The Handsome Villains

Ram and me are going on silent fight like school girls. Probably, he must have realized(thought) that I don't respect his intelligence like others do. But he is wrong, I really do. Ask Chichikov, how many times I wondered and felt jealous when he cracks a problem in 5 minutes on which I'd be working for 5 days. He belongs to the genius category. But I don't like him when he tries to humble himself 'acting' as an ordinary guy. I don't get how others can believe him when he does that. It is obviously not true. These days, we are being phony with each other. He never replies to my mails and doesn't share anything with me until asked even if it is very important for my work. I too stopped addressing my mails to him and he will just be one in the CC list. I am happy that, now I can officially report to Sreeram.

I am digressing too much from the title. Let me get back. Today Ram trapped me into assisting our customers without asking me. He clearly knows how I dread meeting them. I was scared but I didn't have an handy excuse. I was counting minutes to meet the scariest people I had to work with. My only consolation is that the main villain, Ashok would not be here and I just have to meet his entourage.. Tushar who keeps pinging with questions you have never bothered before, Dave who is not a frequent questioner, but pops up once in a while in a sarcastic way and Anil who quakes the mail server ferociously.

Ben came to drop me off at their office and we were waiting for Tushar in the reception area. I expected to see a middle aged person with his popped up tummy covered in his jacket. That is how I imagined him while reading his mails. I am surprised when a college dude in his T-shirt came and introduced himself as Tushar. I was shocked and couldn't hear what he was talking for about two minutes. I kept wondering if he is really the person who made my job pitiable to myself. He took me to Anil's office. I made a mistake again. The ferocious 'Anil' is very very attractive. He is accurately dark enough to be handsome and is with a perfect smile when he speaks. Suddenly Raj flashed on my mind. I was not ready to receive any more surprises. Tushar introduced me to Dave. I felt happy that atleast Dave is like how I expected him to be. Tall and strong. Once we got into the work, I observed that Dave is not really arrogant or sarcastic as he seems to be in his mails.. In-fact he is very meek and informative who tries to carry all the little details in his head. I was right about how he is.. but not what he is.

I was surprised that they are achieving higher performance with our product than what we advertise. After visiting their office, I realized that hardware and software are like a married couple. One should complement the other like in a jig-saw tooth. Only then, both would be appreciated on the long run. I also realized that experience is just an excuse. Everyone has a different experience-O-meter. It should just be set to fast forward to see the wonders one can do. Whatever.. from now on, I'll be replying to these handsome villains with certain amount of "special" interest. :P I certainly want to get back the honor I lost.

Statutory Note: Names are changed for confidential policies defined by home company and customers'.

Thanks

Kind words are easily spoken one can't even take them in their real sense these days and kind deeds are rarely done that they would seem to haunt you for life. Thanks to Anupama and Chetan who are constantly helping me here. After long, I got to learn something nice from others.

I'm loving it..

I am a stupid if I don't update my diary now when things are really exciting and when each mail in my mail box is opened with much anticipation. I' m lil' afraid but still enjoying to watch the war being in the battlefield and to choose the side while tapping my chin.

I don't remember if I have updated you all about one of our customers chopping and then crushing me to nothing few days ago. I didn't hear any word from anyone regarding that inside the house except Narayan's verbal consolation. They either might have believed what I'm accused of or I am considered a machine.

Now when things are much better in control, when everybody is anxious to grab a piece of accountability, the universal villain comes again with a fire bug along with a bunch of specially chosen humiliating words. Ha Ha.. All of the sudden, everybody drops off the dear one and starts accusing each other. People who can't show fingers at will start giving lame excuses and workarounds. This is the most fun part.

Thanks to the Super Villain for bringing the hero out of everybody in the team.

Boo Radley - 2

Irony is, Boo Radley to whom I wished all the bad things comes to my office to say

"Had your lunch? If you need anything don't hesitate, just call me I will be
either in my office or in the lab. Take care."

I don't know whether he would remember that he told me this, but I felt ashamed of my prejudice.

Oh God! When would I get to know you?

