Wishing in "Advance"

As I am penning down this post, Ganesha festival pooja is going on in the hall in full swing. And if you are wondering why am I not involved in the pooja, well the answer is simple, I don't like doing poojas; but that doesn't mean I don't like festivals. Festivals are good, sometimes really good, the food is good (even though veg, its not all that bad), relatives come home, and you get to chill out at home, well, these are the three good things about festivals, I can think of at this moment. One more thing about festivals, which may be considered good by some, and the subject of this blog is, your friends and relatives generally send SMSs wishing you, good luck, good health, lots of wealth ;), happiness, etc.

All these years I never found anything interesting about all these SMSs, however, off late I have noticed a trend, or maybe a change in some of my friends' behavior. Some of them seem to have developed a serious liking for me and they just can't seem to control their urge to convey their wishes through their SMSs. The SMSs that I receive from this bunch have one thing in common. Let me give you a sample of such SMSs:

• ...happy friendship day in advance...
• ...happy independence day in advance...
• ...happy ganesha chaturthi in advance...

yes, you got it right, they are all conveying their wishes in "advance".

I would really love to believe that they are doing it because they like me a lot and can't control their urge to convey their wishes. However, the reason for this, at least in some cases, is Sunil Mittal.

Mr. Mittal and the like, started telecom companies which started growing . To continue growing, they thought that hiring 'intelligent' to lead the company is important. As any other company would do, the moment they thought of hiring 'intelligent' people, they went to IIMs and hired a bunch of guys, and gave them fat salaries. These guys from IIMs had to justify their hiring by increasing their growth rate. So, they came up with mind blowing tariff plans. One such plan was to let people SMS at very low cost, 1 paise/sms, 2 paise/sms and in some cases 0 paise/sms. These plans worked well for them, and they continued growing. With this growth coming their way, they hired more 'intelligent' folks from IIM. These new folks had to justify their salaries, but sadly, the older guys from IIM had exploited most of the major avenue to attract customers. However, being the die hard types, the new folks thought of strategies to increase revenue. And one such strategy was to suck the blood out of their customers when they needed them the most. That's right, they decided to charge 1 rupee/SMS on occasions, such as, valentines day, friendship day, independence day, and new year, when people generally SMS a lot. This new strategy, I am sure, has worked out really well for them. For instance, no matter how much they charge me, I send SMSs on all these days, and also in plenty. And I am sure there are lot like me. However, they forgot about this SELECT JUNTHAA who turned out to be more cunning than them. And this bunch of my friends I was talking about earlier are amongst this SELECT JUNTHAA (SJ).

The SJ came up with a great new plan to give IIM guys a slip. The SJ thought a step ahead of the IIM guys and took a step back, and literally at that. They started sending the SMSs on these occasions in "ADVANCE".

The SJ who send it in Advance essentially comprises two categories of crowd, First Category (FC)- Students (no earning, tight on cash) and Second Category (SC) - people who earn (tight, but generally on weekends)

Adoption of this strategy by the FC of people is kind of understandable. However, adoption of this by the SC folks bother me a bit. Some might think that these SC guys go a little too far to save non-significant amount of money by putting their reputation at stake.

However, I would be interested in knowing the thought process of the SECOND CATEGORY of SELECT JANTHAA when they decide to do it in ADVANCE!!!

The next time my boss says WFH, I will say WTF!

Yesterday I was speaking to a friend of mine, Jayanth Aka Dingri, who is into managing exhibitions for Times of India. He was telling me about how their last exhibition turned out to be a big flop, and how his boss screwed him royally for that. Well let me tell you something, he is not a guy big enough to single handedly upset such a huge event. So that pops out the question: Why did the event flop?, and the answer is, a tiny little thing called "H1N1", a virus which is in the limelight off late. The virus, along with bringing fear in the minds of many, has also brought smiles to the faces of many more. Schools declaring holidays, offices announcing holidays, what more can you ask for. Our company followed the herd, but with a twist. My boss gave us an option of WORKING FROM HOME (WFH).

WFH has lot of positive sides to it, at least in my case. Let me list out a few positive things about WFH:

• I travel 30 kms (to and fro) and spend close to 150 rupees on travel, which is saved
• I save close to 2 hours of travel time
• I save ~30 rupees on sutta (I generally dont smoke much when I am home, BTW I dont smoke at home)
• I get to have hot food at home
• I can listen to music while I work, I dont have to use a headphone
• Most importantly I can wear shorts while I work

I did all of the above yesterday, and guess what, I could also complete more work yesterday. Let me paint you a picture of how my day went yesterday

• Woke up at 6 am and went out on my routine jog - as usual
• Stopped by Anil Kumble when I was jogging, wanted to know where Minto hospital is - Unusual
• Had breakfast at 8.15 - as usual
• Didn't drive my car for an hour - Unusual
• Didn't check out the pretty girls on Jain college road - Unusual
• Started working at 8.30 - Unusual
• Had lunch at 1.00 - Usual
• Not many people were around me when I had lunch - Unusual
• Had food made at home - Usual
• Did not have food made at someone else's home - Unusual
• Didn't have a few laughs in the lunch break - Extremely Usual
• Worked till 6 - Usual

This is a brief of what I did yesterday, and at the end of it, I realize that I am not as exited about WFH now, as I was when my boss told me about it. I guess its because I have really gotten used to the usual stuff or may be I really like the "usual". All I can say now is that WFH is not for lesser mortals like me.

So, the next time my boss says WFH, I will say WTF