I was part of an audit team and we were camped at a Hotel in
Dehradun during Nov-Dec 2012. We were 2 Executives
(I was one of them), 1 Asst. Manager and 1 Audit Manager, all sharing a double
bed room. We were not complaining as
most of the rooms falling in our budget were booked in advance because of some
VIP marriage and also during this time it was very cold in Dehradun, so
foursome was not a crowd.
As there was only 1 bathroom attached, we had to time our
rising up from bed. When I woke up in
the morning, it was already 6:30, and the other executive was up and watching
TV, I guess it was some Tamil/Telugu Action Movie. As I got up and moved out of bed, the
executive watching TV left the chair and rushed to the bathroom, exclaiming
that he would be out in 10 minutes. For
want of anything better to do, I took the remote control and started surfing
channels.
As someone who quit watching
TV long time back, I have my sympathies for the current generation of TV
viewers. It is really tough for one to
select, chose and view when there are thousands of options being bombarded from
all directions; daily soaps, reality shows, sports, movies, news channels,
fashion channels, music channels, all vying for one’s eyeballs.
Finally, I zeroed in on Children’s channel, Pogo I suppose, it
was showing Charlie Chaplin’s movie. You
know, Charlie, always the unemployed tramp, is newly employed at a
factory.
THE SCENE: The owner of the factory is not happy with
the productivity and wants everyone to work more and increase
productivity. Charlie Chaplin is very
much eager to prove himself at his new job, his job is on the conveyer belt and
all he has to do is just hammer in a screw into a metal plate. When everybody goes for break, Charlie Chaplin
continues with his hammering and upsets the conveyor belt. In the meantime, the cleaning women comes and
asks Charlie to step aside. While the
cleaning women is bent and mopping the floor, Charlie who is now hammering
every protruding object like a manic as he cannot stop his hand, spots a button
on the woman’s butt, which looks like a screw waiting to be hit, finally he
gives in and hits her with the hammer on the butt and the lady chases him
around the factory for his (mis)deed.
I was laughing like a mad man while all this was going
on. The Assist. Manager woke up because
of my laughing, wondering what the hullabaloo was all about? I pointed to the
screen as I could not talk and I was breathless with all the laughing. The other executive meanwhile came out of the
bathroom and exclaimed, “Hey, you still watch all this stuff?” It was sort of an accusation, after all weren't
all of us grownups?
I immediately made a lunge towards the bathroom. Fifteen minutes afterwards I stepped out into
a different room, a room which was livelier, cheerful, and full of camaraderie. My executive colleague was all dressed up and
ready, sitting in the chair and laughing like a man possessed, giving him
company were our Assist manager, sitting on the edge of the bed and Audit
manager, still cuddled up in the bed with the blanket on.
THE SCENE: The Owner of the company has bought some new
machine which can feed the workers, so
What brought this incident back to my mind was the FB status
on my friend’s time line, which said, if you can still laugh watching Tom and
Jerry, then it means life has been kind to you!
While I have never
had problems laughing while watching Tom & Jerry, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel
and Hardy, perhaps the three of my colleagues, never had the chance or time or
inclination to check out on these. However,
when chance came on a cold morning in December in Dehradun, none of them were
found wanting!
Thank you Charlie Chaplin,
Tom & Jerry, Laurel & Hardy for always
bringing the kid out of us, and thank you Richa for your wonderful time line
post, which brought this memory to the fore.
).
).
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