Manish Dhingra: True Stories

I am a long distance runner

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:32:41 GMT

Kris has this interesting report on the Delhi International Marathon which he and I took part in yesterday. It was quite an exhilarating experience to say the least. Getting up at 5:30 AM in the morning that too on a Sunday is the last thing you would like to do, but the whole atmosphere of the race, the enthusiasm and the fact that you were running just to have fun (I knew I didn't stand a chance against the Kenyans) made it memorable.

It was the first time I was running a long distance race since passing out from school. In school we used to have these annual cross-country races as they were called and I always took part in them. The distance to cover in the races at that time was just 10 Kms.

It was also the first time I saw the actual marathon pro’s, the Kenyans run in marathons. Boy, do those guys know how to run long distances. Simow Maiyo who won the first position, completed 42.1 Kms in 2 hours and 17 minutes. Heck I completed 21 Kms in about 2 hours and 55 minutes, so I sure have a long way to go if I can compete with these Kenyans, but then I did complete running the entire distance. I also got a medal for the feat!!

So even though I am nursing a few injuries right now, particularly a sore ankle and knee, I know that next marathon I will be better prepared.

Happy B'day Tekriti and Happy B'day Teknokrats

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 18:23:05 GMT

It was a special day for all of us at Tekriti today. It was founders’ day, they day when Tekriti was born, officially on paper. It was conceived a lot before the 7th of February 2005, when Gaurav, Ashish and me used to sit around and brainstorm on ideas that made sense to implement on the ever changing face of the Indian landscape.

I met Gaurav at the gymnasium today morning and wished him Happy B'day. As I was driving to work I thought that probably I could reach office and send an e-mail wishing all the TeknoKrats a Happy B'day. Well I was so wrong.

As a co-incidence both Gaurav and me finished our work-out at the same time and reached office at just the same time. As we stepped out of the elevator, we saw decorations in the office from outside the glass door entrance. We knew something was up. There was a surprise awaiting us indeed.

As soon as we stepped into the office, all the Teknokrats stood up and started applauding. It was such a pleasant surprise; I would say the first time I have been in a surprise event. I have organized many a surprise parties for my friends earlier, but today was my day to have fun.
Ashish was in office early today morning, so he was already in, but I could well imagine the surprise on his face when he would have walked in.

The Teknokrats had planned it all out, a day before. The were lucky too, cause we arrived late enough to give them time to finish the decorations. So after the applause was over, we were presented with a beautiful painting, a painting of the world, with a brass finish to it. It was beautiful.

Soon after there came a cake which read "Happy B'day Tekriti". After cutting the cake and distributing it, Nibha presented Ashish, Gaurav and Me with beautiful handmade cards. She certainly had put in a lot of effort in making the cards and it showed. They were quite spectacular.

The office looked stunning; everyone signed a jumbo card which Gaurav's parents had given to him in the morning, followed by signing a graffiti chart which was put up on the wall. Finally the painting which was gifted to Tekriti by the ever so wonderful TeknoKrats went up on the wall. We have a world beating team here at Tekriti, and not only do these guys know how to crank out code, they certainly know how to party and have fun aswell.The painting of the map of the world will keep reminding us of what we have to accomplish in the coming years, a team and a company of world beaters.

Meeting Santa twice in two days....Merry Christmas

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 17:41:38 GMT

Christmas has always been a special festival for me. A major reason for that is because I spent a major part of my school going days in a Christian school. Just before Christmas we had a party in school, which was called "sharing". It was a day just after the term exams got over, a day when there were no studies, you could wear your best clothes to school (yes a day when wearing school uniform was not allowed, however this was later abolished), watch a movie (each class was equipped with a television), eat sumptuous food and herald the winter vacations which started as soon as the party got over.

The sharing session is something worth mentioning. Everyone brought some eatables etc from home. During an extended lunch session (which normally was for 20 minutes) , all classes used to assemble in the football field and spread out all that they had got in an area allotted to them. And then with all the food setup in the middle have your fill from your class and section and go and sample the spreads of all the other sections. With twelve grades and four sections per grade, it was quite a spread.

