Small Town. Big State.

Hi All, I will go through the obvious first. I know there isn’t anyone reading this (and if you stumbled here by mistake, please comment. I really want to know why you reading this). And, ya, I am jobless yet again.

I am currently in a big town (not a small city, Mind you) working for one of the biggest corporate houses of free India. And with about a month and half behind me, I can safely say that the good thing about being an MBA is that you really don’t have a skill set, more importantly people know it as a fact and most importantly they are still ready to pay you. Anyways, there’s this amazing analytical mind that we possess that people want to make use of. Frankly, even I want to make use of this exceptional and I suspect nonexistent talent.

I must admit, it is much more fun than IT ever was. I get to put on my thinking cap a lot more (Commentary on IPL 2) and most importantly I work under a manager who I think is awesome (one thing that I thought was a myth: Good managers). The only sad part is, before I start thinking about stuff, I need to talk to people in the department. After almost two years in the IT, I was of the belief that corporate work culture is cold compared to a more traditional manufacturing setup (Don’t we all live in hope?).

Oh boy, I couldn’t be more wrong. They have simple way of functioning here. Consider you work in a manufacturing plant for some odd reason and you want some work done from a guy, say Mr. X. Mr. X will look at where exactly you fit into the hierarchy. If you are above him, you might (watch the word, never will I make the mistake of saying WILL) get the work done then and there. If you are equal to him, he’s gonna give you a nice sweet lecture on how he’s busy and how he will surely get back in a day or two (trust me, your next two days will be wasted trying to get the work done). And if you fall in the third and the obvious category and assume you ask him “Can you help me here, I think I am about to die”, Mr. X will look up and down like you come from another planet and then say “Sorry”. Dead or about to die are the same here. Neither can help him today.

Courtesy and simple common sense isn’t really a must in this place. Let me validate my statement through a seriously true incident. The plant that I work for/in has an ongoing feud between the management and the union. Employees (like us) who are not worthy enough to be on either party have a serious safety issue. So, there’s this extensive planning going on about who will go in whose car as walking or going on a bike is a big risk. And of course as you should have guessed, I wasn’t in their plans at all (although I was sitting right in front of most of them). Anyways, one of these girls who I work with suddenly looks at me and goes:

Miss X: You also have to go home right (BIG Finding. Wish I could come up with such findings for my own project). How do you come usually?

Moi: Walking.

Miss X: That is highly unsafe right (Another good finding)

Moi: I guess.

Miss X (to Mr. X): Don’t you think it is unsafe for him to walk.

Mr. X: Who is he? (I was sitting 2 cubicles away from him for one month now)

Miss X: Trainee

Mr. X: Its safe enough.

Miss X: Ok

He doesn’t seem to know me but he was damn sure I would be safe. Maybe he’s watched a south Indian movie and assumed all people from south are used to fighting more than ten people at a time. Lot more stories in the pipeline. Next post maybe.

Is it just me or does the IPL trophy really look sad? I had never really got the fashion sense that most people seem (at least they themselves believe) to possess. Why do people call it good design just because there’s zillions worth of ruby and diamond stuck on it? As far as my fashion impaired mind goes, the only person who should be saying “What a real beauty!” is the guy who’s planning to steal it. An ugly looking thing which costs a lot and is light compared to anything else you can get at that price. So, basically, my point is, it is so light that you can transport it easily, so ugly that you would readily part with it and so costly that you make a fortune for parting with it. I am a big supporter of Chennai Super Kings and I sometimes think CSK wantedly lost the final because Dhoni really didn’t like the idea of, as commentators put it, “get his hands on the trophy”. If they manage to get to the final again and lose, I might have struck on something valid. I always feel like posting when I am damn frustrated and I recently went through this amazing blog. Guess who? Lets just say that Appam has risen in popularity for all the wrong reasons.