happened to learn gitar while in hospital. (Something which I always wanted to learn since a long time but could not find time to do so.)
Apart from this, my hard worked project did not finish on time due to my accident and so I ended up working on another project. This hurted me the most, since all my 7 months of hard work went down the drain. It was the time when I cursed god for not been good with me. What boss gave me was a new assignment to work on. A whole new project...
A year later, my new project fetched company huge profits and I was the star of the show. This made me realize as to how things work for us. If that accident would not have happened, I would still be working on the project which might not have earned anything close to this new project of mine. I did felt bad when I got this new project because it was something I never would have thought could happen.
.... While walking down from the store to my apartment, I happen to see a boy in a toy shop, playing with lego blocks. What he was trying to build was a tall tower, but it wasnt straight. Just as he was about to place the final block on the top, the tower collapsed. To my suprise, he did not cry, but started collecting the scattered blocks and started building up his tower, which was half its original size now.
.... life is just like the tower of building blocks... you keep building it by placing one block on another, not realizing that it is not straight and finally, one fine day, it all collapses. Thats what we call it as a life changing experience. something, which shook us completely from the ground and gave us a fresh point to start.
by the time i realized what i had just figured out, the boy was standing next to his new built tower clapping with joy.
The accident which I thought was bad for me, turned out to be a blessing...
... i got to see caring of my friends
... i got close to my family once again
... i got promotion following huge success on the project
and .... I happen to learn music.
I decided to take a day off from my work. No special occassion though, just that boss was out of town :). So since it was a holiday for me, I decided to sleep till I wanted to and relax a bit. By the time I woke up, it was 10 AM. When I got down for breakfast, I realized that I was out of eggs. So that afternoon, I made a plan to do some shopping. It would be a while now, since the last time I actually went out for shopping. The last time I remembered, I was shopping out around 11 of night, buying groceries and stuff which my maid happened to give me. I can still remember that morning when she gave me a long list of things to buy saying, "you get all these or else I wont be able to do anything in this house". (She was right though. I was out of food, cerals, laundry liquiod, milk, eggs etc)
As a bachloer, this is one thing which you would always hate..... shopping for groceries. Had it been shopping for electronics or casual wears, I would be hurrying down the road to get my hands on. So here, I was standing in front of a super store, with the list of things I need to buy.
The super store I usually go is huge. Much like a walmart. They have everything. You name it, they have it. This is one thing I always hate. With so many choices to go for, I end up spending more time buying the product. My 1st experience in super store went for 3 hrs. Yes, thats right... 3 hrs of shopping for just 7 items. You can see me going through each and every product trying to figure out whats best. Starting from its contents to narrowing down to price.
This experience has left me with how to deal it in future. Now, all I take is 1 hr to buy 20+ items. Hence, I save on time so it gets classified as life changing experience... :) Ofcourse, when asked about my life changing experience, this would not be the one I will remember. Normally, life changinge experiences will leave a deep mark in your memory.
I can still remember the rainy day 2 years ago. I was driving down to home in city after spending time with my family in nearby town. (My parents decided never to leave the town in which they spent 30 years of their lives and so they prefered to live it that way. So I made a point to visit them when I can. Ofcourse, this visit of mine was after 7 months.) It was a cloudy day when I left and just as I left the interstate, it stated raining heavily. I was barely able to see what was ahead of me. I was now in my city, but rain made it impossible to locate the directions. Good thing for me, I had this gps installed who was guiding me on the way. It was afternoon time, but it was pitch dark with rain poring all over, giving you impression that you are in middle of late evening of winter. I stopped at a regular intersection waiting for my signal. As the light turned green, I drove my car, when suddenly out of nowhere a speeding car from opposite lane, lost the control and came in front of me for a head on collision. The last thing I remember arethe cars flash lights blinding my eyes as they head towards me. After which all went blank.
There is this nice mechanism of ones brain to shut himself down when such accidents happen. (Though I am not sure why it is that way, especially when you needed your brain to work faster in an attempt to get out of this situation.) The last thing I remember, was a bunch of guys pulling me out of my car and a voice of lady calling 911 for assistance.
