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.
Showing posts with label jd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jd. Show all posts
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
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