Santa Claus of course has a special role on Christmas. As kids (and even now), you can almost always picture Santa around kids. Last two days I have been close to Santa twice. First at the party in Tekriti, where my good buddy "Gaurav", played Santa. Then today when Kris played Santa. Just follow the links to read about the time they had.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! and
HO HO HO It's Santa Kris, Merry Christmas

Inspired by the "sharing" spirit of Christmas I imbibed in school, we tried the concept of "sharing" in a rather unique way in the party at office. Everyone was asked to get a small gift for the party. These gifts were later gift wrapped with newspapers and numbered. Thereafter we played the game of newspaper dancing where whenever someone was eliminated, he was asked to pick a number of the gift. So everyone got a gift, not necessarily the one which they had brought. Our unique concept of sharing, and I can say everyone had a blast. Certainly a party which brought back memories of those good old school, Christmas sharing session days.

Here’s wishing all the readers of this space a Merry Christmas and a lovely New Year ahead.

People's Action: Gurgaon city residents take charge

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 17:49:48 GMT

Normally while having breakfast in the morning I browse through the newspaper, however yesterday this piece of paper caught my eye, which had the following lines as the title: Addressing the symptoms will not cure the disease. As I read deeper into the text I felt as if someone had para-phrased what I had been writing all along [Read Here]

The infrastructure in Gurgaon is crumbling and the community has decided to shed it's "Chalta hai " (It works) attitude and arrest the malaise before the putrefaction sets in. It is our tendency to just complain about how awful the infrastructure is, about what the government can do, gossip endlessly about what it could be and sadly thats where it all ends. We just continue to accept things as they are making sure that we get the roses not worried about whether someone else has to tread a bed of thorns.

So it's heartning to note that what JFK said in this address in 1961 and I quote "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" if finally being put into practice by People's Action the organization.

To further quote some lines form this piece of paper "Complaining about bad roads has not helped. Even the administration is unable to help. The problem is so deep that only invasive surgery will do anything. It is really up to us..What else does Haryana have to show for itself except Gurgaon..it's shining with the sweat of our work and is being allowed to become a ghetto before our eyes."

The call is to form a planning board with immediate effect which will have the CM on it and ofcourse the members of the People's Action group. Some of the members of this group are the people we closely associate with, since they are the board managers of the famous HCWCRP Condominium Association.

The letter ends with this line" Please be ready for a long battle if we have to win. Above all, join us."

Gurgaon and Pune according to me are the cities which can rise to being world class cities, not because of the number of cars there, not because of the number of high rise buildings, but because of the people. I would have loved to add Bangalore to the list, but Bangalore has crumbled and it's going to take a mammoth effort to get it to its past glory. So what is even more heartning to note is that a group of proactive people have taken the effort to wrest the initiative and hence learn from Bangalore's mistakes. Be sure I'll be a part of this war because after all it's a part of People's Action.

A day when the earth not only shivered but actually shook violently

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 14:41:47 GMT

The blogosphere is full of people [read kris] narrating their stories of the earthquake which shook North India and Pakistan today morning [Read Here]. Let me recount some impressions of this day, when I really felt what it is like to be in a quake.

Date: 8/10/2005

Time: 09:25 AM

The initial tremors which were very feeble were felt by me. Sitting on my bed I quickly jumped up and ran to the kitchen to ask my mom if she felt the same.

Me: Mom! Did you just feel the tremors of an earthquake?

Mom: No I didn't, I guess you are not feeling well today because you slept late thats why, your head must be spinning!

Me: [Thinking to myself]..But I did feel something..oh well maybe my head was spinning.

Time: 09:30 AM

The tremors which measured 7.6 in magnitude struck.

Me: [Thinking to myself] Man..my head is still spinning..all that work has made me really weak I guess!

[Voice in the far distance]

Bro(Kris): Manish...Manish....Jaldi Aa..Jaldi Aa (Come fast Come fast)

Me: [Thinking to myself]..what am I hearing voices too now?

[Running to my brother's room, I see him lying on his bed]

Bro(Kris): This is an earthquake, my bed is shaking.

Mom: Manish...look look at the chandelier..look look at the fan

[The Chandelier was swinging from side to side like a pendulum..tha fan was swinging too..Standing on the 11th floor of a high rise, the whole earth was shaking]

Me: Okay, ..chalo (lets go) we have to go down..hurry..hurry.

Bro(Kris): What dressed like this..are you crazy.

Me: C'mon make a move dude, pick up the car key and the house key.

Mom: Wait let me close the gas knob.

Me: C'mon lets go..oh my..the rubble seems to be falling down from the crevices..hurry.