The time when I regain consicousness, I found myself in bed of hospital with bandages all around. I was told by doctors that I was knocked out for 2 days and had suffered a few fractures on my legs apart from brusis on the body. So in short, it was 3 months of recovery time for me.
The time I spent in hospital was life changing experience for me. My friends visited me every weekend spending the whole day with me, my family was everyday by my side and from what I knew, Patricia was most concerned member apart from my family. My boss also paid visits every month, making sure how I was recovering. I didnt knew he had different plans in his mind when one day he came up to me and said
"Here you go JD. Your office laptop and a few notes. All this just for you ".
I look at him as if I was missing something out there and hoping it would be a bunch of flowers or fruits or choclates rather than my work laptop.
"The doctor said, you are absolutely fine. The only recovery left out to do are your legs fracture. Other than that, you can work. Your brain in intact and everything inside it." - I can see that gleen look in his eyes. He was not evil, it was just his way of missing me in the office.
"Thanks boss. How thoughtful."
So a month and half later, I was working again.
In these 3 months, there were a few instances when I realized how much people love me. They cared for me beyond my immagination. These are somethings which I would have never thought or imagined if accident would not have happened.
I also happened to learn gitar while in hospital. (Something which I always wanted to learn since a long time but could not find time to do so.)
Apart from this, my hard worked project did not finish on time due to my accident and so I ended up working on another project. This hurted me the most, since all my 7 months of hard work went down the drain. It was the time when I cursed god for not been good with me. What boss gave me was a new assignment to work on. A whole new project...
A year later, my new project fetched company huge profits and I was the star of the show. This made me realize as to how things work for us. If that accident would not have happened, I would still be working on the project which might not have earned anything close to this new project of mine. I did felt bad when I got this new project because it was something I never would have thought could happen.
.... While walking down from the store to my apartment, I happen to see a boy in a toy shop, playing with lego blocks. What he was trying to build was a tall tower, but it wasnt straight. Just as he was about to place the final block on the top, the tower collapsed. To my suprise, he did not cry, but started collecting the scattered blocks and started building up his tower, which was half its original size now.
.... life is just like the tower of building blocks... you keep building it by placing one block on another, not realizing that it is not straight and finally, one fine day, it all collapses. Thats what we call it as a life changing experience. something, which shook us completely from the ground and gave us a fresh point to start.
by the time i realized what i had just figured out, the boy was standing next to his new built tower clapping with joy.
The accident which I thought was bad for me, turned out to be a blessing...
... i got to see caring of my friends
... i got close to my family once again
... i got promotion following huge success on the project
and .... I happen to learn music.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
what time is it?
Have you ever thought that there are times when in a day, you encounter similar question again and again.
For me, it was "what time is it?".
It was a regular day at work. Nothing unusual. I parked my car in the parking lot and was waiting with a couple of other guys near the elevator. When suddenly, my co-worker Alan came near me.
"Hi JD. What time is it?" - Alan (breathing heavily).
This question can be answered in various ways. If this question was asked to Alice, she would have said, "Its a bad time." As she eyebrows her lashes from her makeup box kept on her work desk. She is known in office as the makeup girl. She looks cute and has a good looking body but I don't remember ever seeing her face without any makeup. If you would have asked Tammy the same question, she would have said, "Its 11:00 AM." She works as a secretary to my boss. Hence, if you ever want to know the real time, ask Tammy.
Coming back to me, I am not sure how to answer this question. Lets see, today I had a good breakfast. My bread was not burnt and my eggs turn out to be just the way I wanted. Until now, my time was good. On the road... my car didn't start. I had to spend 15 mins trying to warm the engine up. Due to which I got stuck in traffic on the interstate and came to office 10 mins late. Now, thats a bad time for me right now.
Time... is a mystery by itself. I read about this guy, Albert Einstein, who spend part of his life trying to prove time using science. I have heard about it that he even proved on paper, that one day we all would be living two lives in the same time. It means that while I am working my ass off in the office, I could also be playing golf or be on date my Patricia..... of course, its all still on papers. He also proved that most part of time is an illusion.
