Being late than ever but still ON TIME!

I know its not just me. I know that none of you are always punctual, okay atleast half of you guys; okay lets make a deal, most of you try to be punctual but you get late at times. I'm a guy who idolizes people who are punctual, I also try to be punctual but I end up failing all the times. I won't say that I'd be the last one to be present at a meeting or last one to come to the office but I'm almost always late for most of the schedules (be it office or meeting friends or a movie ).

The last weekend, I overslept until 10.00 and 11.00 AM, taking full advantage of the weekends. Sunday night's sleep bossed over me, by not allowing me to see the clock until 8.45 AM. I heard the alarm, I muted its voice considering it to be my arch rival since ages and i thought all this was in my dream. At 8.45 AM I smell something is not right and I wake up to see if the earth has stopped rotating (Its always easy to blame others ;)) . The next thing I remember is waking up Madhuri and giving her the breaking news that we are going to be late to our respective offices. Surprisingly, her brian worked faster than mine (:p) and asked me to call my boss and intimate him that I'd be late to work and so did she.

Having decided to report to work at 9.00, I thought I had ample time to get ready but somehow by the time I reached my office, I didn't have a second to spare. I was there in the office exactly at 9.00. I was so happy that I was on time to office after so many days but then realized the fact that I was actually an hour late.

No matter how early I wake up, I end up reaching late to work. Sometimes it is the traffic but most of the times its just me! At 7.00, I push away all the snoozes and try to barge into the real world from my dreamy senses. At 7.15, I merrily brush my teeth and chalk out the plan for the rest of the day while in shower, which will keep me occupied until 7.40. That is when I realize that I still need time for sipping my coffee and gulping my breakfast, if any! Finally, I curse myself for starting off at 7.55 and ending up at my desk at 8.05 or 8.10.

The whole concept of running behind time dates back to school and engineering days . I know how I used to pedal my bicycle so fast that I would not be marked late for the first period in school.  Even after I grew up, I had to walk at least a mile to catch the bus to college and I used to run all the way to the bus stop in 3 minutes. Sometimes, when things get much worse, I used to ask my dad to give me a ride to the bus stop and as expected my dad used to scold me all through the way until I board the bus. Sometimes I used to take the riding seat, so that my dad doesn't get enough time to scold me (I drive pretty fast, so half the time my dad used to hang onto the pillion tightly ;))

But I am still proud of myself for managing so many things while I drive. Wearing my socks and shoes, looping my belt, talking to parents / friends back home ..... and I'm still surviving because of the fact that:

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The new guy @ Work

Just as I do every evening, I went to work at I.P and I see this new face, glancing everyone and everything with a bland expression. When I refer bland, I intend to say zero / nil / null. A few minutes later, I overheard the conversation between Raja and Madhuri, he asked her to train this new guy on board. We were asked to teach him everything right from serving to cleaning the tables. 

Initially, that guy looked very perplexed. I can understand how one feels on his 1st day at a new workplace, so all of us tried to bring him into the comfort zone. After a couple of days he was doing okay and that is when I could see the real picture. This guy is basically a Gujju and has the typical accent (the  ---- ne ---- suffix). As in, "aap ne kaha na" is pronounced as "aap ne kaha neeee(nay)" and he mixes that with English. Just after interacting for a couple of hours, Madhuri asked him if he knew how to speak English :D

Everyone gave him their share of tips and advices and then there was a day off for me while Madhuri had to work that day. That day she comes and explains this scene: " I was giving him the dishes to be served at the table and the next order was Chicken Tandoori (usually it is served on a hot plate, so it has to be handled carefully). Accidentally, he burnt his finger and just as any Indian does, he put that finger in his mouth! The next minute a couple of customers entered the restaurant and he ended up showing them where to sit. Can you guess how he directed them to the table????    


 
The next day, after I came in to the restaurant, I taught him how to accompany customers to the table with a smile on their face and how to greet them. He started to receive them at the door the very next moment with a broad smile which never ends until they get seated (Just like the Happy Dent White ad). He was standing there next to the table just like the traffic signal. I am sure the customers might have had a hard time with this guy around. 

Added to all this, he walks as if he was former Mr. India with heights of attitude and does not want to follow anyone's order. He does not care to turn back and see if everything is fine at the table once the food is served. He needs his assistant (ME) to go and see if everything was okay. With zero body hygiene , he feels like he is the celebrity there at I.P. 


These days, I made another striking observation. Whenever someone walks into the restaurant, he ogles at them until they get seated and order something to eat. Non-desis would definitely get offended with this behaviour someday and I'm sure he's gonna get it really bad. I pity Boss's condition, the numerous ways he has been trying to lose his business. Someday it would go to the docks and the start of that is right there merrying around in the restaurant.

 

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Yes! I'm a Family Man!

This post would be apt for anyone who would like to criticize their friends after he/she entered a relationship and started neglecting you, no matter how dear you are.

If you think that I'm not sparing time towards you as I did before just because another person has entered my life, then you can surely call me a Family Man! I'll feel honored.  If I had the same intentions to avoid/neglect you I'd have done it the very next day I entered into relationship with her. For that matter, I'd have done that even during the 4 years of engineering life when so much of stuff was going on. Remember! I never stopped talking to any of my friends or visiting them.