[Voices coming from outside, frantic calling..rushing for the stairs]

Young Girl:[Almost in tears]..Mummy..I am scared..Mummy

Young Girls Mom: Sweety don't cry well be fine, we are in a earthquake proof building

Young Girl: No ..I don't want to live on the 15th Floor..where is Daddy?

Young Girls Mom: [Now on the phone] ..Daddy is fine he is on the phone..yeah she is fine..just a little scared.

Young Girl: [Almost in tears]..Mummy..will it come back..I think it's coming back.

Young Girls Mom: [Still on the phone]..No don't worry and don't cry ..you are making me nervous.

[Reached the ground floor..the whole apartment complex was downstairs..security guards on their walkie talkies..others on their cellphones, people getting their cars out and fleeing..some barefoot..most in their night dresses..a few with just their shorts on (yes men ofcourse)]

Mom: I knew it is not a good day today, it's Saturday (Shanivar), the 8th. Disaster spares no one..and it does not distinguish the rich from the poor.

Bro(Kris): Dude, this is some experience..I want to be the first one to blog this.

Me: [Staring at the building and looking upstairs]..Dude.can't you think of anything except blogging.

Bro(Kris): [Thinking to himself]..Thats a nice chic..wonder where she stays..she looks "hot" in that skirt.

Me: [Still staring at the building]..Duh..what are you talking about!

Mom: I felt as if I was not feeling well, I moved away from the gas, and something pulled be back towards it..I came out to call on you that I was not feeling well..that's when I saw the chandeliar moving.

Me: Yeah mom..and you thought I was sick the first time.Anyways lets go to the open ground..you never know how bad the after shocks could be.

[Moving away from the building, I thought I will have a word with the security guard, cause he looked unmoved]

Me: Aapko kuch feel hua earthquake ka (Did you feel the earthquake)

Security Guard: Nahi..hume to pata bhi nahi chala (I didn't feel a thing)

Me: Achha ..lagta hai ground floor par kuch feel nahi hua (Seems like the people on the ground floor didn't feel a thing)

Security Guard: Yeh to kuch nahi hai saab..bhuchaal to Surat mein aaya tha..main tab waha hi tha..kya bhayankar tha (This is nothing sir, The Surat earthquake was worse (26th Jan 2001)..I was there then). Ab to hawa chalne lagi hai saab, ab kuch nahi hoga (The wind has started blowing..so now nothing will happen)

Me: Achha..jab bhuchaal aata hai to hawa bandh ho jaati hai (So does the wind stop when an earthquake comes)

Security Guard: Haanji sir aisa hi hota hai (Yes sir this is what happens)

[As I moved ahead]

Man on phone: Yeah Mr. Malik, there has been a massive earthquake in Gurgaon..but it seems like the earthquake proofing in the building has worked..the first time it was really tested I guess.[pause]..yes yes good job with the earthquake proofing..this building is really safe.

[After a while..when the wind was blowing again]

Me: Mom..I forgot my cellphone..let me go and get it..seems like the wind has started blowing so the worst is behind us.Also I guss Dad will be concerned..so need to tell him that we are fine.

As I climbed the stairs to the 11th floor again, I realised how incongruent we are in our reactions, from being unbelieving (Mom) to self doubt(Me) to scared(Young Girl) to consoling and sympathetic (Young Girl's mom), to unperturbed (Security Guard) to a sense of accomplishment and Joy (Man on phone). Thats what makes every individual so different from the rest.

Lessons about life, Learnt on the roads.

Sun, 04 Sep 2005 10:47:49 GMT

On the way back from our new office one afternoon, Ashish and I got into a conversation. Little did I know that at the end of the conversation Ashish and I would have discovered so much about how much the roads teach us about our own life?

Ashish was at the wheel driving and I was playing navigator. He wasn’t quite sure of the route we had to take to reach the destination, so I was guiding him. At this one instant while we were heading straight I asked Ashish to take a left. As he swerved his steering wheel left he proclaimed, “Life doesn’t seem to be presenting me with a right turn, every turn is a left turn”. “That’s not true Ashish , just before you reach your destination there is a right turn which will take you straight to your destination”, I retorted, picturing the route in my mind and quickly calculating that there was a right turn we had to take to enter our office complex.