By the time I was done with my thoughts, the elevator was closing in to our floor. My eyes were fixed on the dial indicating the climb of elevator to our floor. There are times during which I wished, the elevator door to open and I find a hot looking chick in a fabulous dress all alone in the elevator. Looking at me as if she was just there waiting in the elevator for me.
Ding... comes the sound of the elevator door opening. Snapping me out of my memories; the elevator door opens slowly. My eyes, were glittering as if I am still under impression that the girl would be in there. Sadly, the door opened and all i could see is a bunch of guys wearing suits and a briefcase just like me. (As that science guy said, "Time is an illusion.")
I need not answer the question which Alan asked. For he is always "the hurry guy". He is late (or on time) for most of the things. Once, I heard that he was late for voting during elections. He was late for our office dinner party. Heeee was on timee for office movie night out. (Although, I am not so sure, since I was busy watching ..... Patricia)
While walking down the office corridor, same conversation kept hitting my ears.
"what time is it?" - Alan asked Tammy as soon as he sees her. He knows she is going to give "the clock answer".
"9:30 AM" - says Tammy, while going through her bunch of papers.
"9:30 AM. Oh boy, I am late." - I said to myself.
"Tammy, Do you know what time is it? It is the time of my life. We are going to get the project approved soon." - says Boss. I always call him the boss. His is MD. No, not Manging Director.. but MD as Michael Dwasson.
"What time is it? .... humm... ah ha .... I will be there to pick up the fishing gear." - that was the voice of Peter. He is happy today, since after a long time, he is going out with his family to a vacation. His cabin is next to the boss. He takes care of our finance. In other words, he gives us the money. So you should be in good terms with him, if you want to see your money in bank account on time. "Sure, I will be there on time."
"Oh no, This could not have been happening to me." - thats Tina. A young girl recently joining the company. "My car got totaled this morning and the insurance company says, they will examine the situation before my insurance gets claimed. What am I going to do all this time without my car. " - she said to Patricia, who was sitting next to her trying to console her.
"Hi James" - I said. James has been my best friend in the office. Our friendship goes all the way when we joined this company as interns. Back then, he was just a regular kid, like me. Slowly, we started sharing some good times, kicking enemies butt in games (not in office though). Our friendship grew with time. I was also his best man at the wedding.
"Yo, JD. Do you know what time is it?"
"yup, tell me about it." - I said, placing my briefcase in my cubicle and flipping the sand clock. The sand clock is a gift given to me by a friend of mine named Roger. He is more into science and stuff, so he gave me this clock which is set to work for exact 5 hours. I did not use this clock for a while, but when my family doc told me that I was working too much, I decided to use this clock to see exactly how long I have been working. "Has it helped?" ... well, only time will tell.
"Dude, we have a presentation at 11 and I am still on the reports. When are we going to make the slides."
"the slides .... huh."
As a management guy, I always knew how the slides should be made. If you make slides with too much of contents in it. Everybody will sleep...... seriously, everybody sleeps. If you make slides, with less contents, everybody will keep asking you questions. If your slide has a graph going downwards, thats the most deadliest slide you have and may god be with you. For those management sharks out there, will tear you into pieces. A piece of advice when you have such a graph, decrease the scale. (if you know what I mean ;) )
"relax, it will all be done on time." - for I knew just how to get the right blend.
Soon, it was the time to get the meeting started. James and I were ready with our great looking profit slides.
"So you guys know what time is it?" - says the boss. "Things are not going good for us. But we have manage to be steady on course." And before he starts his discussion on the economy, we began our presentation.
As the day passed, I kept thinking about this "time". Time is measured in a moment. It can be a second, minute, hour, .. a day... or maybe a month, year.... It does not matter which scale the moment is. What matters is, how good it is. People experience the moment differently during the same. The moment which makes me happy, could be the same moment that is making you sad.
It was the end of the day for me. I finished my work and got off to go to the cooler for a glass of water. While, walking down back from the cooler I heard a few things.
"What is this Tammy? Do you know what time is it? I need to get these copies made right now and attach it to the project file. We need to get it done, right now!" - that was the voice of boss, getting upset over the project been stalled since few documents got left out.
