Twinny

I have always known that dogs are loving, and over the years I have made some wonderful four legged friends.  Loyalty and faithfulness is the hallmark of this great animal and humanity would be greatly enriched if we were to borrow a little of this trait from this “animal”.  Teary eyed, I have read James Herriot’s Dog Stories many a times, but it was Twinny who gave me a real life glimpse of how much love a dog has for its master.  

Twinny was not my dog and the name was given by my mother who has a name for all the animals that she feeds.   Twinny was from a house nearby ours and looked to be of mixed ancestry, somebody up in her family tree was a dachshund and thus she too had a dachshund look, albeit a desi one.   We started seeing her regularly only after she was fully grown up. 

Twinny was in fact picked up from some place at the insistence of the young boy of the family, who was enamored by her cute looks.  Once Twinny started growing up, her cuteness diminished and the young master was not interested anymore.   So, they just kicked her out one day, and the young master got a new pup (this time male).   It was at this time that we started seeing Twinny loitering around our back gate and also along the road and pavements and at other nearby places.   My mother found striking similarity between our dog Spotty and Twinny and this is how Twinny got her name.

 Her old owners, especially the kids, would not allow her anywhere in our neighborhood, perhaps it hurt their pride, or maybe they thought Twinny would somehow sneak in and hurt their new dog, I don’t know what their reason was.  They did not allow her to eat peacefully in front of our gate.  The boy would come on his bicycle and create such a ruckus that poor Twinny would run for cover, but she was smart enough to come back once the idiot was gone.  My sister caught the boy red handed in the act once and scolded him hard, after that we did not see him doing anything like that.

One day, there was nobody at home, and I saw Twinny standing at the back gate.   I took out what mom had kept for Twinny, opened the gate, and placed it down there.   Twinny was initially not comfortable taking from my hands but perhaps hunger made her overcame her shyness and in no time she was gorging over the food.   I knew my duty did not finish with just giving her food, I had to make sure she ate it without any hindrance , so I just came inside my compound, closed the gate, and, stood there  with my head resting on the boundary wall.  I could see Twinny eating her food, she was clearly enjoying the rice and fish when suddenly I felt she was getting alert.  I could see a twitch of her ear and from the corner of the eye, I saw a movement.  Twinny’s old owners lived around 100 m away from my home, just across a curvy turn and it was at this turn that I saw the master of the house walking in our direction.  He was perhaps going for his evening walk.   As he came nearer, Twinny left her food, sat erect and to my surprise and astonishment started moving her tail.  The tail movement culminated in a wag, but the old gentleman did not look in our direction and went straight along his path.  I, who was the sole witness of this incident, was moved beyond words.   

There she was, a small, feeble, now living on the street, dog, who after being pampered for a while, was suddenly left on her own, but who still remembered the love she once got from her owners and thereby would wag her tail….it did not matter to her that the person to whom she wagged her tail, did not pet her, did not look at her, or even may have hurt her.  That is the love a dog has for its owner.

My advice for people is that dog is not a toy, to be thrown out after use is over.  He or she is like a junior family member, one who needs our love, attention, and care.  Loving back and being faithful and loyal is somewhat of a default setting for this four legged “animal”.  So please if you are not interested in keeping it like a family member, then please don’t adopt, and once you have decided to go for the adoption, please please never abandon !!!

Adventures in kitchen - 1

I love eating, and that too at a fast rate, (which my mother and sister say is nothing but gulping down food).  Thanks to typhoid, I had to learn to cook as it was the outside food which made me a target of Mr. T.

First task was learning how to knead the flour to make roti.  What looked an entirely simple exercise in the hands of my mother turned into a nightmare for me.  I had seen the flour magically coming together and forming a round nearly spherical shape when mom was at the helm, now the same flour was behaving erratically.  It refused to join together.  I was getting impatient with all the kneading and poured the full glass of water into the kneading plate and soon a floury soup was ready.  Mom was horrified to see my creation and immediately started putting more flour in it.  She asked why did I put all the water at once, I should have slowly mixed water and continued with the kneading, in the end all would have come together.  Because of mixing more water, the dough was very sticky and gluey and it was difficult to make roti out of it.  Mom had to add more and more flour.  In the end, she ended up making 20 rotis instead of the planned 10.