“If you get a right turn close to your destination what’s the use, you are already close to your destination, you should get a right turn when you are far away from your destination”, said Ashish, obviously the conversation was moving further away from just the rights and the lefts on the road. Ashish was co-relating the rights and the lefts with life.

“Okay the next turn you have to take will be a right turn, mind you; you are still far away from your destination, so does that make you feel better”, I said again after a quick calculation of the route. “What’s more Ashish, you got to this right turn because you took a left turn earlier, had you gone straight or taken a right earlier you wouldn’t have reached here”,I continued.

In another moment the road we were on presented itself with a right turn and sure enough Ashish took it. We were on our way, close to our destination, when the road presented itself with another left turn. “Cruising along towards your destination, when you are close to, there is always a left turn, which will try to put you off your path. This left turn is that of a risk or a decision on gut feeling, if you take it you reach your destination sooner, even though the road may be bumpy and a lot less smoother than the road you are currently cruising on”, Ashish analyzed. “Yes and we have to take this left”, I replied back.

Now, only the right turn I had talked about earlier separated us from our destination, however Ashish missed that and drove ahead. “Dude what are you doing, you missed the right turn”, I cried. “No, I need to go straight, I have some work ahead”, Ashish replied. “But you will have to take a U-Turn to come back, that’s illegal, this is a busy road”, I was shouting at the top of my voice. “So that’s another lesson there, once a person misses the path to his destination, coming back is not only going to be impossible, but bordering towards being illegal. The person then has to take several wrong turns to reach his destination”, Ashish replied.

So true, In summary:
Life is like a road (a journey as most call it). The right and left turns are events associated with life. The right turn gets you towards your goal; the lefts take you away from your goal. However you cannot reach your destination by only taking rights or by going straight, you have to take a left sometime. If you miss right turns when close to your destination; you have to take several lefts to get back on track, in other words take many more risks, and many wrong doings to reach your destination.

What's more, just like having a navigator on the road helps you reach your destination easily, having a navigator in life helps you take the best path toward your destination. That navigator can be anybody, your friend, teacher,well wisher, anyone, what is important is that the navigator has travelled the route before and is aware of all the rights and lefts that would be presenting themselves on the road. Here's hoping all of you find your navigators to help you safely towards your destination, whether on the road or in life.

Dedicated to all teachers on teachers day, who are navigators to all of us at an early point of our lives.

Politics as a time pass

Sun, 10 Jul 2005 04:45:42 GMT

My last post on Manmohan Singh as the world's most educationally qualified prime minister brought in a lot of comments. All the comments have been really thought provoking and have come from extremely learned and extremely well qualified individuals themselves, and I am honored to have tingled the grey cells of these individuals enough for them to leave their thoughts on my blog.

However just another passing thought crosses my mind, on how we can spend hours at an end discussing about the ills and malice of our politicians without ever doing anything. The thought creeps in from my experiences traveling in the Indian Railways. During those long journeys from college to home, there were many instances when the passengers sitting in the same coupe (middle aged men mostly) would discuss politics and how one party did it right (mostly..the party voted out of power) while the other party goofed up (mostly..the party currently in power).

If you were a mute observer to the conversation you would in due course realize that these people were extremely updated on the happenings in the political scenario and some of the suggestions which used to come out of the trainstorming session (ah..actually brainstorming) would have made a huge impact. But alas! on getting off the train, all that was said went ahead with the train.

The good point of these conversations was that a journey spanning 24-26 hours didn't bore you. In fact at the end of it you wished for a second that it would get delayed just a bit so that you could make the final point in this conversation and just maybe leave a telling impact.

Politics is definitely one of the best time passes in this nation you may think. Not so.. many times the opinion of the general population is really important to the progress of the country. That's why if you go back in history, the Kings used to disguise themselves as commoners and just be mute spectators to the conversations of the other folks.

So here is a suggestion for Manmohan Singh. Sir, how about coming up with an army of individuals who would just go around to those joints where people would generally discuss politics and present the general notion of the public to the PM and all the political bigwigs. I don't know who is doing this activity now (maybe the press), but although traditional I'm pretty confident it could take the progress of the country out from the living room and the train compartment and into the Parliament or on the table of the decision makers.

Driving me Delhi

Tue, 03 May 2005 05:24:37 GMT

The past three days I have been driving almost 100+ Kms everyday, attending weddings of close friends all over Delhi. From Chankya Puri to Connought Place to Friends Colony, I have been all over town and I am appalled at the lack of driving sense in the Delhi'ites.