"Mr. Thomas, Please try to understand. I know what time is it. I know its late. But I really need to get my finishing gear today since I am leaving tomorrow early morning. I know its the store closing time...." - Peter said getting agitated.
"Hi Patricia, guess what. The insurance guy called and my insurance got approved. He was right on time." - said Tina, excited as she went across her cubicle to Patricia.
One thing I noticed is that as time passes, moments change. With passing of time, I can get a more happy moment or I can start becoming sad. No matter, what it is, lasts only a moment.
I sat on my chair looking at the last grains of sand falling through the clock and thinking about the moment at which I was.
Allan was getting all packed up to leave... seeing me sitting in my cubicle, he said
"hey, what time is it?" (...and I was back to where it all started.)
For me, it was "what time is it?".
It was a regular day at work. Nothing unusual. I parked my car in the parking lot and was waiting with a couple of other guys near the elevator. When suddenly, my co-worker Alan came near me.
"Hi JD. What time is it?" - Alan (breathing heavily).
This question can be answered in various ways. If this question was asked to Alice, she would have said, "Its a bad time." As she eyebrows her lashes from her makeup box kept on her work desk. She is known in office as the makeup girl. She looks cute and has a good looking body but I don't remember ever seeing her face without any makeup. If you would have asked Tammy the same question, she would have said, "Its 11:00 AM." She works as a secretary to my boss. Hence, if you ever want to know the real time, ask Tammy.
Coming back to me, I am not sure how to answer this question. Lets see, today I had a good breakfast. My bread was not burnt and my eggs turn out to be just the way I wanted. Until now, my time was good. On the road... my car didn't start. I had to spend 15 mins trying to warm the engine up. Due to which I got stuck in traffic on the interstate and came to office 10 mins late. Now, thats a bad time for me right now.
Time... is a mystery by itself. I read about this guy, Albert Einstein, who spend part of his life trying to prove time using science. I have heard about it that he even proved on paper, that one day we all would be living two lives in the same time. It means that while I am working my ass off in the office, I could also be playing golf or be on date my Patricia..... of course, its all still on papers. He also proved that most part of time is an illusion.
By the time I was done with my thoughts, the elevator was closing in to our floor. My eyes were fixed on the dial indicating the climb of elevator to our floor. There are times during which I wished, the elevator door to open and I find a hot looking chick in a fabulous dress all alone in the elevator. Looking at me as if she was just there waiting in the elevator for me.
Ding... comes the sound of the elevator door opening. Snapping me out of my memories; the elevator door opens slowly. My eyes, were glittering as if I am still under impression that the girl would be in there. Sadly, the door opened and all i could see is a bunch of guys wearing suits and a briefcase just like me. (As that science guy said, "Time is an illusion.")
I need not answer the question which Alan asked. For he is always "the hurry guy". He is late (or on time) for most of the things. Once, I heard that he was late for voting during elections. He was late for our office dinner party. Heeee was on timee for office movie night out. (Although, I am not so sure, since I was busy watching ..... Patricia)
While walking down the office corridor, same conversation kept hitting my ears.
"what time is it?" - Alan asked Tammy as soon as he sees her. He knows she is going to give "the clock answer".
"9:30 AM" - says Tammy, while going through her bunch of papers.
"9:30 AM. Oh boy, I am late." - I said to myself.
"Tammy, Do you know what time is it? It is the time of my life. We are going to get the project approved soon." - says Boss. I always call him the boss. His is MD. No, not Manging Director.. but MD as Michael Dwasson.
"What time is it? .... humm... ah ha .... I will be there to pick up the fishing gear." - that was the voice of Peter. He is happy today, since after a long time, he is going out with his family to a vacation. His cabin is next to the boss. He takes care of our finance. In other words, he gives us the money. So you should be in good terms with him, if you want to see your money in bank account on time. "Sure, I will be there on time."
"Oh no, This could not have been happening to me." - thats Tina. A young girl recently joining the company. "My car got totaled this morning and the insurance company says, they will examine the situation before my insurance gets claimed. What am I going to do all this time without my car. " - she said to Patricia, who was sitting next to her trying to console her.
