The 7 am hiatus...

Ok so I know I have been hibernating for so long that most of the people have even forgotten that I ever existed….and now that I have had a long enough break, I so hope that I will have something to write about on a more regular basis.Well..i am back…and this time for the good…

So,while I had been spending my time away from the blog world, it really wasn’t for the good…The generally jobless me was overloaded and bombarded with work...Well I know I should be happy that I finally got some work after months of boredom in my office, but the saddest part was that the work that I eventually got to work on was more boring than the non work that I didn’t have…Alright…Yeah…it’s kind of confusing…so be it...I never understood it anyway...

So, for the past one month, I have been living with meetings. Meetings that start at 7...and end only when I am on the verge of collapsing...I start my day with one...and of course end it too with a couple of them to haunt me through the night.Well for those who know me, they also know for the fact that my mornings don’t begin before 11.All the 4 years of college, I could never make it for the first two lectures; In Gurgaon, mornings started at 10, but this new job wasn’t too emphatic with my state.… and with much difficulty, (and umpteen efforts for 6 months), I finally clocked my self to get up at 8 and somehow reach office by 10,an achievement that my family celebrated for quite a few days. As days went by, I started getting adjusted to my 8 am mornings, and suddenly one evening as I was comfortably sitting on the easy chair planning my next meal, I got a sms from my manager.

Now, my manager deserves another post to be written about since mentioning her in just a few lines would be a injustice to her kind of a personality.So, I will make sure that my coming posts do talk about her.

Coming back to the discussion, I got a message from her, stating that there is a review meeting scheduled for 7 am the next morning. I was aghast!!! What was she thinking,7 am is no time. It was almost midnight…I read the message again,and again..and when I realized that the words were just as I was reading them,and didn’t appear to change,I called her to confirm if she really had lost it completely. Talk about being curt, she wasn’t even apologetic for calling me on such unruly hours…and I knew I didn’t have a choice but to go.Vin tried to console me by saying that it wouldn’t happen again, and just once I could manage it…and so I did and the rest is just history……

But such is the irony of life... that fateful, horrendous and freaking day marked the beginning of a never ending torture on me.And now,I reach office at 6:45 am…attend meetings till 4 pm,and end up getting yelled at for not giving any work stats reports which should be out by 4 pm anyways.And so, the poor me has been juggling with trying to please one and all…and getting nowhere.To make things better(read worse..Iam in my sarcastic mode), 3 of my super bosses are on a visit to the India office .So this lady(lets call her V) has taken a step further to leave no stone unturned to impress each one of them.Dont know how many are impressed, but the whole process has surely killed me.

So, one of these fateful meeting days of mine, I was struggling with discussions since 7 am. It was already 1230, and along with being hungry, I was damn sleepy and yawning shamelessly (well not really, I was trying really hard to control it…) as the VP was addressing us. I don’t know if everyone can relate to the pain of being hungry and sleepy at the same time, but it surely is a deadly combo for me.And right when I was on the verge of getting stoned, this fun loving VP(lets call him C) of ours decided to have some fun session, and he wanted our feedback on whatever nonsense he was trying to utter.Me being me,thought I could really get away by trying and being moderately responsive and sleeping with eyes wide open…And so it began..the discussion on Perception…C was trying really hard to sound like a cool guy (at 50, he is neither cool, nor funny,and the least interesting)..
C:-So guys, lets talk about perception and how we can turn our perceptions into a world class thought process of a world class team.

While everyone raised their hands like 5 year old nursery kids, I was still trying to get back to my senses...and trying to understand what he was really talking about...

C-So Richa, you look contemplative..lets start with you…

“(Huh..why me?I don’t even know what you are asking..contemplative…man..Iam dying of lack of sleep..and im starving all in an effort to tolerate your nonsense.…and you call me contemplative….!!!grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!)”

Some gibberish that I uttered,somehow saved me from being caught red handed in my sleeping act.

C:-Great Richa…so now let’s hear you all…

Phew..….Some more futile and silly questions later…..as we dug in deeper to understand what Perception meant…

C:-Ok guys, how many of you have been to the US

Voila…I was safe here..I grinned and grinned ,I have never been to the mighty US..and there was no way he could have directed the question to me..and so I fell back and started to go back to my relaxation mode..

Everyone else was looking at each other,so it was obvious that none had been…V was observing everyone in the meantime in a hope that some one will raise a hand..and when no one did,she decided to volunteer.(No matter how sleepy I was,I could bet,she had never been there…and she was faking…)

C:-Ok V…so Can you tell me what do they mean when they have 55 MPH written on their expressways.?

Now,this was getting interesting,and I woke up to see the most priceless expression I have seen on some ones face.She didn’t know..and it was evident.But now that she was trapped in her own oversmart move,she didn’t have a choice.So ,after an initial hiccup,she started to speak…

C:-“It means the same like it means here in India,It is ofcourse the maximum speed limit and it means that people cant go beyond 55 mph and the difference between US and India is that people there follow rules”

It seems that she went a little wrong with her overboard answer..I didn’t know until C got uncomfortable with her silly answer.and suggested that it really was the other way around..

And as C continued the discussion with how 55 mph means the minimum speed limit and not the maximum, there she was…embarrassed…and irritated ofcourse…and as she tried to confirm that she meant the same… I burst out in a laughter(to my amusement,everyone felt that I was coughing…as they passed me a glass of water)…I finally had a jump start to the rest of the day….What happened to her…?Well she hasn’t raised her hand for any of the questions till date..I guess she will take some time to gather her thoughts..
And what happened to me after that…well..I got a new manager..The 7 am meetings continue…but this time..I am not complaining…!!
P.S.:-I realized that this is my first post of 2009…16 days since the new years went by…And that just reminds me that I am yet to make my new year resolutions for 2009...I have already started Contemplating..contemplation is good for me...:)

Happpy New Year…!!!