Charms Of A Sweet Devil...

Sometimes, we inadvertently become the worst enemies of our close friends. And we still don’t deny our friendship. That’s because we love to live in a fictional world of illusions.

Today being the chilliest day of the winter 2010, I was trying my best to go through the online books on my laptop. I planned it well in advance that post January 15, 2010, I would re-engage myself with all my study material. After all, this would be the final level of one of the toughest exams which I would be appearing in another three four months. Blame it on the chilly temperature despite of using a blanket over a quilt (rajai), or the toughness of the study material, I was not able to build my learning insights. And then I saw a ping from Sujit. After a normal how wow discussion, he asked me if I have written a new blog, to which I replied him – no.

6:33pm Sujit

what abt ur blog?

kuuch likha aapne?

6:34pm Rishi

yes...Brijesh ki shaadi ke reception ke baare me likhaa hai...

6:34pm Sujit

ladkiyo ke barey mein?

6:34pm Rishi

ladkiyo ke baare me kuch nahi likhaa...Bramhachaari hu yaar..

he he he

6:35pm Sujit

Yeah i knw tht, uskey alawa?

epsita ke barey mein sir

uska dimag

jo chacha choudry jaisa hai

6:36pm Rishi

he he he...likh sakta hu...but abhi maine apne dimaag ke baare me sochnaa shuru kar diyaa hai...I have started preparing for the final level exam....

Epsita ka kyaa hai...wo to chali gayi

ab waise bhi nahi jhelnaa padegaa...na use hamko...aur na humko use...he he he

6:37pm Sujit

yeah

6:37pm Rishi

But seriously, she was a good girl...dimaag se paidal thi...but otherwise a very good girl…will definitely miss her around

6:38pm Sujit

yeah subsey jyada mein kyoki mein uska dimag (jo bahut kum tha) subsey jyada mein hi khata tha

he he he

6:39pm Rishi

correct....I know that...the best was when you addressed Saurabh to lift her up for his dumbles practice, to make his dolle sholle...that was hilarious...I could not stop myself from laughing the whole day...he he he

For a while, I was distracted. And the distraction continued till I was forced to go into the flashback wherein six months ago, I was quite irritated by the Gmail team which moved adjacent to my workstation in my office. At that time, it was invasion of my privacy as I normally prefer to work in a serene environment. The fact that I was not the owner of my company left me with no choice, but to work with those people whom I used to consider the most immature lot of corporate world. They are the regular customer service representatives who either have telephonic conversations or emails to respond. Read my previous blogs, and you would easily sense my hatred towards them. Reason – they are happy following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) thereby keeping themselves away from jobs that asks people to use grey matter. With this hatred in my mind, I used to curse the situation where in I had to work sitting next to these people.

Voraciously, a female voice greeted her boss…

Female – Hello Sir. How are you doing? Kyaa baat hai aajkal nazar hi nahi aate aap to. Lagtaa hai kaafi busy busy rehte ho?

Boss – Bus aise hi…yahaa tak aane ka time nahi milta...

Female – Dekha, maine kahaa naa, busy rehte ho aap!

The boss noded his head and left. The lady then whimpered with a fuss – Busy kya khaak rehtaa hai ye. Is company me TLs aur Managers kabhi kaam nahi karte…magar dikhaenge aise, jaise unse busy aur koi nahi hai…

I was like - what the hell? I peeped right to see, who this lady was, who was totally ignorant of the fact that she was sitting near to an Assistant Manager (me).

And I saw a thin kiddo like girl, who obviously represented the so called BPO crowd. As if, she was still in her teens but got a job very early and has yet to develop the so called business maturity and organizational behavior. She was half the size and weight of a normal female. Sorry! Not half, but one fourth actually…he he he…But had a voice which at times was mellifluous but mostly was sonorously loud and vibrant. She constantly blabbered while working. Chitter Chatter Chitter Chatter Chitter Chatter, my God!

I was so furious over her, that I irritatingly expressed my anguish to my neighbor who turned out to be Sujit, her team mate.

Rishi – Ye hai kaon yaar? Kisi ne isko bataaya ke ye kitnaa bolti hai? My God! Samjhao yaar ise…

Sujit – he he he…samjhaa denge sirji.

The chatter gal continued to blabber, jabber, twiddle and giggle for about a month or two and I did nothing considering she belonged to other team and her reporting was not with me. Suddenly this girl held up with a pin drop silence. I then realized that while in a casual interaction, I told her that she actually talks too much and also disturbs. Astonishingly, that casual interaction made her mute. It was that simple to stop this girl from being a work place devil who always pestered me.

I just tried to be me, straightforward. And it worked.

Won’t anyone be surprised to see a muffled tongueless person who used to constantly blabber all the time? I was. Well, that was just the beginning of charms getting radiated from this devil.