"Hi James" - I said. James has been my best friend in the office. Our friendship goes all the way when we joined this company as interns. Back then, he was just a regular kid, like me. Slowly, we started sharing some good times, kicking enemies butt in games (not in office though). Our friendship grew with time. I was also his best man at the wedding.
"Yo, JD. Do you know what time is it?"
"yup, tell me about it." - I said, placing my briefcase in my cubicle and flipping the sand clock. The sand clock is a gift given to me by a friend of mine named Roger. He is more into science and stuff, so he gave me this clock which is set to work for exact 5 hours. I did not use this clock for a while, but when my family doc told me that I was working too much, I decided to use this clock to see exactly how long I have been working. "Has it helped?" ... well, only time will tell.
"Dude, we have a presentation at 11 and I am still on the reports. When are we going to make the slides."
"the slides .... huh."
As a management guy, I always knew how the slides should be made. If you make slides with too much of contents in it. Everybody will sleep...... seriously, everybody sleeps. If you make slides, with less contents, everybody will keep asking you questions. If your slide has a graph going downwards, thats the most deadliest slide you have and may god be with you. For those management sharks out there, will tear you into pieces. A piece of advice when you have such a graph, decrease the scale. (if you know what I mean ;) )
"relax, it will all be done on time." - for I knew just how to get the right blend.
Soon, it was the time to get the meeting started. James and I were ready with our great looking profit slides.
"So you guys know what time is it?" - says the boss. "Things are not going good for us. But we have manage to be steady on course." And before he starts his discussion on the economy, we began our presentation.
As the day passed, I kept thinking about this "time". Time is measured in a moment. It can be a second, minute, hour, .. a day... or maybe a month, year.... It does not matter which scale the moment is. What matters is, how good it is. People experience the moment differently during the same. The moment which makes me happy, could be the same moment that is making you sad.
It was the end of the day for me. I finished my work and got off to go to the cooler for a glass of water. While, walking down back from the cooler I heard a few things.
"What is this Tammy? Do you know what time is it? I need to get these copies made right now and attach it to the project file. We need to get it done, right now!" - that was the voice of boss, getting upset over the project been stalled since few documents got left out.
"Mr. Thomas, Please try to understand. I know what time is it. I know its late. But I really need to get my finishing gear today since I am leaving tomorrow early morning. I know its the store closing time...." - Peter said getting agitated.
"Hi Patricia, guess what. The insurance guy called and my insurance got approved. He was right on time." - said Tina, excited as she went across her cubicle to Patricia.
One thing I noticed is that as time passes, moments change. With passing of time, I can get a more happy moment or I can start becoming sad. No matter, what it is, lasts only a moment.
I sat on my chair looking at the last grains of sand falling through the clock and thinking about the moment at which I was.
Allan was getting all packed up to leave... seeing me sitting in my cubicle, he said
"hey, what time is it?" (...and I was back to where it all started.)
Monday, July 20, 2009
Afternoon
It was one fine morning today. I woke up as usual, late. Now, 9 AM is not late for me. Especially if one was awake till 1 of previous night. So, my morning, was no different than the others.
It was afternoon time, which made me think. I was looking at my past pictures, a few happy memories and I noticed one strange thing. Most of the pictures were taken either late morning or in evenings or night. But a very few of those were taken during afternoon.
As bizzare it was, I sat down to think as to why afternoons were left out of my life precious moments. Now, afternoon is the brightest time of the day. It is time during which, I would be sitting on my desk and working, or it would be the time when I will be asleep trying to take a short nap.
So, it seems that few pics of my life are in afternoon makes sense. Since, I was not enjoying, but rather working or laying asleep. Nights, would be the time when we also sleep. However, it would also be the time when friends meet up. After a days long work, it was refreshing to see everybody meeting each other and sharing how the day went. So, nights were more like get-to-gathers for me.
As far as morning is concern, ..... :) I wake up at 9 AM. The part which most people believe I have missed out the morning calmness and freshness in the air. To me, its not a strange feeling. There were times when I have woke up very early morning, so early that even the sun was not up. I have seen quite a few sunrises, but never got chance to capture it in my camera. It is no doubt the best part of the day.
