Dog Stories

We had sniffer dogs sniffing up the whole   60 acres of campus, ie almost 80+ buildings in the campus, all thanks to the misdeeds of a wicked mind, who made an anonymous call about  a possible bomb  threat to our office campus.
We’d got an email from the authorities mentioning that the campus was being combed , but I for one jumped off  my skin  when I heard a deep panting from behind and turned back  to find a huge canine rite in front of me.
But that was mild, when compared to my colleague’s reaction, when he came out of the rest room to find a huge police dog rite in front of him. And he had no clue about the combing operation also!!
Soon, our project was abuzz with the team proclaiming either about their love for the animal or their fear!! And soon folks were sharing their experiences with canines.
This had me rewinding to atleast 10 yrs back down the memory lane. One of  funniest ever I've heard till date happened to my friend Asha,(P.S: she is a bigshot in TCS these days! ;), this happened, during the first summer of our posting in TCS,Chennai. Asha had this knack of starting and maintaining eye contact with any dog that she came across on the streets of Chennai- she would stare at it and murmur something to shoo it away and the dog , made curious by the unusual attention thats being bestowed upon it decides to reciprocate the same and to check the person out personally, decides to follow her.
And one such time, when she was on her way back from work, she saw  a dog on the road and started practicing her ‘ Art of hypnotizing  a street dog’ immediately. This particular dog, as the case turned out to be, was a wee bit more curious than the ones from her previous encounters and kind of started chasing her in the beginning itself, rather than  sniffing and soflty following,  which is the unwritten rule, in most cases. It even managed to catch up with her and sniff her shoes , which scared the  wits out of Asha  who managed to  jump into a Rickshaw  that was whizzing by!
Scared as she was, for a moment she forgot that she was in Chennai and that Chennai-ites did not understand what the mallu word ‘Patti’ meant. (Patti means dog, BTW). So instead of telling the driver where to go, she just exclaimed ‘ Patti, patti, patti’! to the driver. And that guy couldn’t  fathom what she was telling him, could not link the word to any possible destinations that she mite want to go either. But I guess, he really wanted to help the lady in distress, and it looks like the closest word that came to mind his mind, was ‘theepetti’(matchbox), maybe coz of the rhyming of ‘patti’ and ‘petti’, and his brain would have prefixed the ‘thee’(fire ) to the word ‘petti’(box) in his urge to help. He dug his hands to his pockets , produced a matchbox and handed it over to a much shocked Asha!!! The expression on her face, I can easily envision. She herself couldn’t understand why the guy was offering her matches,  obviously, she was not going to scare the dog by lighting fire there,  but she was courteous enough to say No to the  equally confused rickshaw wallah!
It took an analysis session from us roomies, back home in Mullai for her to find out why the guy offered help with a matchbox!!

Desiderata

I realised how stressed I was when  I caught myself searching for Desiderata in my laptop. The poem was my  must read everyday to keep myself sane while working in a couple of BT projects almost 8 yrs back while working in TCS. That was the time during which I transitioned from a programmer to a module lead, how I despise myself for moving from tech to mgr zone then!!! It was indeed too early

It was for the first time then I started working in a really competitive environment, where your team whandles one module of the program and there are competitor  companies handling other modules. So a bug in the program was unacceptable and   mgrs were on top of you for figures and data and graphs and what nots!The most convenient thing to do was to give them what they wanted and push down the prgramming to the TMs and thats what I had done too!!! Thats the single biggest mistake in my career, I believe. It was too early for me to give up programming.And I must confess ,  I never got back to the technology side at all and I missing that big time!!!

 Hey,I  deviated from the actual topic ages back. Yeah, so during one of those BT pressure cooker days , when I came back to my desk after a  particularly heated squabble with onsite , Desiderata was waiting for me in my inbox as an unread mail and the very first line just swept me in- first thing I did was to have a printout taken and placed rite in  front of me, nr my PC and the comfort I drew everytime I read it was boundless.I moved on and multiple projects happened after that in TCS as well as in Infy, but though I've read Desiderata on and off, it was never on my cubicle after then

My current one is so stressful and I was neckdeep in it without realising that I was stressed to the core  and then I caught myself searching for Desiderata.....

Now I have it in my cubicle  and I keep reading itevery now and then, and the effect is just the same. Magical

I must confess, my TVM days  project was also really really stressful especially the first one year, but then I had a magical cushion there --of wonderful friends, formed at a period in life where I thought I had grown too old for new friends and that too not one but a bunch of them-- will keep that for another time :)

PS : If and where the mind is without fear are two other poems that have a profound effect on me…

Maruti Suzuki

Achu does have a good sense of humour , I believe! I mean for a four year old, hes doing quite well. The other  day, when Mommo who is yet to get full bladder control, did soosoo on his shorts,  Achulde was exclaiming. ‘ You know what Amma, Mommo is Maruti Suzuki’, I was confused for a moment- both of them love cars, but Maruti Suzuki is neither in their love list or hate list’ . Then he explained further, hes always  Susu-ing in his pants, so we will call him Suzuki J

The other day they were both so much into role play, Mommo was the doctor and he had the stethoscope on and was examining Achu patient, in a while they both were gone to the next room, and then Achulde comes running commenting’ Amma , amma , your son na, the Dr. he has done susu on his pants again!!!!

Jai Hanuman

Achu is a big fan of Lord Hanuman, if I call home from my phone, if hes the one answering the call, it is never a hello, it is a Jai Sreeram, Jai Hanuman from him!!

I guess R’s mother has a very prominent role in this development, when we go to Aluva, she shows this picture book of Hanuman and tells him stories. The lil fellow is yet to realize that people will make fun of him for proclaiming he is Hanuman,. I for one was very relieved when he had switched from Hanuman   for a short time, but now he’s back to Hanuman with full force.

 Sometimes hes carrying Rama and Lakshmana on his shoulders, sometimes bringing Sanjeevani for Lakshman. He transforms into some character or the other in Ramayana, worst is when the two of them are Bali and Sugreeva, they are always attacking with the Gada!!

For a while, he was Narasimha, when he happened to hear the new story, and would tell the full story to anyone who would acknowledge his presence.

And when he is Hanuman, I am Sita and R is Rama and poor Mommolde is Ravana and sometimes his Appuppa is Ravana and them Mommolde gets to become Lakshmana J

The funniest part is he cannot say ‘Sri Rama’, he says ‘CRama’ and then I can’t help correcting him , no Achu he cannot be C Rama, he would be D Rama—the poor fellow wouldn’t understand at all and gets  confused to the core, no Amma it is C Rama only’ and I cant help but tease him more on the same lines :)