It has begun

There is a guy in the opposite cubicle playing music at high volume. I see two team mates, both head banging - only in very different ways. I know one of them is enjoying the music. The other, well, currently his goal seems to be punch a hole thru his desk.

RGM aka xIOnIx better known as me belongs to the extremely rare breed of human's called the people pleaser. Now, this breed of humans have a very peculiar problem. They need every human being on Earth to like them. No, they cant have exception's to this rule . It hurts. It hurts their pride and even more so(for reasons beyond the paranormal) their concsience. Their deepest fears measure two in number -
a) Diversity .........
b) Politics ..........

Para 1 is a classic example of Deep Fear (a). Deep Fear (b) is something i had hoped i would never be involved in. Even in college i tried to keep away from it, atleast whatever little of it was present in a college, where politics were 'supposedly' banned.

Apparently or so I have come to learn, this isnt part of the algorithm the big man upstairs has prepared for us. The master plan includes a step (with no conditional escape sequence) which says that we all one day have to face our greatest fears. The past week for the most part, were filled with negotiations, attempted match-fixings, if i dare say b/w me and the Almighty. I might have known that all the tricks up my sleeve + two of my most powerful trump card's would do nothing to mould his mood. The master plan did not have a flaw. Hence, it could not be broken. It could not be shaped thru mere mortal yearnings.

Ahhhhhh!!!! Enuf of the philosophiticsm(dont look it up on Webster's... I just made up that word). Let's have a brief look into what I am talking about shall we. I am not sure if many of you remember, but, about a few months ago, I was drawn into the trap of "the project that should not be named". It strikes fear into the heart of engineer's as Lord Voldemort( I can take his name... I 'm not a muggle) in the heart of non-muggles. Every other engineer who had worked on this project had either lost sanity(the lucky ones) or left the company within nine months of starting off(regular nightmares still haunt these poor souls). The management realises that it would be best to draw someone naive into the clutches of this monster.

Said one clever manager to the other, "Why not trap that nut(read as poor little me) who keeps wandering from cubicle to cubicle and once to often for comfort into the HR section?. Its not like he is gonna get a job anywhere else.He cant run away." Heinous laugh follows.

During the course of the next week, the manager arms him with what he thinks is more equipment than he will ever require for this mission.

Manager:"Now you remember whatever i told you. There is a little group of, well, not-so-nice people who live on the other side of this mountain. We call them vampires. They come out only at night, so, you will need this torch."
PHooL(PHoor Little Naive Me): "Hmmmmm"
Manager(chooses his words carefully): "They should not be infinite in number. So you should not have any trouble eliminating their entire race"
PHooL:"Cool"
Manager: "Here is your metal cross, garlic spray, 5 silver bullets, this rust-coloured(or so he claims) gun. Use ANY one of these and he should dissappear into a cloud of smoke"
PHool:"Will, I really need all this?"
Manager: "Actually, no. But, since this is a first for you, we want to make things really easy for you" (Smiles - he must have been practising for a long time now to perfect that)
"Oh and here. You can take this wooden stake too. Mite come in handy"
PHooL:"Wow ... geee.... golly" (now totally overwhelmed and at a loss for words)


Our hero sets off in the direction of his mission, fully convinced, that truly there would be none in this world more luckier than him. OOooooooooooooooooooh, how naive could he be. Oblivious was he to the fact, that these so called vampires feasted on human blood. Oblivious was he to the fact that these monsters could fly. Oblivious, was he to the fact that these vile creations of time did not have souls. Their actions were not bound by conscience. Their wrath knew no limits.

He didnt understand the deep stench around him. Why didnt someone tell him that it was from the deep shit he was walking into?

For four months, our hero walked through the shit. Being the smart man he was, it didnt take him more than a month to figure out that he was in Deep Shit. Its viscosity just thick enough to keep him stuck in it,while not permittin him to sink in its sins.

**************--------------------> Into present day

A couple of days ago, I recieved this mail. Actually it was a chain of mails. Summarized, its contents translated as follows. (My) Manager's manager tells senior executives (product development incharge and VP of India operations) that he would like to give a demonstration of the (seemingly) excellent work that has been carried out so far. Wow, talk about opportunity coming and slapping you hard in your face. "Wake up boy... Its time to cash in".. Kisi ne sahin kaha hai, "Dene waala jab bhi deta, deta chappad phaadke"

Well, not that good, but, good enuf anyway. I mean presentation with the big shots. Ever come across a shorter foot path to success. As one would have expected, envy (check it out) and success do come hand in hand. Suddenly, our hero is caught in the midst of a political debacle.

Salient features of debacle:
a) New news, manager to give presentation to big shots (after I give him and his immediate manager a presentation on all the work I carried out)
b) I have no issues with point (a)(manager is a very nice and helpful guy), but, what makes it interesting is that, my mentor for the task (apparently:sworn enemy of the manager) hates the fact that manager dearest gets to take credit for the same, after him and me do all the swimmin thru deep shit.
c) Further confusions caused when people come and tell mentor, "Dude, that new chap Rohit has done a gr8 job with that ePO work na"
Harmless sentence, when read by a third party. But when read as, "Manager and Rohit make project a huge success, without ANY other external help", well, then it becomes a problem.

How i will convey to the chap, that I am without a doubt eternally grateful for all his help... I do not know. When put in a pickle where i have to choose between manager and his sworn enemy, what do I do... I do not know... Interesting isnt it... Ah well, "Que serai serai...."

Oh yeah... and here is something interesting that I came across in a blog recently...Am sure a lot of you will have valuable comments on the same :))