I have driven in a few metros and big cities of India and in the US, but believe me when someone says "If you have a driven in Delhi, you can drive anywhere in the world", it's really true. They cut you from anywhere and everywhere, everyone seems to be in so much of a hurry as if they have a train to catch.You have to be at the peak of your alertness levels to actually ensure that you will make it safely to your destination, because one small lapse could prove fatal.

Adding to the miseries above are the truck drivers, blue line bus drivers and the new crop of road menace creators (No not lady drivers...if you thought so!!), the BPO cab drivers. The key to surviving on Delhi roads is a phrase which is the buzz word of many philosophies, "Proactive Driving".

As they say expect the unexpected, if you see a scooter rider ahead of your car, expect that he/she might just go into a pothole and fall off, or if you see a blue line bus overtake you from the left, expect that the driver might just cut into your lane without a signal.With experience you would be able to forsee conditions and drive through albeit not so smoothly.

Driving has always been a pleasure to me and I enjoy the smooth maneuvers one makes to cruise through the roads, but then everyone out there thinks the same, and now driving on Delhi roads is just another exercise of your psycho-motor capabilities.Oh good lord!!

The day has finally arrived!!

Thu, 14 Apr 2005 18:50:10 GMT

When I joined this company, a little more than 4.5 years back, during my induction, my HR coordinator Vishnu asked me "So where do you see yourself five years down the line"? To which I replied in complete earnest,” I have great confidence in my abilities and so I see myself at the helm of a few projects, interfacing with the clients and as someone who is contributing immensely to this company". To which Vishnu replied "Great, the good thing I see here is that five years down the line, you would still be with this company". Sorry Vishnu, I missed that milestone by just a few months!

Today is supposedly my last day here. To tell you the truth it doesn't feel like it's the last day. It feels like just another Friday, a fun Friday. Fun because we can go to work in casuals today, exhibit Friday dressing at its best. The company just wears a real different look on Fridays, everyone looks so much younger. However this Friday is going to be different.

Now why did I say "supposedly my last day", because till yesterday I had heard nothing from the HR, on the schedule for my exit interview and what all is required for the paper work around here. So I am hoping it won't be too much of a hassle. The good part is I managed to resolve all the technical issues in the applications I was managing yesterday itself, so I won't have too much to do there...or I hope I won't have too much to do there.

So let's see how the day goes, it'll have it's own moments, sentimental ones, plus those full of inquisitive questions from people, sending those final adieu e-mails, filling up those Weekly Activity Reports, some pictures of the great location where I worked,exchange high fives with my friends, a few hand shakes with the biggies, before I finally surrender my batch back

Time to pack up and move on

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 10:25:30 GMT

As I wrap up from this place, a place where I have spent 3.5 years of my life, to go back to my home town-Delhi, I am reminded of all the times I have had here. I am leaving Pune at a time when this city is witnessing a metamorphosis.

With malls, global fast food restaurants, swank office spaces and many pubs mushrooming just stones throw distance to where I stay, I can see the change which has happened over the past years when Pune was still a distant cousin of Mumbai. The city outskirts where I had my office was still a village, and it seemed as if someone had just built a resort there and thrown in some people and computers and asked them to get working on IT. Today all around that village ,you'll find the world's most well known MNC's, people of foreign origin seen all around.

Infrastructure is still a major concern in the student city of India (known as "Oxford of the East"). So even though property prices have soared over the past 2 years,the PMC or Pune Municipal Corporation has yet to realise the great potential of this city, which I can easily say, boasts of the best weather conditions in all of India.

Carry on Pune..keep at it, however make sure you learn from the mistakes of the other cities in India who have gone through this same stage.

"Time Waste" ho gaya

Sat, 26 Feb 2005 11:07:36 GMT

It was one of those days when I decided to head to work early in the morning. I normally leave by about 8:30 AM so my maid("Bai") who comes in at 8:00 AM has about half hour to do some washing and cleaning. For a bachelor who hardly cooks at home, thats enough time to get the house neat and tidy.

However on this day I decided to head for office at 8:05 AM so as to get enough time to prepare for a meeting which I had at 9:30 AM. As usual my maid came at 8:00 AM and I told her that I was off to work and she can go take a holiday for today,to which pat came the reply from her "Kya Bhaiya , itna bhag kar aaye, mera to time waste ho gaya na".

