The birds flew past Sutton

Another weekday afternoon in south London. It is still BST. 

A non descript building by the railway station witnesses a flock of white geese slowly rise from the eastern sky.UFOs, said a colleague, unsure of the species.

The dark grey sky on the west, gloriously dotted with moving white silhouettes of the travellers. Rather like a clear night of stars. Croydon to Heathrow, the flight path.

Across and upward, climbing over a rainstorm, spanning large distances in only a few short minutes.

The sky full of birds moves as one towards the north west for possibly a thousand more miles.The city moves on detached and oblivious of this marvellous event!

On work

A rather thought provoking talk on various aspects of work - type, meaning, motivation, end - by Alain de Botton. at the RSA (Royal Society for encouragement of Arts etc)

[The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work]

The story of the office plant

Imagine for a while, I could be an office plant.  I could sit on a pedestal - look pretty - be tended to - watered - pruned - left in the sunshine from time to time - admired - part of a corporate  -- peep at who is using facebook during meetings - overhear talk of who gets that position -  the next kill-the-competition plan <mm!>,  who has favours with who, hear what they really thought at the meeting <tsk tsk> - watch success parties of all sorts <uh oh> - watch who falls asleep at their desk  - myself nod off in the soft tap-tap of keyboards - avoid fake conversation with people <cackle!>  - not have to nod my head to unacceptableness <yeah>. Sigh. 

Lunch in Uxbridge Road

It is always silent here, no matter what time of the day. Hardly anyone talks. From the pantry behind me, there emerges humming sounds of the rattling microwave and clattering spoons in the backdrop of water falling into the sink. The fragrance of home-cooked pasta floats in the air. Some of the team are away at the gym across the road. The demolition cranes are pecking away at concrete slabs from the building (it should be called demolish-ing) next door. As usual, there is the lady eating cereal for lunch because apparently she does not get paid enough. The photocopier is spitting out toasty sheets of documents. The lunch box is slowly emptied and satisfaction fills up. Suddenly work seems irrelevant.

The Curious And The Conspicuous

There is a blue headed (haired) person who showed up at work on Monday. He seemed to have made himself at home in the midst of the busiest team on the floor and engaged in lengthy conversations when he was not looking intensely at the monitor. I must confess that it kept me gaping in wonderment at the tall lanky youth with balding and brightly coloured patches of cranial growth zipping at lightning speeds up and down the hall sporting outfits of contrasting colours that by no means miss the eye.

Intrigued by the unknown reason for his presence, I determined to forage for information and get to the root of the matter. For this, I chose a person of certain influence in the team and a casual moment to go with. And while making small talk about the benefits of caffeine for productivity and pouring out several packets of sugar, I mentioned the new recruit. She said 'O, we need to introduce him to your team - I forgot about him'

Hmm?

It troubles me

That the developer that sits across me who is fairly advanced in years sucks one or two of his fingers rather like a two year old when he is deep in thought and then yanks them out and starts typing briskly. Also bothered by the manager, permanently dressed in what I call the bloke-blue, at the far end of the hall when he blows his nose rather noisily. This happens mostly around the time I am eating lunch or sipping tea. Poor me.

Meeting

A group of troubled professionals gathered yesterday for a meeting in the hope that by gathering and talking some or all of their troubles would be resolved. For some unclear reason, the narrator of this tale was invited to it and was deeply pained by the invitation. The gathering was indeed multifarious. As with meetings, a conference room with chairs arranged around a round table was in order. The participants arrived one after another and spoke of the issues. It happened that one group had not quite understood the other. It also happened that another was not amiable to suggestion. And yet another knew nothing of the problem or a solution. Those that had the trouble did not take the initiative. Those that did, could do nothing to help. And some others who had nothing much to do with either group looked distinctly vacant and nodded when anyone spoke. Alas, the cost of lengthy meetings!

