A Quiver Full of Arrows

Curious Incident of the Phone in the Night-time

If you were under the impression that MSM is responsible for most of life's problems, then you are mistaken. I just realised today that AIM can be equally dangerous too. Now blogs come under the latter category and the more popular ones in India, I have observed, have the power to shape public opinion and behavior. Take the case of that notoriously celebrated blogger who uploaded the 'in'famous Trisha video at his site and was almost sued for libel..and then, refusing to learn from past mistakes, he went one step further by also giving a lot of unecessary publicity to that poor Billion Dollar Company's prankster on the bench. You guys know what I am talking about, right !! Now, why all this you may ask !! Wait... lemme say it my way...Regular readers of this blog are well aware of my unabashed admiration, bordering on worship, for a prolific blogger who is very famous for his life-enhancing mushy (YEAH, I am, saying that) short stories...Hehehehe..that sounded so corny...It now appears as if a lot of ppl have taken to enacting some of the scenes from those classics in real life...

On Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, as this happened from 11:59:54 pm to 12:00:05 am (wot awesome timing), I got my first anonymous fan calling in from god-knows-where. If there is one thing I absolutely cannot tolerate, then it is my mobile phone ringing after I have hit the sack. I've tried keeping it in silent mode but quite often this has had disastrous effects since I forget to put it back in General mode and end up missing a lot of calls and realising it very late...I digressed again, didn't I ? :-( Neway I got this crazy fone call at 11:59:54 on Tuesday night and when I finally picked it up after trying to ignore it for around 4 rings, there was a sweet female voice at the other end of the line. Wait...Don't scoff at that...I swear I'm not fibbing...It was all too good to be true and at that moment, I didn't believe it myself. And then this voice at the other end wished me Happy Birthday. When I look back now, there could have been a million possible responses but any guesses on what I did. Yes. I just said "Thanks" and hung up...But then you might say, Wednesday isn't my Birthday right...Of course, this is where Jupe is smart. The last thing he wanted to do was correct that sweet thing and ensure that he is disturbed again the following night... Smart move nuh ?? (pat on Jupe's back) Neway the next morning when I was up and awake, the first thing I did was to check my mobile for the no. It looked like a Reliance number which meant I did not stand much of a chance of finding out who it could have been unless I called back... which I could not coz of Jupe's principle no: 5 of mobile fone etiquette..Never return calls from strangers. But then there is also this thing called curiosity...So finally got a friend of mine to call the no: but I guess the chick was smarter than I imagined. The fone was not reachable or sthg like that...Neway I am pretty sure its someone from the immediate past since I was clearly adressed as Jupe so here's a big THANKOO from Jupe to this secret admirer ;-)

Embarassment of the Nth order

You wake up as late as possible, you do your daily chores, you try to act as if everything is normal hoping that your folks will understand that you are too old to celebrate the occassion but naaah....that just didn't happen... Well...what exactly happened on Thursday was that I had to wear the new dress (MN, you better start practicing fast sprints coz I'm gonna kill ya when I meet ya...the damn shirt didn't have a pocket and the orange was way too bright), do the namaskaram and accept the money (which isn't all that bad) and...here comes the sheeeeeeeesh part....actually cut a cake :-( Twas a good rich one too...Those 3 huge slices must have set my fitness regimen back by a month :-(

What is usually the most enjoyable part of the day are the numerous fone calls and the pampering & attention (atleast I am honest enough to accept it) that I get from 'the makkal' but this time the day happened to co-incide with our annual technical symposium and so everytime I got a fone call, I had to escape from the crowd and take it in private. Another embarassing / annoying thing was the endless stream of wishes coming in from total strangers greeting everyone in my workplace who celebrated their B'days on that day (there is a tool in our intranet which lets you send emails to this lot) - at last count, I think we got something like 32 such mails. Ufffffff.

..and of course, there is this kiddish lot who sent e-cards with rude messages about one getting older and blah blah blah...When will these pigs (hehehe) realise that unlike a lot of ppl I know, I actually enjoy growing older :-p So please save all this crap for someone else.. It gets so embarassing to open these e-cards (not to mention the accompanying music) and read such juvenile stuff ;-)

Smile time

Yes..almost everyone I expected called and wished...atleast the ones that matter most...and I really appreciate those two loooooooong distance calls and that one looooooooooong call...Did I forget to mention my two machaans who, even on this day, gave a missed call and expected me to call back...If only you guys had behaved otherwise, I would have hated the world for changing...Sometimes status quo rocks...

Lunatics Unleashed

Though my really close buddies know that I hate sentimental gifts (why 'thin flimsy paper with Gandhi on one side' as an option eludes their pea brains continues to baffle me..Hint Hint) the more creative in this motley lot always spring a surprise or two with their whacky stunts...This year the bar has been raised really high...I got this really cute mail which reads something like this...

This is a PRE-PAID Voucher that entitles the bearer to 2 Days and 1 night of 'Comforts Unlimited' (???) at {some address in Sona Gachchi}. Kindly redeem by Jan 1st 2006.

Please note:
1. Reserve a week in advance.
2. In case of last minute cancellations, there will be no refund.
3. Baggage and Belongings are at your own risk during the stay.

..and yes, please remember to fill the feedback form at the end of your stay. This will entitle you to a 20% discount during your second visit. After all, Customer Delight is a thing of the past. Its the time for Customer Orgasm ;-)

Well..what do I say ? Funny... very very funny... but where the hell are my travel tickets ? And remember, nothing less than 2nd a/c ;-)

Disappointments

There had to be some, right...I jes remember that one dear pal didn't call......who it now looks like is well and truly happily married...Maybe I should re-read that article which appeared in the TOI sometime back..."Losing your best friend to a romantic partner" :-p

Yeah, it would have been good to round off the day by winning Dumb C at the culturals but then I can only remember the thathuva paadal "Ninaipadhellam Nadandhuvittaal..." ;-) Btw, we came 3rd and missed the second prize coz we were 3 Marketing people in the team and there was a round where we had to mime 'Cyclic Redundancy Code' - WTF !!!

OK OK. We've come to the end of this post and I know you are still itchng to know what MSM and AIM are. Of course, I was flaunting. I just learnt these two acronyms from a new blog. MSM is MainStream Media and AIM is Alternate or Independent Media. hehehehhee..Sorry huh...kya karein, aisa hi hoon main ;-)