Office Space

Recently watched an old movie – Office Space ( Justified to say “Old” for 1999 I guess !)

And boy ! Was pleasantly amazed. Had I watched it 10 years back , I would not have enjoyed the movie so much as I did now.

The IT folks can so easily relate to this movie – the daily office nuisances , bugging boss ( if u r unlucky !) , Monday blues , Functional Specs , Review comments , Coffee breaks , Short-term crushes ,Birthday celebrations , Weekend-working , Late hours, Peer gossips , One-to-one meetings , Deadlines, Traumatic Xerox machines , Performance reviews , Newer policies , Paycheck issues and so on and on !

The character that I found to be the most remarkable is that of the boss of INITECH – Bill Lumbergh ( Gary Cole) with his impeccable skill to find the slightest and sleekest loopholes and a very unique style of racking – “Yeeeaaah , if you can just go ahead and do it , that would be greaaaat !”. You can see this guy walking from pillar to post in the office with a cup full of never-ending coffee and harassing the employees . His proverbial "So what's happening ?" is the most dreaded line which often initiates a fresh line of work or some sort of trouble for the employees. Watch the movie and you will know what I am talking about. Lumbergh gets 10 on 10 as the guile & irritating boss to make the plot a perfect slapstick.

And so is Peter (Ron Livingston), the Lumbergh-tortured , victimized employee who turns , after a Hypnotherapy session, into the devil-may-care slack-skinned dude ( or employee rather) and gets a promotion nevertheless whereas his hard-working friends Michael Bolton ( David Herman) and Samir ( Ajay Naidu) gets short-listed for the pink slips !

Not to forget a miserably tormented Milton(Stephen Root) - Habituated to moving his desk every now and then , heads his workstation to the Basement Storage house finally upon Lumbergh's prolonged windy pinches ! The overly troubled soul works in the office and gets his paychecks even 5 years after he was laid off just because no one ever told him that he was sacked !

A thoroughly enjoyable comedy – custom-made for a weekend watch and getting ready for the ensuing Monday Blues !

The Big and Small of it

Small is the Big sometimes ! And speaking in terms of the volumes of contribution , so it is - Most of the times.

Small things , small matters and small people go unnoticed without the sound of claps and deserved acclamation more often than not !

The Cab driver who wakes up and gets to work at an unearthly hour so that you can reach work on time.

The Postman who walks under the blistering sun-light to make sure the courier gets delivered to you at the comfort of Air-conditioned home.

The Security guard who tries to be awake at night to safeguard the property ( and sometimes his job as well ! )

The Kissan (Farmer) , slogging throughout the year , at the paddy field to feed the nation.

The Workers plugging away at different Mills, Industries to generate the daily amenities.

The Newspaper guy who makes sure you receive the latest news at your doorstep even though it’s raining cats and dogs outside.

The Traffic-police ( barring the bribe-takers – believe me , we still have few Honest ones !) who stands amidst the polluted ambience all day long to keep the chaos out of the road.

The Municipality Sweeper , cleaning the drainage , wastage and dirt Contributed by the masses every day.

The Labourer breaking the stones , under the sun and the rain , at the roadside to finish off the fly-over on time.

Add the Thelawala , the Rickshawpooler , the Kooli to this Elite section - Just some of the Unsung Junta of the Nation.

Simple and sober , powerless yet powerful , unspoken yet a necessity - they are a crucial part of the Nations’ backbone - not by Profession but by the effort and dedication they put in each and every minute - quite Unconvinced and Unaware of the admiration – they so badly deserve !

This simple post is just a way of saying - THANKS to all of them !

Bharat Bandh

The Bandh Culture is back again to the much euphoria of the masses !

We , Indians , have a unique way of protesting – calling for a Bandh – a total shut-down of the entire daily-working machinery !

And people , like me , are ecstatic , not that we care much about the cause of the Bandh but that we don’t have to go the office/college that day.
On a sarcastic note , lets sit back , relax at home , watch movies and be a total couch-potato !

And only God knows if it is a good sign for a country like ours !

Red and Green

Step on the road , pick any transportation and start - on the way you happen to meet something really frustrating and equally inevitable always – the traffic signals. Cover just 5 of them and quite comfortably notice something , very common and not quite palatable , at each of the signals - It’s the habit of majority of the people not to stop the engine – be it a bike , a car or a bus , at the Red light.

Most of the traffic signals are equipped with Timers nowadays - vividly displaying how long will the Red lights be put on . This gives ample scope to arrange shutting down the machine. But only a few care. We talk about Green Earth and we don’t pay heed to the Red !