I learned an important lesson about practicing restraint and patience and also what not to do while kneading the flour.

picture courtesy:  esquire.com

THE MAGIC

This incident took place in April 2004, while I was appearing for my final year degree exam.  The paper was cost accounting.  My preparation for this particular paper was very good, so the day before exam, I just went through solved examples and old theory questions.

The next day, I got up early in the morning and by an impulse picked up an old solved question paper and went through the essay problem.  It was a numerical and as I tried to solve it, I got the wrong answer.  I consulted the solution and rectified it.

The examination center Nehru College, Kanhangad, was 2 hours journey by bus, so I had to leave early, but I was feeling euphoric since getting up in the morning and felt so throughout the day.  I nearly shouted with joy once I got the question paper as I knew answers to all the questions and the icing on the cake was the essay numerical of 15 marks, which was the same one that I had practiced in the morning.

On the day previous to costing accounting exam, there was some commotion in the adjacent classroom and I had seen a wailing young man being lead by a group of men towards the main gate some time before the final bell rang.  On enquiring from my friend who was sitting in that classroom, I came to know that this guy had just lost his sister, who was suffering from some incurable disease and his relatives had come to take him home.

On this cost accounting exam day, there was some change in seating arrangements.  Our classroom consisted of 3 columns of desks and benches with 2 students seated on each bench.  The examiners shuffled us with students from the adjacent room, so while I was in the same room, my position changed, I was now in the back bench in the middle column, my bench mate was a guy from the adjacent room.  As I started to write the answers, I could suddenly feel my bench mate’s gaze on my answer sheet.  I was starting to write the first section, that was the one word answers worth 15 marks.  I looked at him and raised my eyebrows to which he pleadingly said, “Just show me the first section answers,” although I felt a bit grumpy initially, I let him copy the answers as I wrote them.

The second section was a bit of mix between theory and numericals and I started working on them.  It was worth 35 marks and required answers that were bigger than first section, but smaller than third section.  I was wholly engrossed in my workout and a couple of times that I glanced at my bench mate, I found him bent over his answer sheet.

Things were moving very smoothly for me and soon I entered the final section, where the same question awaited me that I had practiced in the morning.  As I was working it out, I made the same mistake, got the same wrong answer, but then I also remembered the solution as if someone held the solution book in front of me.  The wrong step was easily corrected I got the correct answer.  The second essay question was also numerical, but it was rather simple and soon I finished it.  There was still 15-20 minutes for the final bell.  I revised my answers.  It looked like the bell would not ring for eternity when I felt a nudge and saw my bench mate again looking pleadingly into my eyes and saying, “Can you show me 1 essay question.”  This time without raising an eyebrow, I showed him the solution to the first essay question.  After some time, the bell rang and I left the room in a hurry to join my friends.  My bench mate was busy writing some other section even as the examiner started collecting answer sheets and so we could not further our acquaintance.  I never saw this guy again as the next day, our seating position was again changed and he probably went back to his old room.

Time flew and I just forgot about this young man.  I had landed a job in a BPO company during the exam vacation and so it was only a month or two after results were out that I could get leaves to go and collect my mark sheet.  The mark sheet is sent by the University to the exam center and so I had to again sit through the 2 hour bus journey to reach Nehru College, Kanhangad, my exam center.  Needless to say I had to take this journey alone as all my friends had collected their mark lists earlier.  I got my mark list and marks were as expected except in costing where I had scored 70/80 whereas I was expecting full marks!