"Time Waste", I exclaimed, "Bai tum english bolna kab seekh gayi". "English bolna nahi seekhi bhaiya, par jab main late aati hu to aap log hi kehte hai , tumne hamara time waste kar diya"(I haven't learnt english but when I come late,you people only say I have wasted your time)."Aap logon se hi seekhi hun", she continued.

I couldn't stop smiling on that,cause my maid is a 50+ uneducated woman. But how true,we use so many words and phrases which just stick to our communication style. Like software engineers have this tendency of saying "By default". So if you ask them, what time does the train arrive, mostly the response would be, "By default it comes at 9, but today's an exception".

So do any such words/phrases come to your mind, which are extacted from work lingo.

Another comedy of errors-True Story

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 17:10:29 GMT

Manya was not like any other girl you would have met. She was an absolute techie who reeled off code in Java like poetry. She was a specialist at process design. However all the good technical qualities were out by the wayside when it came to household chores.

We would constantly laugh at her ignorance or rather lack of interest in cooking or any other household job for that matter. Manya,Prakriti and I were always together for lunch and more often than not it was Manya who would provide the source of entertainment to us, telling us about how her British client manager, who she had a big crush on would not reply to her e-mail, or how she tried to please her mother-in-law by doing something special but couldn't , all in the same breath. She was not as shy as she used to be, but we could notice her blushing as she told us about some cute guy who she'd recently seen , or about her British client manager.

Weekends were always special for Manya, because it meant that she would leave the city of Pune and head for Mumbai, where her husband,family and friends were. So it was always exciting to know how her weekend was. She was all smiles on a Friday or the day before the long weekend and all sleepy eyed on a Monday , or the day after the long weekend.

It was the start of another week, after a long festive weekend that Manya,Prakriti and I were having lunch in the office cafeteria. The food as usual was tasteless and Manya was as usual finding it tough to distinguish between pepper and black salt (rock salt) on her fruit plate.Prakriti had a grin on her face and I had a wry smile as Manya continued her perplexed tale of how the spice merchants added to her confusion by making condiments which looked so similar but tasted so different.

"So how was your weekend Manya", Prakriti broke the humdrum with that most wanted question to Manya. "Oh it was a comedy of errors, just nothing seemed to go right", Manya snared rather comically. "Why what happened", I queered. "Well I thought I would please my husband and mother-in-law by making hot vadas, but I added salt twice to the dough,so that ended up tasting awful", she said still with nonchalance.

"So probably if you had served it to your husband he would have eaten it happily since you made it", I teased Manya."No way it tasted awful so I threw the entire thing". "Then I thought I would save on the oil which I had poured to fry the vadas, so I put that in a plastic container, but the oil was so hot it deformed the container aswell, so I had to throw that out", Manya said comically.

"Manya, that could have happened with anybody, that's not so bad", Prakriti cajoled her."Well wait till you hear what happened next, my mother-in-law asked me to maka a rangoli at the door step.Now my artistic senses are so bad but anyways I thought it's Sankranti, so why not make it", Manya continued the comical tale.

"Manya, even I am not an artist, but a rangoli even I can make,if someone gives me the design", said the techi Prakriti.

"Well yeah , sure so my mother-in-law gave me the design aswell, and left home after assigning me the task of making the rangoli", Manya continued. "After two hours of painstaking effort, I was done, and as I saw it, I told myself, finally at least something I have done right, and it looked nice ", Manya said happily. "So that was a job well done Manya", I congratulated her.

"Not quite, an hour before my mother-in-law was to arrive, I thought I would check on the rangoli, and to my horror, it was all gone, there was no rangoli at the door step", Manya said rather expressively. "What, what happened", I was perplexed aswell. "Well the building sweeper apparently thought it was a rather shabby effort and swept it all away", Manya choked on the last line.

Prakriti burst into a thunderous laughter, as did I and the whole cafeteria reverberated with the echo, as Manya and Prakriti exchanged high fives."So I finally redid it so quickly before my mom-in-law came", Manya was grining from ear to ear.

For someone who had given us so many smiles and for someone who we had teased so much , this was certainly the acme, deemed fit to be added to this blog.