But the thing which worries me is the afternoon part of the day. All my life I have spend most of afternoons doing work. Now, is the time, when I should be sitting under a tree on a lush green meadow and reading a book while the sun is still up in the sky. The period of time, which I would love to say, ........ afternoon.
It was afternoon time, which made me think. I was looking at my past pictures, a few happy memories and I noticed one strange thing. Most of the pictures were taken either late morning or in evenings or night. But a very few of those were taken during afternoon.
As bizzare it was, I sat down to think as to why afternoons were left out of my life precious moments. Now, afternoon is the brightest time of the day. It is time during which, I would be sitting on my desk and working, or it would be the time when I will be asleep trying to take a short nap.
So, it seems that few pics of my life are in afternoon makes sense. Since, I was not enjoying, but rather working or laying asleep. Nights, would be the time when we also sleep. However, it would also be the time when friends meet up. After a days long work, it was refreshing to see everybody meeting each other and sharing how the day went. So, nights were more like get-to-gathers for me.
As far as morning is concern, ..... :) I wake up at 9 AM. The part which most people believe I have missed out the morning calmness and freshness in the air. To me, its not a strange feeling. There were times when I have woke up very early morning, so early that even the sun was not up. I have seen quite a few sunrises, but never got chance to capture it in my camera. It is no doubt the best part of the day.
But the thing which worries me is the afternoon part of the day. All my life I have spend most of afternoons doing work. Now, is the time, when I should be sitting under a tree on a lush green meadow and reading a book while the sun is still up in the sky. The period of time, which I would love to say, ........ afternoon.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
One Click Setups
(To be read with voice of J.D from Scrubs)
Have you ever wondered, that instant setups to anything takes more time than usual.
I woke up today (in evening from my afternoon nap). While having a sip of water and looking outside the balcony of mine. I decided to write something. Something....? yes !! Something... about everything infact.
So I stood up to reach for my friends laptop ( I also have mine, but I do not use it often. Thats a different story altogether). So here I was, sitting in a chair, with the laptop on my lap and trying to write something.
I decided to go for most popular blogging tool. Now, I am a techno person. I can say that I am a person who has dedicated his life spending on computers. But that might give you all an impression of a geek. So, I prefer to say it as a techno person to introduce myself. Now, I knew that long time ago, when blogger wasn't so famous, I had setup an account with it. But I just could not remember any other details. Sure, blogger tries to help me out, by asking if I have forgot my password or my username. But how can I tell blogger that I have forgotten both.
So, here I was starring on the forgotten page of blogger trying to figure out from where to start. It didnt took me long to decide to login using my gmail account. Hopefully, it might remember about my blogger account and who knows, maybe a few old posts of mine. As excited as I was during login into the account. I was sad to see blogger asking me to setup the details.
Well, this looks more like life to me. Sometime, we do all the work and then after a passage of time, it gets wiped out. Like the sand on the beach. The waves hitting the shores washing away everything like footprints to that was once written or built using the sand. It gives you a fresh start !
Seeing the setup page reminded me about doing a fresh start. I started entering the details one by one. The easy ones were filled by blogger himself and the difficult ones were left out for me. Like for e.g. my name and my email id were filled by blogger, but he was there, waiting for me to enter my display name. Now, you might have noticed it that sometimes why you always gets the difficult things to do.
Like at the workplace. Your project manager gives one project to you and another one to your coworker. After a week or two, you observe that your coworkers project is easy compared to yours. Hence, he is able to do it faster and has more time to talk to his girlfriend while you get left out working on nights and trying to explain your girlfriend to be supportive when you do not showup on movie nights or for dinners. So... coming back to that form filling thing.
Display Name ..? First, I thought this might be the one, people will see it in URL. So I placed my thinking cap in order to come up with some nice catchy name. After 10 mins and numerous times trying to get a name. I just wrote, "something about everything". Yes, that was right. What I was going to write is something about everything. My joy was on top of effeil tower till I clicked the continue button.
