Team-BHP - Life's like that: Real life anecdotes

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marlon (Post 2714481)

After 15 min my wife calls me up and she is speechless. As soon as she opened the pack and saw the stickers my daughter told 'oh, its Team Bhp stickers'.

She would have identiifed by the logo (she identifies Pepsi by logo). List is endless.

My daughter keep asking me "Yeah kya hai"?(What is this?). She once asked me the same pointing at my company's name on my visiting card and I told her the name of my company. Now whenever I open the SAP portal on my laptop she recognizes the name and repeat in a manner which will fool anyone in believing that she can actually read it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BulZire (Post 2714831)

+1, Even my Daughter gets so much excited and shouts on seeing a Nano passing on the road, particularly the yellow one. she is just 1.4 years and i use to wonder what she actually thinks on seeing a yellow nano. Maybe she may make me buy her one very soon :D.

A yellow Nano seems be hot favourite among the toddlers, my 2.5 years old daughter can recognize a Nano in pool of cars. Though I hope with passage of time she can do it for any car.

Quote:

Originally Posted by selfdrive (Post 2714691)

I saw the missed calls when I woke up around 7am. I am wondering if he forgot the current time for his own country? No no, just plain insensitive!

In the 90s and before, lots of Indian managers had this disease of trying to overly please the clients. Often they didn't realise they were having the opposite effect. I don't know whether this is still prevalent, I left Indian corporate world in 1998.

It is well known that most of the western world practically shuts down during Christmas holiday. So western clients hardly have any expectancy from the Indian team during those days. But some managers figured they will surprise the client by working through Christmas.

It was Dec 1996, and I was the lone onsite liaison representing the Indian office at the customer premises. On Dec 20th, the customer side manager with whom I liaise came to me..

He: What are your plans for the holidays?
Me: Well, you know me. I am like a Jew on Christmas. My boss expects me to be at office for the whole period.
He: My entire team is taking off today and won't be back for next two weeks. Our next working day is Jan 6th. So, I don't care whether you are here or not. If you come there is nobody here to liaise with, and you will be the Ghost of Christmas in this office.

I got the message, so I too stayed away from office. Instead I started to learn swimming under the expert guidance of my wife. Sure it was peak of winter, but I had access to a heated swimming pool at Bally Fitness at Wayne, NJ.:)

On Dec 28th, I get a furious call from my Indian boss at home.

He: Where are you? I have been calling at office and nobody is picking up.
Me: That is because there is nobody at office.
He: Why are you not at office?
Me: Because there is nobody at office.
He: But you could be at office.
Me: Listen boss, my only job is to liaise with the customer. If the entire customer team is off, what am I supposed to do sitting at office.
He: You could review documents, interact with the Indian team.
Me: I do that at home. Remember I only have Internet access at home, not at office. I don't need to drive 20miles in snow & ice to office to do that. Besides, it gets very cold in an empty office since heat will also be turned down.
He: <runs out of arguments> ...but still... customer may not like it when you don't show your face everyday.
Me: You mean the security guard, don't think they'll care. I hope you are not expecting me to visit the customer at home.
He: Ok.. ok. This is all crazy. Fine. Now, the Indian team however has done some great work.
Me: I thought they were all off for Christmas like all the customers.
He: No, I called them all back. We worked through the holidays to finish the entire design document in one week.
Me: Ok... what was need for such hurry?
He: We want to please the customer.
Me: Um... how?
He: I want you to pass on the design document to the customer ASAP. They will be stunned to see the progress we have done.
Me: Boss, the customer will be back to work on Jan 6th. How exactly do you expect me to hand it over ASAP?
He: Oh.... Damn!

The truth was, had I told the customer that the Indian team worked through the holidays, they would not have liked it. They would have wondered whether we were running a sweat shop.

Speaking of kids and cars:

My daughter is 6 years old and I talk to her about one day buying Audi/BMW and point out these cars to her when we see them.

One day we were at a parking lot. While I went to get our car, my wife, daughter and a friend of ours were waiting at the entrance of the parking lot. A big SUV came out of the parking lot, and my daughter yelled, "AUDI". But, it turned out to be a BMW and our friend made fun of her for getting it wrong. Without a word, my daughter ran away, stopped after a short distance, came back running, and told our friend - deadpan, "Itha njan paranje - Odi" (Translation: This is what I was talking about).