This is not about the ever-rising Petrol or Diesel price hike . Rather about the Natural resources dwindling at an alarming rate ! We can not imagine how big positive impact and difference would be made by shutting the machine for even 30 seconds. We save energy , money as well less pollute the environment..

The planet deserves at the least this little attention from our side for sure !

Soccer and Shocker

Surprise , surprise and some more surprises !


World Cup 2010 has seen some substantial surprises – first with some Big teams - France , England and 2006 Champion Italy , being pushed to an exit already .

Came waving the bigger shock with the two most steadfast 2010 front runner Stallions ,my personal favourite teams , Brazil and Argentina being out of the Quarter-finals. Really sad – more so due to a tremendously expected Brazil-Argentina clash in the finals !

Both the teams played undoubtedly fabulous football in the tournament so far .Though personally , I feel due to some bizarre reasons, Brazil was not as vivacious attacking ,against Holland ,as they normally are and Argentina defence looked seemingly penetrating against Germany.

Holland and especially Germany attack has been breathtakingly delightful to watch while they thrashed out the Titans from the Most Wonderful Game on the planet.

Probably this what we call the Luck factor which is needed equally to grab the moment and shine.

No doubt on the expertise of the veterans coaches – Dunga and Maradona , though.
On the same note – all the players Robinho , Kaka, Fabiano , Messi , Tevez , Higuaín , notwithstanding the loss , would be held high for the dribbling skills. You have been fab !

Good luck guys - may be next time !

The Good of Small Things

Honesty is the best policy - uttered numerous times in school . Implemented ? Never !

Although neither it is an air-headed speculation nor just a fancy-idea even in this jet-age !

I have got a pretty explanation for the same.

Here’s how –

Had given some stuff to a nearby Tailor-shop , in the morning, for getting alternation done. Evening while collecting back , I was in a hurry ( had to catch up the 7.30 P.M. Brazil-Dutch world cup match ☺ ) and , incidentally, happened to pay 100 bucks extra to the guy ( the owner of the shop). And I left !

What’s next ?

Well the guy , apparently called me , around 20 minutes later , in my cell and told that I had paid him extra !

I was really surprised at the unsurprisingly rare honesty when he could have easily ( and happily) pocketed the extra bucks.

The planet is not devoid of genuine & honest people , I must say – Thank God !

P.S. – As a coincidence , morning itself , I had read in the Bangalore Mirror newspaper – a reporter had arranged 4 purses to be dropped at 4 different locations in Bangalore , just to check how many are returned end of the day . And ironically only one purse was returned - that too by an NRI lady from Los Angeles !

Sense-Medicine

Been there , Seen that ? Nice – No it’s not ; Miserable – Absolutely!

Why ?

Why Not ?
We head for the bus , we don’t stand in the queue lest we lose a nice seat ( Come on after all it’s just a bloody bus-seat , not cash in the Bank account - U r not going to take the seat to ur home anyway ! ) ,

We start getting into the Lift before the people walks out of it ( funny again right ?) ,

While crossing the door , we don’t hold it open for the person coming at the back , instead let it go ( or shall I say flung it open onto him/her ? )

And respond to a Smile ? Are u kidding - why the heck would I smile ?

I have been a very Uncanny and Unpleasantly amused observant of everything aforesaid.

Ironically , more often than not , the so-called Educated mass is the one proudly (?) depicting such slapsticks.

Today ,I guess, more than anything else what we very badly need is – Common sense – something so vastly uncommon of late.

Just because we do something in way , doesn’t mean we should !

Mein Kampf

Things are on a pejorative note – for Long long long and long !

Somehow convinced myself finally , geared up to the copy of – Mein Kampf – the autobiography of Hitler - heralded as one of the most readable in the autobiograpy genre.

( Thanks to my younger brother who left the copy when he visited me last time ) .

The first look is as of hellhole though – considering it’s gonna be around 600 pages of read.

Nevermind anyways !

Clash in the Class

This post is dedicated to the Bygone-days-Strifes we used to have in Engg college days between the 1st Benchers and the 2nd benchers.

So at the outset , let me begin with the intro of the dudes in the groups –

1st Bench – Amritam , Sayantan , Ajith , me and Swarupam ( The order covers the way we used to sit from R to L)

2nd Bench – Kaushik , Vikas , Anish , Shyam and Kishore ( Well ,barring the first guy , they never used to follow a sitting order ☺ )

And we took pride in calling ourselves the Rivals ( Although as a matter of fact , we were a bunch of good friends).

Yeah let me sum up what we all used to possess –

Kaushik – The proverbial do-gooder guy , always there to help a friend and yes to kill with his p.js..

Vikas – Another p.j. and pathetic shayari master. The “Universal Bhaiya” who used to treat every girl as his sister. This Marwadi was known for his “Kanjoosi” and for being one of the most helpful and decent guy.