URL ...? Oh boy, this was the second most confusing thing to do. Now I realized that display name wasnt the URL... it was the URL the actual URL. So, now again I tried the same text as display name. But it was already taken. Now, thats something I have seen it before quite often. The whole world of internet is so massive with billion of people on it that something somewhere is always taken. I remember, the time when gmail was first launched and it was invites only. Back then, I had just passed high school and was planing to go to college. It would be cool to have an account on some site which is only through invites. However, it took me 6 months to get an invite. I had to please god knows how many people about giving me an invite.
This is not just one thing... there are many more... as if getting invite was difficult, so is to get an email account with your name on it. I know, i could not get mine, because somebody somewhere in the world had already got it. Wow, isnt that impressive. Some guy sitting half way around the world has same name as mine and he got it there before me. Now if he would have been in my city and if there was a queue for getting names registered on internet, I would definately beat him up in it. But thats real world. In virtual world, you never know who is that person. It could be a guy from your own city or country, or it could be a guy somewhere in africa.
I was curious to know who the person is who took away my only chance of getting my name as email account on gmail. So, i decided to ask him about himself. I sent him an email asking for his introduction, but I never heard from him back. Maybe he ignored me or maybe he is having this account for no reason.
I have seen people who have more than one email account. I just not mean by a home email account and a work one. But email accounts from yahoo, hotmail, gmail, aol and god knows how many. I once happen to met a guy, who had more than 10 email accounts !! and he was so proud having those.
It makes me wonder, I had 3 email accounts, 1 my regular email, 2 for other works besides regular emails and 3 was the account to be given when you visit any strange site. Having these 3 accounts were keeping me busy quite often. Checking emails in 1st and 2nd ones and on 3rd ones, keeping an eye on spam mails. Making sure I get rid of them often. Now, I had those 3 email accounts with 3 different sites... It makes sense, you dont want to get stuck if one fine day one of the site shuts down leaving you hopeless. (I am still afraid on what to do since my regular account is with a site who from the time of its launch is still in beta stage.)
To me, handling an email account is like having a girlfriend. You have to be on time and make sure you attend to her everytime. If you miss one chance, your email account gets flooded with lots of email and you are lost trying to answer everyone of it. You need to make sure priority emails are attended first, like girlfriends instant calls ... (hi dear, can you come home right away. I have brought something great to show you about.) Dont ever miss, such important ones. (not to mention dont be too excited ..... especially when you see your credit card statement after a few days ;) )
Snapping out of my memories, I found myself still sitting on my chair with laptop getting heated up looking at me as to why I am still on the same page. (Strangly, girlfriend too gets heated up if we take long time to answer something :) )
So this URL stuff... I tried to enter as many words I can remember from english dictionary but none seemed to work out for me. Till, I started using strange combinations. (If you ever want to be unique, use words strangely. This will ensure no other unique person as you has done it)
Now, it was time to click continue and finish this thing up. At least, after 1 full hour starting from my excitement about writing something, till I was told to write now on the blog; I supressed 3 page form filling hurdle.
Thats so much for just One Click setup.
Have you ever wondered, that instant setups to anything takes more time than usual.
I woke up today (in evening from my afternoon nap). While having a sip of water and looking outside the balcony of mine. I decided to write something. Something....? yes !! Something... about everything infact.
So I stood up to reach for my friends laptop ( I also have mine, but I do not use it often. Thats a different story altogether). So here I was, sitting in a chair, with the laptop on my lap and trying to write something.
I decided to go for most popular blogging tool. Now, I am a techno person. I can say that I am a person who has dedicated his life spending on computers. But that might give you all an impression of a geek. So, I prefer to say it as a techno person to introduce myself. Now, I knew that long time ago, when blogger wasn't so famous, I had setup an account with it. But I just could not remember any other details. Sure, blogger tries to help me out, by asking if I have forgot my password or my username. But how can I tell blogger that I have forgotten both.
So, here I was starring on the forgotten page of blogger trying to figure out from where to start. It didnt took me long to decide to login using my gmail account. Hopefully, it might remember about my blogger account and who knows, maybe a few old posts of mine. As excited as I was during login into the account. I was sad to see blogger asking me to setup the details.
Well, this looks more like life to me. Sometime, we do all the work and then after a passage of time, it gets wiped out. Like the sand on the beach. The waves hitting the shores washing away everything like footprints to that was once written or built using the sand. It gives you a fresh start !