Upon asking, she revealed her name as Epsita. Normally, people would spell it “Ipshita”…but no, instead of “I”, she starts it with “E” and yes, she likes to keep the effects of “h” hidden while spelling it, but wants us to be vocal with “h” while pronouncing her name. Ahem…wasn’t she quirkily monarchy?...he he he…that’s exactly what I mean by the word “charm”…he he he…

I liked her attitude when she molded herself mute, so that she may not cause disturbance to anyone. It showed her tender benevolence. Moreover, during few casual interaction, she revealed that she also dislikes the BPO culture but has to work in a BPO job due to lack of choice. That was the time I understood that she has the right mindset and eagerness to change for betterment, and would certainly do so. It’s only that one should point/guide/poke her up for driving self improvement. And then I started interacting with her casually. I always kept our interaction with light doses of pranks and spoofs, so as to make her comfortable. I never wanted my seniority to infringe my connections with any of the Gmail team members. Hence I kept all my interactions with all the Gmail team members very casual. And may be that’s where I made a mistake. If you allow your juniors to laugh along with yourself on a joke or a prank, there are good chances that sometime, they would start laughing on you too. And then there would be a time when they would start taking you and your words lightly.

When ever I used to see Epsita and her other team members, working on KANA I used to get nostalgic about my Convergys days. Even I used to work on KANA which is an email management application. Five years ago I had the same profile as Epsita and her other team members have today. The typical call center customer service profile. But in the due course of time, I realized I was in a world less appreciated by intellectuals.

My evolution from a customer service representative to an investment professional wasn’t an easy task. The journey was full of learning’s, mistakes, networking, internet surfing, reading and staying on top of things that affected my professional and personal life. Everything in this journey had a cost associated with it. Sometimes, the cost was directly in terms of money, where as mostly it used to be in terms of sacrifice, letting things go, control, introspections, living a lonely life and doing constant soul searching.

I always stressed on doing things which interests us rather than doing things just for the heck of it. That’s exactly the message what Three Idiots gave to the world. And I have been preaching this message to my people ever since the time I changed myself 4 to 5 years ago. Because I understand, what the pain of lack of awareness is all about. How it keeps us and our lives at inertia thereby consuming substantial duration of our youth. I always felt a need of an elder brother who could have guided me with things. Somehow, I still feel the need of a mentor. Of course my struggle is still continuing, because though I am working in a knowledge oriented profile I am still a BPO employee and not an actual Investment Banker. But when I see people at a stage where I was five years ago, I immediately rise myself up to coach them, mentor them and offer them whatever I have learnt in the due course of time.

I learnt things the hard way. I try my best to make it easy for them without charging them anything. And it’s a worldwide fact that whatever comes for free is always subjected to suspicion. Even my offerings to Epsita were preyed upon with dubiousness by her friends and colleagues. They started ribbing and teasing her with all sort of taunts that they could think of. Now what do you expect from a young girl whom people knit with a middle aged man. Obviously, she would feel conscious about the fact and would avoid direct coaching confrontations. Isn’t it? That’s very humane…One thing I noticed about her was that she was extremely comfortable interacting with me when her friends were not around. And when they were, she consciously tried to avoid exhibiting our alliance.

My intuition first and then my networking with few other members of the Gmail team, made me aware of the happenings that were going on. But I preferred not to retaliate. I seriously preferred to be neutral. Based on my experience; I have always seen people with conservative myopic vision remaining at a place where they previously were because they underestimate the power of mentorship. As expected they proved that they really belong to a genre of immature gimmicks, who would always fail to identify prospective guides who can direct themselves for a better life and a fruitful career. People with casual attitude like her friends would never be ready to learn from others mistakes and experiences. They themselves don’t have the audacity to evolve for betterment and have unknowingly been instrumental in causing loss of mentorship to someone who could have been benefited from it.

It's true, that sometimes, we inadvertently prove ourselves to be the worst enemies of our close friends. Isn’t it?

Well, two days before Epsita’s last working day in our office, she jokingly called me – Gadhaa (donkey). Had it been anybody else, I would have fired that person left, right and center. That’s what I am known for, in general. This was the first time I witnessed in my entire life that an executive addressed someone from a management cadre by calling him a donkey and that too on his face. Strangely, I felt good, instead of feeling bad. I felt her connection getting converted into a bonding. Now what would you call this – Charms Of A Sweet Devil…isn’t it? He he he

Good things come in small packs. My stint with this devil was very short, just of 6 months. "Friendship" is a word which will skew our alliance, if used in our context. Since I could not teach/preach her anything, I won’t even call myself her "mentor". She did not report to me officially, so no, she was not even a "team member". Those who are thinking that "attraction" should be the right word for our alliance, they are again seriously mistaken. People can be good to each other, without having any serious purpose, notion and relationship. In fact, there is no word that can suitably describe our short alliance. Now that she is no more working in my company, it’s obvious that we would forget each other. However, somewhere down the memory lane, I would still love to have those pranky moments cherished, which gave me a human touch and an opportunity to laugh whole heartedly, when I was living a mechanical life, which I call it – Corporate Juggernaut. It's a flavor which very few people in my office like Sumit, Puneet and Brijesh add to my life.

This blog was supposed to be on Epsita’s dumb brain…which Sujit sarcastically calls – Chacha Chaudhary jaisaa dimaag…jo ki computer se bhi tez chaltaa hai…

Well, in her context, Epsita’s brain and her understanding about worldly things is so imbecilic (foolishly different) that even computers might fail to analyze them…he he he…

Even if I try my best, I can not write about them, despite the fact that I and Sujit used to laugh on her feeble-mindedness, for hours and hours, without taking breaks. And for this, you can once again blame her CHARMS.