Anish – Unimaginably simple and nice guy who used to fall for every other girl in the class ☺.

Shyam – He was a kid – we will talk about him only when he turns an adult ☺

Kishore – The only way to befriend this guy – Tell him you don’t like Michael Schumacher

Amritam – The funny guy with a real good sense of humour and the dirtiest room in the hostel ☺

Sayantan – Mr. “Tension-Bhadra” – who had a really good penchant for getting tensed at the slightest possible excuse. The Topper of our batch.

Ajith – If u r in the mood of getting someone angry with minimum effort , pick this guy. Neverthless a tailor-made partner in crime.

Swarupam – The weirdest fellow of the entire gang , no one could match his uncertain moves – the most unpredictable guy.

However words apart , we had the bestest of fun in those days – be it the Leg-pullings , the innumerable Mass-bunkings ( although sometimes the Mass included only these 2 groups ) , Naming teachers , Birthday celebrations , Playing DART in SB and NS class ( Thnks Vikas for reminding me of this activity ), Copying in Internals - the pranks stood with no limits.

Well 2nd benchers if u are thinking I have mellowed down while writing this , pause a moment – You will always be our Opponents. So stay in that way – to avoid complicating things and to Value the Tradition we have been following so far. Let’s not call ourselves “Friends” ☺ - we Hate you  All ☺

And now to the other readers if , at all, the words sound a bit ambiguous ( Am pretty sure , they do), let me put it in a simpler way – We are , actually, a little Complicated and with Us it’s always Complicated !

Cheers guys !

Bread and Butter ki kahani

21st June – Just finished 4 years in the Corporate World – And Boy ! It’s been one of the most exciting Roller-Coaster ride of my life.


Still remember the day , when I embarked upon the gate of Perot Systems in Bangalore. Just another fresh face , straight from the college campus to the big-bad Corporate world - the heart was fraught with mixed feelings – Nervous of an uncertain work-life ahead and excited about the monthly paycheck henceforth.

Sad that the College fun would be missing and expected some really serious , gloomy faced , Specy people to surround me for an entire 8 hours from then on.

But on the contrary I would say – it turned out to be the second most fun frolic place and if you consider that , every month-end u get paid , then probably it’s even better than college itself !
The most happening time ? Bench period. Oh yes ! How can I forget the Bench days – The daily routine was like – come to office , enjoy food , drink coffee , play games , watch movies , do surfing , chat , orkut , sleep if u could manage , and finally go home. End of the month , u get paid despite all this fun. I mean can anything get better than this ? That time was heaven.
But then once I moved to project things did change – started getting busy and saddled with work.

Days went by , projects one after another started bringing forth changes in the thinking – becoming more professional and matured everyday.

In between a change in Company , brought me to another new organisation – but this time with some corporate knowledge and thinking under the belt. Then again same work – life went on.

And 4 years passed just like that.

Screw it !

The gifted screws !!!

You Gotta Tighten some and Loosen some to make the Attitude work in life.

And That's how it is - do it or screw it !

Football Fever

The Galactic show is back - World Cup Football 2010 !

Amongst the monotonous telecast of every-other-day-played-cricket , a Welcome relief comes in the form of World Cup Football 2010.

The world looks so united and euphoric this season. We rejoice over the game – the Heads , the Passes , the strategic Goals , the excitement , the ravishing celebration – truly Football is the most celebrated game in the world.

The Giants – Brazil , Spain , Portugal , Argentina , Germany , Italy , England all geared up for the display - the skills cumulated over the four years. However , this game too has a very high share of uncertainty when it comes to winning the match. Apart from the widely accepted winning and strong teams , there are many Underdogs who can turn really formidable and unstoppable at times. The past World Cups has innumerable instances of so.
The one point that turns World Cup even more formidable – is the reality that OFF World Cup ,no matter however celebrated big team you are , whatever no of matches you might have won – If you havn’t lifted that Cup ever , then  It’s all in Vain !
And at such moot point , all the teams seems to share only three Mantras for the World Cup –

If you had won , Retain the glory,
If you had ever won , Revive the glory ,
And if you have never won , Attain the glory !

Words and fun apart , we Indians would still have our share of agony – obvious from our so prominent absence in the World Cup. Not that we are devoid of talent , it’s the culminated disinterest to pile up the talent which is to blame. The money , time and fame spent on Cricket has been so sky-high , that little room is left for the survival of the other games. Its high time that we are awake of the long lull and give Football and the nascent talent , the attention it so badly deserves. And yes – to have our very own Indian team of high repute.

Till then , let’s enjoy the one month show !