The identities of some of the characters have been changed to maintain anonymity.Any resemblance to the characters is purely coincidental

From Ashok to Ramu: Don't we all have a tale to tell

Sat, 25 Dec 2004 05:41:46 GMT

The response to my story (http://spaces.msn.com/members/manishdhingra/Blog/cns!1pxmTywkHY28UvvoWov1dGSg!126.entry) has been phenomenal to say the least. A number of people have sent e-mails asking me to continue with more stories on the "Ashok" character. This has left me totally flattered.

But think of it, all of us come across such characters in our daily life. I'm sure this story has made many people go back and recollect some of those moments. My dad recounts another similar incident from his IIT-K days, where this time it was "Ramu" who used to work in their canteen, and this one goes a long way back.Here it is:

Ramu was our canteen boy who used to work from 6am to 2am with only 4 hrs. of sleep. My hostel room was only a stone throw away from the canteen and whenever we wanted room service we just used to shout " Ramu " and Ramu was always at our service.

One day we were all sitting in the lawn opposite our canteen and sipping coffee when Ramu comes with a box of sweets and says " Saab moo mitta kariay". We all asked in unison " Ramu kis khushi me" and Ramu with a smile on his face and shyness in his eyes said " Beta hua hai ". "Aare Ramu tum shadi shuda ho ? shadi kab ki ?", I asked while the other looked at each other perplexed. " Saab koi 2 saal pahle ", the shyness on Ramu's face was still intact. "Par tum to 2 saal se kabhi bhi chhuti par nahi gye to ye baccha ?". Ramu, with the grace which you would associate with a flowing river replied " Par saab ham chitti to har mahine dalte rahte the na".

People like Ashok and Ramu will continue the legacy of "To serve with love" in each century and each era, and they will continue to show the world, that for them this is still a non-complex place to live in.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas, let Santa bring all the happiness of the world in your life today and everyday.

A humble man in a sordid land: True Story-Part 2

Wed, 22 Dec 2004 18:13:27 GMT

Part 1 of this story is located at:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/manishdhingra/Blog/cns!1pxmTywkHY28UvvoWov1dGSg!123.entry

Part 2

We met Ashok just inside the main gate,there he was after all this while, short ,thin and looking as feeble as ever. "Security wala mujhe jaanta hai saab, isliye andar aane diya", was the impromptu answer to the amazed look on our faces, on finding him inside the gate. The security person was lucky Ashok was just an office boy, otherwise he would probably have been court martialled for letting an informer inside the line of control.

We started off back home, the twenty two km long journey would probably expose some of the secrets of our rivals.After the initial traffic maneuvering and abuses hurled at the errant drivers, the interrogation with Ashok started."Aur Ashok, kaise hain tumhari nayee company, kaam kaise hain", I started the proceedings. "Mat pucho saab, bahut kaam hai, in logon ko kuch nahin aata, aapki company bahut acchi hai saab, bahut professional hain".The comment brought a big smile on our face and made our chests swell."Choti choti cheezon mein cost cutting hota hai saab, bahut kanjoos hai", he continued as our faces began to grow red. Was he praising our luck or cursing his , we were not sure. "Barish mein chhat se paani tapakta hai, canteen ka khana bhi kuch khaas nahi hai". For people who were used to abusing our own canteen food, this was a shocker,imagining anything worse was impossible. "Aur to aur saab, computer mein bhi kanjoosi hai, keyboard kisi aur company ka to mouse kisi aur company ka , aapke jaise nahi, ke pura PC ek hi company ka aur woh bhi latest".

We didn't want to hear more, all the unfound prejudices we had against our company were vanishing.For people who had never worked elsewhere, this was indeed a revelation, Ashok would not lie that was for sure.But the conversation was getting boring, more like poor Ashok's crib session, so I turned the topic a bit."Tu Ashok kaam ki baat bata, waha ki ladkiyan kaise hai", I said bending my neck to look at Ashok. The same question had come back to vex him and I could see his face turning red."Ladkiyan to bahut kamaal ki hai saab, bahut achhi, modern aur khoobsurat hai", he shot back immediately. All the pride which he had given us a little while back was sucked out in a nanosecond, the chest deflated and our faces turned pale, as if we had just seen a ghost. For once I wanted to believe that Ashok was lying, but no Ashok would never lie to us.