On my way back I was thinking about the adventures that we had while coming to this exam center, the tension on the first day when each of us thought how difficult it was to travel 2 hours everyday just to write this exam and that also eight papers, one of my class mates even picked up a fight with the local students of the college and it snowballed into something else.  I kept thinking about all these and smiling to myself when suddenly my reverie was broken by a young man who had just entered the bus.  He came and stood near me and flashed a smile, I smiled back, and although I faintly remembered his face, I could not place him anywhere.  He asked, “mark list?”  I was carrying my mark list wrapped in polythene bag and I said yes.  “Can I see it”, he asked eagerly.  I passed my mark list and he said, “Hey! I was expecting full marks in costing from you, but you got only 70.”  I said, “I am still wondering about it.”  It was then I was able to recognize my bench mate on the day of costing exam.  After giving back my mark list, he caught my right hand with lot of emotion and said, “Friend what you did that day meant a lot to me”.  I was embarrassed and said, “Come on, I just showed answers worth 15 marks and there is no need for thanking me like this.”  He laughed wholeheartedly at my answer and said, “It looks like you have forgotten, you also showed me 1 essay question worth 15 marks.” I said, “Okay, no big deal.”  He continued, “Since you were so much engrossed in writing, I even copied some answers from your second section without your knowledge.”  I was really amazed at the honesty of this guy.  There was no need for him to come and talk to me in the first place and then also to disclose that how much he had copied.  I just smiled at him.  He said, “That day after exam I wanted to talk to you, but you just vanished, I wanted to tell you my story.  My elder sister was suffering from a terminal disease of the intestine and she passed away on the day just prior to cost accounting exam.  It was my sister’s wish that I complete my degree, and costing was my worst prepared paper.  My sister had insisted that I complete my exam and should appear for cost accounting exam whatever be my preparation.  I came fearing the worst and then this MAGIC happened.  I was moved to your room, and because of you only I managed to score 50 in this exam.  I will be leaving for Mumbai shortly as one of my relatives has promised getting me a job there.  I am very happy that I was able to see you today and tell you how grateful I am for your help.”  Eventually, his bus stop came and he left me after giving a firm hand shake.

I did not own a mobile phone in those days and so did not collect his contact number.  Today, I don’t even remember this guy’s name, his appearance, but this one event left a profound impact on me and had me questioning my own convictions, concepts, and misconceptions that I had formed regarding life, God, and destiny.  On that particular day of cost accounting exam, besides my bench mate, I too had profited from THE MAGIC, or how else could I explain the 15 marks question which I randomly picked in the morning and the same question coming in the exam, the euphoric feeling which was with me all throughout the day, also the unexpected meeting with this guy in the bus.  Coming to think about it, meeting him in the bus was the greatest MAGIC of all as the Kanhangad Highway is crowded with private buses and chances of both of getting in the same bus were as remote as finding a needle in haystack.

Even now when I think about this incident, I am left wondering at the many MAGIC that keeps happening in our lives, which escapes our attention as we are very much busy in running the rat race and keeping ahead of the competition.

NOTE:  Although I am labeling this as a story, this is a real life event.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S .....

As I got out from the bus and walked towards the entrance gate, I could feel something strange in air, but I could not make out, what it was. The terminal was crowded as usual, one wont find KSRTC Kochi in a pensive mood at 10:00 a.m. As I softly hummed a tune and walked towards the exit gate, I spotted a known face in the crowd. It was Jit. Jit was my colleague at my previous company DS solutions, which was a medical transcription solution provider. But what he was doing suprised me as he was carrying a tray which was strapped around his shoulder and had rows of idli arranged on it along with a small container which must have contained chutney. Jit was doing brisk business. Suddenly I heard a pair of voice shouting sharply at each other trying to outdo the other, and I realised one of the voice as belonging to Inod. Now Inod was also from my previous company, but along with the 2 teammanagers had left that company due to disaggrements with the management over some issues and had started another company and were supposed to be transcribing happily everafter, but i found him too, carrying a tray of idli (like Jit) as he was menacingly demanding the amount from the customer who after spotting a fly in the chutney was not willing to pay. I heard Inod rebuking the customer in his trademark style, "You should have fixed your eyes on the plate while eating and not on Bipasha Basu's poster on the opposite wall." After this he added, come on man, only pay the cost of idli (chutney was anyway free). Eventually, but grudginly the customer did pay the amount and left. Like Jit, Inod too did not notice me and quickly left for another spot where a new bus has arrived. As I surveyed my surroundings, I noticed there were also some other youngmen who had trays like Inod and Jit and roaming on the terminal occasionally raising their voice through the din shouting idliiii-chutneeey.

It had been around 6 months since I left Kochi and I could not fathom any reason why Kochi had developed idliphilia and moreover why were MT people doing this selling idli business, as their job was transcribing dictations of US and UK physicians. Luckily my former company was only about 20 minutes from the terminal and I thought it was better to go in there and check it out myself.

Luckily for me, Mr. Ose who was the CEO of my ex-company was in his office along with his manager Mr. Opez. He gave out a broad smile and a heavy handshake and said

Hi DK, how are you, so what brings you here, by the way, you have lost lot of hair man, you used to have such a fine crop of hair when you worked for us. Finishing this sentence he burst out into laughter.

