A Lost Battle…

“You got some time? Lets discuss about your past six months activities.  I got this work pending and the deadlines were the 10th of this month.”  Heard a familiar casual tone, as I was heading towards my cubical with heavy foot, after having routinely evening snacks. Of course the familiar voice was Boss’s, who definitely gets no time even to comb his remaining hairs. Watching me nodding positively, he headed towards a corner meeting room and I followed him obediently.

My evaluation form, which I had filled in almost no time(copying–pasting from last evaluation form) was wide open and my laziness was quiet visible in the comment sections of the form.

“Let me be transparent(not even translucent in my opinion) in this meeting, I’ll be rating your different parameters only in front of you by having a proper discussion. Oh! the comment sections are not filled properly. How do I know what have you done throughout the past months. I can’t remembers works of all team members, as there are several working under me.”  Spending no time he came straight to the first point : Quality.

“Actually, quality wise you have done a decent job, completed tasks on time, some times, well before hand. You are meeting the targets set for you…”

“Who sets the target for me?” I interrupted in the middle trying to be vigilant.

“That comes from the higher authorities. Now, where were we! Yes, quality wise you met the targets but it seems something is missing!”

“Something is missing!! What got missing?”

“Well I remember you didn’t performed well during one of the application release activities. That’s, what makes you not 100%.” he explained with a fake smile.

“I thought you would be reviewing my coding and analytical abilities, but the mentioned missing thing is fatuous.” I replied, thinking of the saying: Misdeeds are enduring while good deeds are ephemeral.

“That’s not pointless and its because sometimes you are not attentive. You have to be always careful, mistakes are not permitted. Lets see another parameter: Effort.

Your effort is efficient to the project specific works.  But the story here also lies the same. What extra effort have you put?” he questioned impassively looking directly at me.

“No extra payment no extra effort” I shrugged.

“Oh, there lies the problem. You do works which I assign to you. You do it pretty good or somehow I can say excellent, but you should take an initiative and come and ask me for some works.”

Being speechless, I nodded affirmatively.

“You have to do some extra things. Take an example. How many people have you appreciated in the our team for their good works. Have you ever came to me said: Oh Boss! You have done an excellent work. Kudos to you! Well done Bravo….”

“I thought that appreciation thing is only a top down approach. Means, the senior member should appreciate the junior one, and I fall in junior category,  otherwise it would be a supercilious act, a flattery.” I replied in defense.

“Oh no! That’s not what you think, Suppose, you provide a tip to waiter in a restaurant, think of it from perspective of the waiter: He might feel proud that he is rewarded because he’s done a good job serving his customers. Same feelings also applies here. We will also feel happy with such an appreciation.”

I thought of the idea may not be relevant but it was a well chosen comparison. Meanwhile the discussion was over with some more healthy tips. The outcomes suggested that the battle was already won: of-course not by me!! 