Seeing the setup page reminded me about doing a fresh start. I started entering the details one by one. The easy ones were filled by blogger himself and the difficult ones were left out for me. Like for e.g. my name and my email id were filled by blogger, but he was there, waiting for me to enter my display name. Now, you might have noticed it that sometimes why you always gets the difficult things to do.
Like at the workplace. Your project manager gives one project to you and another one to your coworker. After a week or two, you observe that your coworkers project is easy compared to yours. Hence, he is able to do it faster and has more time to talk to his girlfriend while you get left out working on nights and trying to explain your girlfriend to be supportive when you do not showup on movie nights or for dinners. So... coming back to that form filling thing.
Display Name ..? First, I thought this might be the one, people will see it in URL. So I placed my thinking cap in order to come up with some nice catchy name. After 10 mins and numerous times trying to get a name. I just wrote, "something about everything". Yes, that was right. What I was going to write is something about everything. My joy was on top of effeil tower till I clicked the continue button.
URL ...? Oh boy, this was the second most confusing thing to do. Now I realized that display name wasnt the URL... it was the URL the actual URL. So, now again I tried the same text as display name. But it was already taken. Now, thats something I have seen it before quite often. The whole world of internet is so massive with billion of people on it that something somewhere is always taken. I remember, the time when gmail was first launched and it was invites only. Back then, I had just passed high school and was planing to go to college. It would be cool to have an account on some site which is only through invites. However, it took me 6 months to get an invite. I had to please god knows how many people about giving me an invite.
This is not just one thing... there are many more... as if getting invite was difficult, so is to get an email account with your name on it. I know, i could not get mine, because somebody somewhere in the world had already got it. Wow, isnt that impressive. Some guy sitting half way around the world has same name as mine and he got it there before me. Now if he would have been in my city and if there was a queue for getting names registered on internet, I would definately beat him up in it. But thats real world. In virtual world, you never know who is that person. It could be a guy from your own city or country, or it could be a guy somewhere in africa.
I was curious to know who the person is who took away my only chance of getting my name as email account on gmail. So, i decided to ask him about himself. I sent him an email asking for his introduction, but I never heard from him back. Maybe he ignored me or maybe he is having this account for no reason.
I have seen people who have more than one email account. I just not mean by a home email account and a work one. But email accounts from yahoo, hotmail, gmail, aol and god knows how many. I once happen to met a guy, who had more than 10 email accounts !! and he was so proud having those.
It makes me wonder, I had 3 email accounts, 1 my regular email, 2 for other works besides regular emails and 3 was the account to be given when you visit any strange site. Having these 3 accounts were keeping me busy quite often. Checking emails in 1st and 2nd ones and on 3rd ones, keeping an eye on spam mails. Making sure I get rid of them often. Now, I had those 3 email accounts with 3 different sites... It makes sense, you dont want to get stuck if one fine day one of the site shuts down leaving you hopeless. (I am still afraid on what to do since my regular account is with a site who from the time of its launch is still in beta stage.)
To me, handling an email account is like having a girlfriend. You have to be on time and make sure you attend to her everytime. If you miss one chance, your email account gets flooded with lots of email and you are lost trying to answer everyone of it. You need to make sure priority emails are attended first, like girlfriends instant calls ... (hi dear, can you come home right away. I have brought something great to show you about.) Dont ever miss, such important ones. (not to mention dont be too excited ..... especially when you see your credit card statement after a few days ;) )
Snapping out of my memories, I found myself still sitting on my chair with laptop getting heated up looking at me as to why I am still on the same page. (Strangly, girlfriend too gets heated up if we take long time to answer something :) )
So this URL stuff... I tried to enter as many words I can remember from english dictionary but none seemed to work out for me. Till, I started using strange combinations. (If you ever want to be unique, use words strangely. This will ensure no other unique person as you has done it)
Now, it was time to click continue and finish this thing up. At least, after 1 full hour starting from my excitement about writing something, till I was told to write now on the blog; I supressed 3 page form filling hurdle.
Thats so much for just One Click setup.
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