This week was comparatively less stressful and at the same time more painful. I have got a really bad mail from a customer. Nobody ever made me so greatly ashamed. I can't even share with you how it happened. I had been sandwiched b/w our own confidential terms and the customer's interrogative questions. I doubt the customer is a retired detective in Defence department. I was very much disappointed by Ram's response when I showed him the mail. He just said "Let's wait and see how the big guys respond?" What!! Aren't you one?? I immediately advised my kids(I mean Saritha and Dev) to never accept to support a customer.

When the customer was about to kill me with his fangs oozing the strongest words of insult, I called Narayan, an FAE from US office to give me some help. I am not exaggerating but he completely relieved me from all the pain. He asked me to relax and not to respond to any of the customer's scene creating mails and to answer only for clear technical questions. After talking to him, my impression of Ram got strengthened. We secretly named our small work room "The Release Factory" because we don't know when Ram would say "Today we have a release." I hate Ram even more when he is together with that new guy. They both will go to an extreme as it would blow you brains out. Nobody here likes me when I criticize Ram. So don't get away even if you are bored of my office gossip.

I thought I was dreaming but not. Chichikov has really become devotional. He is going to church on Sundays. His laptop's wallpaper is now Jesus wearing the crown of thorns and some message by the side. I thought anybody including myself would do that but not Chichikov. How mysteriously the impressions are broken. On the side thought, why am I never made to realize God? why am I remorseless? do I have to wait yet? what else can change me when Raj's death couldn't do it?

Lolita is certainly a fall after you read Dostoevsky, Chekov, Gogol and Tolstoy. Nabokov was not even upto the mark that Turgenev made. I have been reading it from a month but there are still 100 more pages to go. The book is not as attractive as it's cover. He might have had a point, but it is all diluted by modernism and illustrations. In the meanwhile I completed The Essential Calvin and Hobbes. I liked Calvin evaluating performance of his nature-loving dad as dad.

The heavy week

This week was the most 'incidental' week of my whole life. It is full of activities. At office, I had to release something or the other every two days. Just not that, I had to receive and accept all the comments from reviewers and customers whether I like it or not. Most of the times, I don't like them. Nashi was almost living at her office. But she taught me with so much difficulty over phone at midnight how to make a paper cube without glue. My intention was to learn the same from her ten year old little sister, Faiza. Because of the wrong timing, I was trapped with Nashi's terrible teaching skills. At last, I could make something badly crumpled only to make it look like a cube. Personally, little happiness. I talked to a friend after five months. But before I share this with Chichikov, a dramatic twist happened in his life and he was doomed. And the doom spreads as everything does among friends. With Asha, I never expected any friendly relation would rise b/w us. But I nearly cried when I talked to her yesterday. Secret is(Of course not anymore), I wept when she was walking down the aisle. Then I wished her to be the most irritating wife. Now my intentions are quite opposite. I wish them to be happy together. Dolores Haze and Humbert Humbert are just ignored. I didn't catch up with them from a week. I know, I will regret later, but I hate my parents as much as I hate my other relatives.

Nagamandala

Nagamandala, Written by Girish Karnad, Directed by Ram Mohan Holagundi.

This play is not for general crowd (which pitifully includes me) who would enjoy the slapstick humour though one never believes in it for true. Not for them, who may actually sympathise with the misery but would be anxious to cover it in the cheek twitches of guffaws. This is for the real art lovers who would want to enjoy the confusion of the protagonist by her husband's dual personality, his don't-ask-me-why's and when he asks her to keep her pregnancy a secret from himself.

Attractions:
1. Mrunal, who acted as Karudavva is superb. She has got a very strong voice and a very distinct expression.
2. Playwright (Ashutosh) and Story wearing the song(Sowmya) roles are small but lively.
3. The little boy who acted as dog seemed to have done proper research on dogs.
4. Occasional dances of the 'flames'

Drawbacks:
1. Repetitive scenes and felt dragging in the middle. I think, Ram didn't take any liberty to cut it short from the novel.
2. Though English is universal, Telugu or Hindi translations would have been excellent.

Moral of the story:
In Story's words, People would accept a woman either as slave or as a Goddess, but never an equal.

To my surprise, the owner of a random blog, I have been following for an year or so, was there last night and had complained about our kind of group in his post. Sorry Sir! Thanks to all my friends, who came along with me for the show and been through the two endings of the story.