A Technical Viva

“Hey! How is the External(interviewer) ?” I asked one of my classmate, who just got out of the interview room.
“He’s really a ‘Khadus’(bastard) ! He thinks himself nothing less than Bill Gates.” Got a disappointing reply from him.
It’s the semester viva, 3rd semester. The subject is “Principle Of Programming Languages”.We are having group viva, consisting of at least 5 people  in group. The first group, joining the External is the unluckiest one because they do not get any feedback . Whenever a group,comes out of the interviewer’s room , narrates the questions being asked , the mood and personality of External.
“What is the Intel's latest processor ?” came a voice in chaos.
One of my group member looked at me for an answer. I shrugged , murmured Pentium, the only processor I had heard about. He made a disgusting look and went in search for “Raju Scientist”, a guy who had the first assembled desktop in our batch.
Its Quart Core, the latest processor.”
“Is scanner an input device or output device ?” heard another question in chaos.
“It must be an input device , because when I told him that it is an output device ,he gave me a pity look.” came an answer from the mob.
Next was our group’s turn, the second last group. Only thing good was, we could proudly say that we were  nicely dressed ,in formal wear just to impress the External.
“Oh ! You people are really looking nice in formal wear. Let me check , whether your brains are as nice as your dresses ! All the previous group people really disappointed me and now I  expect some smart answers from this group. So should I proceed ? ” A mid-fifties ,half bald person with a large spectacle up on the nose , greeted us as we entered.
“Yes Sir !” we replied in unison.
“OK, Good ! Now , as the subject name is “Principle of programming languages” so tell me ,What do you people understand by programming language ?” He put a glance at the person sitting at the edge of our row.
“It’s a language used by programmers, and programmers generally use it.” He added the answer followed by  a pin drop silence.
“Programming language is a…” another person tried hard to recall but could not remember the rest part of definition.
The interviewer stared at rest of us ,as of asking any thing extra we want to add. All eyes went down as a response to his expectations.
“OK” he sighed. “Tell me in which languages we generally do programming ?”
“Sir , Its English ! We do all our coding in English Language”,came a  quick reply.
“Are you sure ? The programming language is English ?”
“Yes Sir ! We don’t have a Hindi keyboard yet.”
“Have you heard of Dennis Ritchie ?” He asked looking at me.
Who the heck on earth was he? I though,  nodded a negative response despite his anticipation.
“You must be knowing Daniel Craig !” he asked sarcastically.
The named seemed familiar ,so I nodded a positive response this time with much confidence.
Pissed off my response he took a disgusting look at each of us.
“Oh good ! I am overwhelmed to meet students like you.” He stopped and thought for a while, “You must be having computers with you , at least tell the configuration of your computers.”
“Actually Sir , it’s a monitor , a CPU , a keyboard , a mouse and a UPS configured together.” came a girl’s voice as a response.
“Great to see the future of Information Technology. Now , you may leave , please!”
We came out without dignity but  winning a battle against ignorance.
“Hey How is the External ?” One of the person from last group asked me.
“He is really a jerk,a bastard,**** !”

A Christmas Present

“Wake up, you loafer ! Don’t waste my time. I have lots of places to visit. Get up  otherwise you will miss this Christmas present.”
A portly,white bearded man wearing a redcoat with white collar and a red trouser ,was beside my bed , having some gift packs along with a red envelope in his hands.
“Stop yawning and listen to me carefully. I got a Christmas present for you.”
“Christmas present for me ! I never got any earlier.” I responded rubbing my eyes.
“Yes ! You come across all the good things only once in your life. Although the bad things happen repeatedly.”
I had an eye on the largest gift box in his hands but contrary to my expectations he handed me the red envelope.
“It’s a message from God. He was complaining that ,it’s been a long time since you remembered him.” he answered before I could ask what was it ?
I recalled, the last time I prayed was just before the final assessment in training. Later, I tried visiting some popular temples for ‘Puja’, ‘Archna’ and ‘Aarti’ but each time I ended up with empty wallet for the sake of pundits there.
I opened the envelope , there was a letter and a message written on it.
 
Dear human,

“Once there was a beautiful place in universe called Earth, that I had provided to you for living. You started living happily in that heavenly environment. But as you increased in numbers you developed a common characteristics among yourself : “hatred”. And this very envy among yourself is helping me out in a way.Here, I got a shortage of tormented space  so called ‘HELL’. So I was thinking of shifting this HELL called thing there, on Earth ,as it seems there would be no any difference in both in the coming future.”
“But there is still time left. Stop being a Villain through out your lifetime ! Stop daydreaming and sitting idle all the day! Stop being possessive in nature! Do not wait to listen what others say about yourself . The inside story is in “What you think of yourself.” There is always only one obstacle in your progressive life and that is YOU. Change yourself if you can, otherwise the Earth would be renamed as ‘HELL !’”

