jinda jee hajoori karke

This post is a tribute to all the butt-kissers, boot-lickers, smelly and pokey people who add spice to otherwise mundane life on this beautiful planet. Mind you i havent added the clause like including or excluding. I admit its an art which only a few can master and i see a lot of people struggling hard day-in and day-out only to end up putting their legs in their own mouth :)

Let me begin by asking a question - Can you think of a single point of differentiation between a tech-savvy and a non tech-savvy guy? Now dont say good question :) It really is!! I would say it's the same as the difference between a person who has the information and and the person who has knowledge about something. Still how do we find who belongs to one set of people and who to another set. Can we have a yardstick?

CC and BCC - The two words came to my mind; also happen to be the genesis of this post.

CC- Carbon copy

BCC - Blind Carbon copy

These two small words has the power of an ocean. Let me categorise three class of people on the basis of understanding of these two words. Pls. keep the following assumption in mind.

Assumption - Knowledge is the application of information for constructive or destructive purposes. Information standalone is meaningless.

1. Rookie - A person who somtimes understand but rarely uses. This is a guy who knows the meaning but doesnt know the usage. I had known the meaning of CC and BCC only during my engineering. Let me confess, before that i would write the same mails to different people adressing them individually and still beleived that the first mover advantage lies with me.

2. Techie - A person who has the information. An engineer probably, an internet junkie, he definitely has the information, He uses also but doesnt understand the power of it or uses them for all meaningless purposes; remember all kinds of forwards and backwards sent by freinds and uninterested persons chocked in between.

3. Tech Savvy - A person who has the knowledge. Now this is an elite class of people; choicest of the lot. A holy techie who understands the power of these two words and uses them constructively or destructively.

Keeping the above classification in mind, there can be two kinds of usages Constructive usage (+ usage) and Destructive usage (- usage)

a. + Usage - The people using them constructively; also unpopularly known as Ass-lickers. This guy will mark a copy to all the people who call the shots in the organisation, without questioning the need. The content of the mail may be shoddy. The lead time for the ideas to result into meaningful results ( read - cost saving/ revenues) would be high, but definitely the lag time for his fame shots up instantaneously.

b. - Usage - They people falling in this cageogory would be called as the real Boss, Generals, Commanders etc. Used as weapon by the people for the people. One can get ones work done without much time elapse, you just need to choose judiciusly whose name should figure in CC and whose in BCC. It hardly takes few seconds to turn an otherwise unflappable guy to nuts to deliver the results. No wonder the seemingly tech-savvy, sophisticated and well behaved in suit-boot IT guy doesnt love to wash dirty linen in public, because he washes them regularly in private vide CC and BCC.

All said and done it took some time for me to understand the crazy system that works in this knowledge industry. Sooner the better!! These two and three digit words are mantra in vogue. Its like a double edged sword, a nuclear reaction. Controlled and judicious usage (i.e. fission reaction) can work wonders. The other would be fusion, (an uncontrolled nuclear reaction) - You are no better than the suicide bomber, you kill some one with precision but also end up blowing youself.

So, gents beware and take care.....

the new girl

Everyone flirts with the new girl. I mean everyone. From those preternaturally single guys in IT to the married-with-children creeps from accounting. Even Sharma, whose wife actually works in the next department for god's sake, is always hanging around, trying to strike up a conversation. And you can't tell me that Mishra's sudden interest in 'team building' has nothing to do with his department's latest hire.

Frankly, it's disgusting. There they are, hanging around her at lunch time like a bunch of limp, wingless pigeons, solicitude guttering from their throats, or stopping by her desk whenever they feel like it to ask how she's settling in. "Don't you have work to do?" I feel like asking them. The bastards. Pretending to be all friendly and concerned when all they really want is a peek down her shirt. Can't they see that she has no interest in talking to them? That when she smiles at them or engages in small talk it's just because she's new and doesn't want to seem impolite? That all she wants is to be left alone? Men, I tell you.

Poor thing. What she really needs is a friend. Someone she can really talk to. Someone who'll understand what she has to put up with, who'll sympathize. Maybe someone who'll even shame some of these leeches into staying away. Hmm. Let me just go over and say hello...