For non-mallus: "Audi" sounds very much like the Malayalam word for running.

Commerce graduation, Banking lecture.
This lecture was the only one which no guy bunked. In fact I think the guys outnumbered girls 10:1 and folks who didnt have Banking as their optional subject also attended. The teacher was so pretty that she was a benchmark against which all the other girls were rated. Quite silly, but heck we were in college!

Now, this teacher was absent for a couple of days so the guys were a bit upset. On her first day back from unplanned holiday, her class was packed to the brim. Guys sitting 4 to a bench. She really was a star. She apologised for the unplanned leave and said she was in bed with fever. A voice from the back benches piped up: "Who is fever"?
She turned red in embarrassment and asked who said that? After a couple of awkward minutes, 5 guys put up their hands and 3 others stood up! Quite a statement for back bench unity.
None of us knew what to do or say till she smiled and took it sportingly, of course with a warning not to repeat it.

Met the same teacher on FB recently and while she could not remember me by name, she asked if I knew someone called Vidya (name changed without request). Apparently, this was one studious bug in our batch which I got to know from another batchmate later. I said no and she immediately asked if I was one of the back benchers!
Looks like our profs remember the studious and the naughty, yay :)

I thought I should mention something that happened to me a few years ago. It was very embarrassing! *blush*

So those familiar with Bangalore and Lavelle Road may know about Airlines hotel. An open-air/closed Indian joint that serves food and beverage right at the door of your car, when parked within the premises.

People who frequent the place will also know that it tends to get very crowded.

So I was waiting along with several other cars, all queuing up to enter the place. The entry-exit path is narrow and is best for two large SUVs next to each other. So it's only logical that vehicles exiting the place should get their own lane, while people entering should stick to the correct side.

This hero in a black BMW X5, intending to enter the place, came charging down the exit-lane, by-passing the long 15-car queue. But he was finding it difficult to enter because of the mad rush, and just then came a few cars who wanted to exit.

And if there is one thing I hate, it's jumping queues.

I was so cheesed off by this (more because I was waiting in the queue for 15 minutes to get a spot) that I switched off the car, got out and went to the driver's side window, all while the X5 guy was gesturing the people exiting to reverse. :Shockked:

This irritated me even more, and by the time I got to the window, I was fuming.

"Hey. There is a queue and everyone is expected to wait in it, right here. Who do you think you are? Do you own this place?"

He looked at me, equally irritated, and said, "As a matter of fact, I do!" and flashed a business card in front of my face.

It was almost like he was asked this question before! :uncontrol

Needless to say, I retreated to my car, tail firmly in-between my legs. *blush*

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samurai (Post 2714954)

In the 90s and before, lots of Indian managers had this disease of trying to overly please the clients. ---------
-------. They would have wondered whether we were running a sweat shop.

I am sad to report that its still the same - more or less. After being in two product companies i made the shift to a "reputed" service company. What a torrid time i had. Managers bending over backwards for the client, we being treated like sheep, no concern for the individual and i suspect - a tacit understanding that its ok to rip off the client with over-estimates and shoddy jugaad work. Public holidays were meaningless - if the client wanted it, we had to be present. "Client site" - meant being tagged as contractors with limited rights. A very unhappy, unproductive 1.5 years spent. I did learn a lot of mumbo jumbo high sounding words though :uncontrol . What a headache it was!

Happy to report that i have again joined a product start-up last week and am loving it again clap:

This happened two Saturdays ago. My dad had driven to the doctor's clinic in one of the Peth areas of Pune, to show him some reports.

Doc : Reports look good. How are you feeling now ?
Dad : I am okay. But while sitting down right now I felt slightly uneasy , like my legs were quivering and I couldnt do anything to stop it.
Doc : How long did you drive to get here?
Dad : 30 mins? But heavy traffic..
Doc : Has it happened before ?
Dad : I dont really know, never noticed it before.
Doc : Okay, I am prescribing some medicines , we should check back on this if it reoccurs during the next 5 days.

30 Mins later when he reached home, he got a frantic call from the doctor.
"Dont take those medicines!! What you felt was the earthquake!!".