Correct, 100% correct, chipped in Mr. Opez and also jumped into the laughing contest along with his boss, but could not outdo him.

As silence returned to the room, i said, Sir, I saw Jit in bus stand and i was shocked by what i saw.

Why were you shocked DK, tell me, was he begging or doing some sort of criminal/antisocial activity?

No sir, he was selling idlis at the bus stand.

So what is wrong with that? he asked.

Well sir, he is trained MT, he is supposed to be trascribing dictations and not selling idlis.

Okay DK, i will come to it, but first, I hear, you read lot of books, is it true?

Yeah I read when I get time, but mostly fiction.

Okay, then have you read 1nite@call center?

Yes I have read it.

What, you read it and then also you could not imbibe the principles from that book, very sorry to hear that, now listen to me;

In whole of this transcription business, ie callcenter, transcription center, even software sector, whom are we serving?

Customers.

Yeah customers, but specifically it is foreign customers, Americans, Brits.....

What are we getting in return? Okay money is there, but it is not everything, are we getting respect? No a big no.

But sir, i tried to interfere.......

Listen, we are working hard, very hard, 24x7, but is our work being recognised there? No, the answer is no. Ask any American, they will say, oh yeah outsourcing, it is making our people unemployed. Ask them to compare, they will say, these indian MTs are okay, but not that good, lots of quality issues........

So you see DK "respect", we are not getting that from our work. And it was the main reason I decided to change over. I am very happy now and really did not find any difficulty in switching over. I have the trained people, training infrastructure, system administrator, so I just moved in for the kill.

But Sir, you had trained your staff for transcribing and not selling idli.

What is the difference? In transcription, you go after line count, here you go after idli. In transcription, the more line count you do, the more you earn, here the more you sell idli, the more you earn. You get my point.

I slowly nodded and asked, how do you mange?

Well you see, I have divided whole Kochi into 5 zones, each zone is headed by a system administrator who in our new setup is called IA(idli administrator). He has a company van at his disposal (with supply of idli and chutney) along with a team of IE(Idli executives). He has to see that each IE meets his target and also that idli is sold before the TAT (turn-around time), just like in medical transcription.

How is the pay?

Well you will be getting 50 p for each idli sold under target and 55 p for each sold above target. For eg Jit who is a senior IE has a daily target of 550 idlis. Upto 550 idlis, he will be getting 50 p per idli, but for the 551st idli, he will be getting 55 p.

As I started doing multiplication in my mind, he added, DK, you cannot judge everything in life by money alone.

By the way, DK, have you not noticed our logo?

Yes sir, many times.

Did you not see the blue colored idli in it, he added with his gleeming eyes and again burst out laughing along with his echo.

After the laughing episode was over he picked the phone and said, tell ekka to bring idlis for DK.

DK, do you know, this is a great business and now everyone is follwing my steps. Ectrum, N2, Aweonline, even those 2 copycats (referring to previous managers). I hear that their henchman (reffering to Inod who is a 6 footer) is always following Jit in order to whisk some customers away. You know, DK, Jit had the highest idli selling point for the last month.

I was starting to get bored and still could not understand how and why everybody were so much attracted towards idli (selling, buying and eating) when Ekka opened the door slightly, put his head inside and gave a toothy grin, but then there was also something strange in his smile too, but again I could not make it out. Then he said, ready 1, 2 and 3 saying which he opened the door completely and stepped aside and vanished from the room along with Mr. Ose and Mr. Opez. I saw hundreds and thousands of idli streaming in through the dooor filling the room at great speed. As I started to move my hands and legs to keep the idlis away from me, I suddenly had a falling sensation and then suddenly it was all over. I was lying on the floor of my room in Coimbatore, drenched in sweat.

EPILOGUE: What I saw in my Saturday night dream was a culmination of some events which took place during the week. First, I had brief skirmishes with my Team Lead over line count. Second, the fan in my room fell and hit the floor, on the way, smoothly caressing my hand, but luckily I did not suffer even a scratch (touchwood), resulting in a very disturbed sleep in a room without any ventilation. When I went to sleep, I was thinking about line count and how the managers presurize MTs to go after line count which may result in error (which is a dangerous thing, as it may affect the patient's health). I am writing this as I found the similarity between idli and line count funny and tempting and is not meant to offend anyone.

Deekay