Yours,
GOD

When a Stranger Calls

• Venue – Boy’s Hostel(3rd year) ,No. –12
• Timing – around 11 pm ,December ,2009

KC , my 1st year roommate , comes to my room .He is a movie maniac. Whenever he entered my room  late at night , it was sure I had to watch a movie with him. That day he came with a pen drive and a movie in it. Without any discussion about which movie to watch , he plugged in the pen drive . It was horror movie name     “One Missed Call ”.
Movie was decided , so it was time to make room environment unfriendly for a horror movie. Lights were switched off , woofers were connected, door was shut and windows were opened as of making a bypass for spirits. Movie was started around 12 am .
Story was about a chain of people who received terrifying phone calls from themselves in the future in form of  voice mails that include the date and  exact time of their deaths. The death chain continues as the victim receives a call from the last victim. Some scenes were quite scary to have goose bumps. Well , the massage of movie was  “ Should you ever receive a phone call from yourself dated in the future , do not answer ! ”
The show  ended around 1:30 am ,and as usual it was time to have a brief discussion on it , the missing manual : what , why and how the  story proceeded in movie. The discussion went about one and a half hour, firing philosophy of ghosts by two of us .In the end I requested him to sleep on the bed next to me ,as ghosts of different shapes were performing ‘Tandava’ in my mind.
It was around 3 am ,when the silence in the room was pierced by nokia tune. My heart rose to my throat.It was an unknown call.  I looked at KC , he was also looking at me with his mouth open. He was in no mood of receiving the call , so I had to grasp it, answered “Hello” in a breathless voice.
“Is Sanjay there ? I want to talk with him”
came a girl’s voice from the other side. I took a sigh of relief, recalled, Is there any one named ‘Sanjay’ in my corridor : ‘No’ , Is there any one named ‘Sanjay’ in my branch of strength 30 boys : ‘No’.  I handed the phone to KC , thought, she might be looking for him. He stammered as he said “Hello” in a low tone.
“I want to talk with Sanjay , hand over the phone to him”
“Are Bengali phone rakhega, Sale ! sone do .”
 his irritation rasped in his voice as he hanged up the phone.
“He is ‘Bengali’ ,on the other side. He’s using some mobile app that is used to translate a male voice in a female one.I’ve seen it on TV”
 He explained to me that the person on the other side might be one of our batch mate “a bengali guy”. I thought he should be correct otherwise  my time was up as received a unknown call like seen in the movie. Meanwhile ,the phone ranged the second time, displaying same unknown number. I picked up again ,the same voice came
“Why don’t you let me talk with Sanjay ? Its urgent”
“There is nobody called ‘Sanjay’ here. Now, would you please stop ringing me at this time”  I replied.
“No, its urgent. I have some problems” she said again.
“Sanjay is nowhere present here, how can I hand over phone to him”
“OK, then you must help me . I am a 12th class student and I have some problem in solving H.C. Verma’s Physics book questions” she said like she had called in a Physics helpline center .
“Is this the time to ask  questions related to Physics , now , just get lost and let me sleep” I  replied in a harsh tone.
“you just get lost….” I could hear before hanging up for the second time.
 I looked at KC , who was about to leave my room because of disturbance. I pulled him back to bed ,as the phoned ranged for third time.
“Just help me to solve one question -   A man throws a ball with velocity 'u' and angle Θ,from a lift  which is moving upward with velocity ‘v’ .With what velocity does the ball touch the ground ?” she asked as I picked up the phone.
“OK its ‘v+u’ multiplied by cosΘ divided by under root sin2Θ plus 'u' by tanΘ” I replied in a random guess as KC was chuckling beside me.
“No, its not the answer , tell me the correct one.” she said after waiting for few seconds , might be checking the answer.
“Then I don’t know how to solve it . Now please hang the phone up and let me sleep , I have to attend morning sessions at College. If you have any more questions, call me in the morning.. no in the afternoon, I’ve classes in the morning.” I slammed down the phone without waiting for a response. Put the phone is silence and went bed thinking of that person who was more than just a scary ghost from the movie.

• Timing : around 8:30 am

I woke up , grasped the phone, looked at its screen. It displayed….
“+9197…….. 
39 missed calls” .