Regaining some breath back, I again looked back at Ashok."Main hamesha kehta tha na saab ke aapke layak koi ladki nahi hai, yaha par har ladki apke layak hai", he continued further as I could feel all those vanished prejudices coming back yet again. "Woh kya hain na saab is company ka BPO main bahut kaam hai, aur main BPO wali building main he rehta hu", Ashok grinned. "B P O, we shouted in unison, tu BPO main hain",we exclaimed at the top of our voice, creating such a resonance that the whole car shook.No wonder he was all bonkers over the good looking girls, BPO companies were supposed to have the best of the young generation in all the facets which could attract you to them.

"Aur to aur saab aaj waha par kiss day tha", he said with a bigger grin. "K I S S D A Y", we shouted creating a resonance whose crest could have broken a few glass windows.Ashok, a simple office boy was firing patriot missiles at us, trampling us with ease and elan."To kya hua fir kiss day ko waha par Ashok", we enquired with such a ferocious and eager demaneour that the whole car shook with the question."Bahut kuch hua saab, maine sab dekha, bahut mast tha",he had the grin again, which was becoming more a sign of a shock and awe attack.We didn't know if we would be able to survive this one.

"Jo friends nahi the , woh ladke aur ladki sirf gale mile , ya fir haath milaya, aur jo friends the un ladke aur ladkiyon ne kiss kiya", Ashok replied with the grin intact. I almost went into a trance trying to imagine the same scene in our office, but everytime I tried a black cloth would fall over my eyes.We wouldn't stop there though now that the warfare had begun.After regaining some energy I asked,"To fir Ashok, jo friends the, unme ladkon ne ladkiyon ko kaha par kiss kara". Ashok paused for a couple of seconds and pat came the reply "First floor par".

There was an absolute silence for two seconds, after which we burst out into a thunderous laughter. The entire car was shaking and we laughed and laughed till our diaphrams could no longer stretch. Ashok bore a most serious look on his face. For once he must have felt that he was stuck with two convicts from a madhouse.He had won the war comfortably and we were victorious even in the loss for we had laughed our guts out. For once I wondered, was Ashok just a simpleton, or was he just "A humble man in a sordid land".

End of Story.

Thanks for all the comments on this story, it has really encouraged me to continue my story telling endeavour.Keep watching spaces for more coming in the future.

A humble man in a sordid land: True Story-Part 1

Sat, 18 Dec 2004 19:17:08 GMT

Part 1

Ashok was not like any other office boy. He was extremely dedicated to his work and serving the employees, meeting their every demand. Well that you’d say is true for any office boy, but Ashok was a very humble man, very down to earth and extremely oblivious of the realities of the world. He would frequently ask for a ride home, when the work got too much for him forcing him to do overtime.

The rides back home with Ashok were a fun experience; sitting at the back of the car he would narrate to us the habits of all the top guys of the company. He had served them all in his long three year stint at the company.

“Saab ye client log kitna coffee peeta hai”, he would wonder, “pura din bas tray idhar se udhar unke liye”. We would merrily chuckle to his stories in the front of the car; sometimes vex him with questions on whether any good looking girl had joined the company, or which business unit had a decent sprinkling of a few beautiful female faces. He would immediately turn red with embarrassment. “Koi nahin hai saab, aapke layak koi nahin hain”, was almost always his answer as he would cleverly ward off the question.

On my return from an overseas assignment, I tried to locate Ashok all over but could not find him. I assumed that he had probably been assigned one of the far flung buildings; surely he would call someday for a ride home. It was not to be and so I hoped all was well with him. On inquiring from his colleagues, it was revealed that he no longer worked here and had quit the job. Where had he gone, no one knew.

Until one day, I received a call from Ashok on my cell. “Saab main Ashok, kaise ho saab”, he said in his thin voice, which almost sounded childlike after all this while. “Bas saab sadak ke paar jo company hain , wahan par kaam karta hu ab, aaj ghar kab jayenge saab, aapke saath chalunga”.

There had always been an intense rivalry between our company and the company across the street. Both the companies were leaders in the same space.Due to the security intensive conditions we worked in, where even inhaling an oxygen molecule from the rival company's campus would be considerd a theft of intelluctual property,the curiosity to know how things were in the rival company and how it compared with our company, was abundant. So the best person to quell all this curiosity would be someone who had inhaled molecules from both sides of the street.In short Ashok was going to be subject to some heavy artillery fire to quell the curiosity attack.

End of Part 1

This is my first attempt at story telling. Any comments on my writing style and other factors will be greatly appreciated.