Had I been a Family Man, I'd have stopped talking to everyone including Sai, Keral, Venu and everyone else. I'd rather lead a secluded life with my girl friend instead of planning trips with all you guys. Yes, I had cut down the time drastically that I used to spend on phone calls but is it being a Family Man, the only reason for that? Don't you think your actions were a major reason for that? So what do you expect from me? Keep pampering you for all the shit that you have been doing for the past couple of years even after the numerous suggestions that I gave you.  I believe, no one would have given you so many suggestions as I did, I can bet on that, neither Manoj, Prathima, Ajay nor Madhuri. You lost the right to scorn me of my behavior towards you.

I have to keep pleading you to come over to Kansas to stay with me and you chose to stay in Houston, fine! You go to Atlanta not once but twice, fine! Its your choice. You get ready to spend money for the wedding gift for Deepthi, fine! And you don't have money when I ask you if you can join me in Virginia! That was the day I stopped adoring you. Don't link all this to the India trip, I already warned you not to have so many expectations from that trip as it was the 1st time that I was seeing her in person after we got committed to each other and I had to spend time with my parents as well.

Dude, even now I am ble to squeeze in time for everything, including phone calls but the only thing is I need some personal space too. All I wanted from you was to support me by understanding my concerns and it always ended up the other way round, me supporting you.

Had you ever tried, handling so many responsibilities at a single time? Did you ever have any kind of problems in your family while you were here in U.S? Did you clear off your loans, first of all do you have any? Did you ever spend time towards games /sports?

If you answered 'Yes' to all of them and still you are able to manage time as I'm doing, then I'm definitely the 'Jhoru-ka-Ghulam' as many say. But I can proudly say that she does not allow me to be one nor do I choose to be.  Grow up! Start accepting few things. Did I ever behave with Venu like this, but we both have a healthy friendship going on. Stop cribbing about things like a typical girly GIRL!

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Somethings will never change

It has been more than a forty years and some people never changed.

The whole background story is written here for a better understanding of the post.

In short: 

Long ago,  a few years after Indian Independence, the hottest discussion on board was the issue of National Language for the newly formed Hidustan / India. A few politicians had taken a different guard when there was a debate on emulating Hindustani (Hindi) as the National Language of India.Of them, one of the key personalities was Mr. M. Karunanidhi.

Politicians then, had foreseen that there might be danger posed to Dravidian languages esp. Tamil if Hindi was imposed as a first langauge on the South Indians. They immediately protested on Hindi being declared as a mandatory medium to conduct business. They were afraid that Tamil and Tamilians would have no individual future if Hindi was imposed as a first language on them, which actually makes sense to me. Had been Hindi was followed, ignoring their respective regional languages, India would have lost so many dialects with time.

The struggle went on for over a decade and finally it was declared that Hindi would be the National Language and has to be instructed in schools and other educational institutions at some level. However, having considered all the dispraties associated with having one common platform for communcation among the diverse Indian population, the Government of India declared that business and other meetings can be proceeded in English or any regional language for that matter. Having said that, they  wanted every Indian to be well-literarate in the National Language as well. So they made Hindi to be a mandatory subject during the secondary education level.

However, Tamilians did not like this idea and they boycotted Hindi as a medium of instruction. I have heard people saying that they were subjected to injustice which I completely disagree.

Its not just you who were asked to practice Hindi. Every state under the Republic of India were asked to do so. I agree that it is by the strong dedication of Mr. Rajagopalachari and others that we secured the right to continue using our  respective Regional Languages for communication and we are all grateful to them for that. But that does not mean that you insult your national language by boycotting it.

Years after everything is so modernized and everyone is busy in their fast-moving world, this renowned politician digs out baseless issues and stirs the media on the same. Read this. The matter does not end there. Youngsters who don't even know what the situation was, decades before, think that they were cheated without even knowing the ace of base. They feel insulted and that is the reason they qoute when someone asks the, "Why is that you don't know Hindi" or "How come you don't follow Hindi" which sounds purely absurd to me.

It is nothing that I have something against them but think outside the box!! And my sincere plea to the leaders would be to STOP POLITICIZING THIS ISSUE FURTHER!!

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Heights of 'News'lessness

Without having much choice on what kind of news I want to read / see, I started following the CNN IBN Live website for the National and International news of late. Initially, I was pretty much impressed with the quality of the news that they were providing. With the recent popularity that it has gained through the Live TV on the internet, I could see the gradual commercialization of the website. 

They do not allow me to read the news anymore, its like visiting their website for advertisements, not for the NEWS.

The advertisements creep on to the news sections, you have to close them individually to view the headlines. Okay now, I am patient enough to close all the ads and see the headlines and there it is, in headlines "Obama can cook Dal  and admires Cricket". Oh Sorry! Forgive me for closing all the pop-ups for this sick headline news. The advertisements make more sense than this kind of news. I could not resist myself from going into detail, as I wanted to see the vital content behind this headline which fueled it up to the front page (My bad!). 

I agree Mr. Shahrukh Khan is well known celebrity and a high profile Indian citizen. But, is he more admirable or than Rev. Dr. Kalam? You have no issues on frisking respected Dr. Kalam while boarding the flight but it is a sensational news for the media to cash if Mr. Khan is stopped on a foreign soil on security grounds. This time, I counted the number of days it was on the website before the issue went completely unseen. Trust me, it was on the web site for 7 full days. This time I did not make the mistake of dwelving into the main content. I hated it!

I've stopped visiting the CNN IBN website (not completely though - I vist that on weekends). I'm follwoing Google News and am happy about that.

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