Outcome

I realized I missed a summary meeting slash presentation when I saw a procession of my colleagues making their way back to their desks. However, I did need to know what happened and not be left out of savouring any juicy ancilliory details. I quickly went over to one of them - the one with dishevelled hair and coffee cup - and feebly hinted at my remorse in not being aware of the event.

'...and how did it go - was it ..?'

'O yes, very good, very useful' - said he, gathering more coffee from the vending machine.

'And um, what did they say?' - said I, my ears leaning forward.

'Oh that' said he, incredulously - 'I don't remember'....

Work Terms

There are a few words and phrases that people use at work and they make me squirm. Used unthinkingly and usually meaningless. One wouldn't use that in casual conversations and besides, some don't sound very illogical.

You see, sometimes I would like to compare apples and oranges. And I don't want to touchbase with anyone, I'd get in touch with them. I'd love to whack them if they did a 'timeout' on me. If someone thinks we are going down a rabbithole, various thoughts of a dainty Alice or a storming March Hare come to mind. Here's some more terms - a strategic decision, this is Swami's favourite - paradigm shift!

Will add more.

Apparently, the BBC and I share similar opinions. Here, read.

About three unname-able people

One person in the office has started to wear a coat, suit and tie soon after he was given the title of Lead Developer For X and Y. This, despite the work environment being quite relaxed and dress code rather informal. This is in direct contrast to the behaviour of the third person in this essaylet.

The second person wears thick black glasses, a ring on one ear and his long matted shineless hair is piled up in an unflattering lump in the centre of his head. I have seen him loiter around near the photocopying machine and the printer. He sits at his desk, alone, behind a large green cupboard, sips coffee and ticks off something in a typed white sheet.

The third person, I have seen only once. I had to lean forward, squint and raise my eyebrow to make sure I was not imagining him in my head. He was dressed in a black leather jacket and a black leather skirt that went way above his knees. His head was smooth and oval. Shaved to a pink.

For now, I am not going to say anything about the man who wears a purple and black waistcoat every day (god, he must smell!) or about the girl who dyed her hair blue. Too ordinary.

Artist At Work

The corner of the eye saw another one working on photoshop of something large and fuzzy. The eye may have ignored it, but from where it was, the eye soon discerned the image as that of the very person working on it. The head that lodged the eye looked up, in idle curiousity.

The person, a surly and very senior technical person, was the doer of the deed. The picture was zoomed in fully. Unmindful that the actions were based in the office and very near the corridor on a really large screen visible to the near and far, the person remained absorbed in the task with the eagerness usually attributed to the female. It was as if he was looking in a mirror. Now staring into his own eyes, now scratcing his cheeks, now admiring his large ears.

The eye that watched, narrowed in an errupting smile. The eyebrows, they rose in surprise and amusement. The chiselling was segmented. Slow and careful. Perhaps the blemishes are now gone? Are there not as many wrinkles any more? Is this good enough? One final look. The long needle must have crawled through a half circle. The final nod and click. The intrigue wore off and eye rested!

Extreme Technology

We are now in a stage in the project where we do a lot of Browser related testing, Mostly to do with look and feel. So the styling experts like us to take screenshots of problems and mail them. This morning, none of us could figure out how to do a Print Screen on the Apple Mac. So, Olawale resourcefully used his camera phone, so much easier!

Tectonic Shift

I work with the IT people for the Travel Desk of a well known publishing house and I heard this conversation between two developers at lunch:

developer 1: Where is Salzburg ?
developer 2: Austria, why do you ask?
developer 1: It may not be there anymore!
developer 2: And why not ?
developer 1: Because I added it as a child class of Germany

Mojo's reply to my Poem Part-1

avishek mojo:
Have you seen Gitanjali?
QA to the core totally.
Finds nice CR's everyday
But I cant reproduce them try what I may.
So she dresses in red
Missing only the horns on her head
On finding a CR is very khush
All other times says "Tush tush."

Read my original Poem here

Poem Part 1

Have you seen the build tower
Blessed with talking power
It stands proud and tall
In the middle of the IDS hall.


See Mojo's reply here