The Bread Earning Philosophy - A Corporate Commoner's Dilemma and Adjustment Process

This article is dedicated to all those who feel sickened at work. Some of you might try saying to yourself that I love what I do: I think such are either very good liars or they really are doing what they love the most: it could be anything. I decided to give this thoughts and ideas stemming from the same the name "The Bread Earning Philosophy". This phrase is not my creation and is actually made by a colleague of mine called Siva. Many a time at work there are times when I felt disgusted with the state of things or even my life not being in the best of times.

Siva has only one question when anyone including himself finds oneself in a puddle at work: Did I earn my bread today? Somehow asking this question does temporarily melt down the thoughts of planning for future, getting laid or married, buying a house or any other materialistic desire that any one of us may have. For the past 18 months, I have been working but to be honest I have been going through the most ambiguous phase of my life. Oh yes, from time to time I have been given projects and assignments that add value or enhance the same. But at the end of it, I do not see an extra dime. For those of you who would like to say "Dude, there are people who are going through worse?" I think you must start looking at yourself a little more often. I dont think saying or thinking that someone else's so called worse plight should actually bother you since the most important person in your work environment is YOURSELF.

When it comes to earning thy bread, there are a few categories or stereotypes of people that we can find on a daily basis, I shall make an attempt in capturing all the various kinds of hits and misfits:

a) The Individual Bread-Winner: This person is the absolute one man on his own. He does not really care about the others. He knows what he is in for. He knows what he's getting paid. He does not want to change anything within the system. All he does is just finish whatever tasks he has and go home peacefully. Absolutely not nonsensical and the Ultimate Survivor :)

b) The Group Bread-Winner: This person could remind you of a mother goose. He or she loves to do all the work like a slave at the expense of receiving all the abuse. The person takes all this seriously as if the following day is the end of the world and eventually may end on a high from Aspirin if he or she is not into drinking or smoking.

c) The Man for Others: This is a very rare case and an absolute nutcase. He or she has the audacity to make it clear that they exist in a company for another person and not oneself in particular. Sounds weird, but in a nation where hero and idol worship is so prominent, I do not think this is really a surprise.

d) Bread, what Bread, I work with Cheese: This person is a real danger. They range from middle to higher management and obviously are the high income category personalities. The term Bread as mentioned in this article is a joke for them. They are already earning higher than twice of the lower average and besides this: they work to apply cheese towards their seniors so that they move towards luxury even further. So all they have is a spreader knife and a sexy smile to seduce their bosses.

e) I only SLICE the Bread and Package it: This is the GOD level. The topmost of the hierarchy in an organization. They do not have to worry about the bread because there are people below them to earn it for him. They do not have to worry about cheese cause there is no one above them. Their only worry would be if anyone is interested in buying them out, then they begin to slice bread and even package the thing so that the end product helps him or her achieve their motives regardless of the suffering all below had gone through to achieve the same.

I guess I may missed out on some categories. However I shall visiting this piece of literature again and again in the future since it is a pivotal part of our lives :) So keep watching out this space.

Feel absolutely free to speak out in favor or against this article. Your ideas and opinions are always welcome

Regards

Kay-MaaN

Alternative for an Auto-Rickshaw??

The picture of the darned contraption above does not need any introduction for those who live in Chennai. We call it the auto-rickshaw or for short a rick. It is the bane and boon of this city. Many a time it helps you get to a place without any hassle and through all godforsaken lanes. Sometimes you just feel abused when they mention the rates at you.

I do understand rising fuel prices but as far my understanding goes, it always fails with certain instances. Like for example: its Xmas eve, you want to catch a rick from West Mamabalam to Kodambakkam church (Our Lady of Fatima): four years ago it used to be just 20 rupees and now its around 30 rupees. The rick bugger charges 70 rupees and says its so late, hence the rate. Why on earth is he driving then or even awake: waiting for a shag from a fellow auto-driver on the prowl just like him. Such a bunch of turd-brains, they are nothing but mugs, the whole lot. Recently two of my friends from the UK took a rick from Zaras till Pasha i.e. from Cathedral Road till The Park Hotel. It should only cost between 15-25 rupees but seeing the drunken stupor of my mates: the rick sod charged 500 rupees, yes I have not said it wrong: 500 bucks

The fact remains that no matter what complaints go to the higher authorities: auto-drivers in Chennai are backed by the Police and in some cases even the politicians. Very rarely you come across a rick bugger who charges fair and square. Else its a complete pandemonium. Hell's minions would make better sense than these. They exploit our helplessness and our situations on certain days by overcharging and even hurling insults. I guess women in Chennai would have tales to tell about these people.

I often wonder whether there is an alternative to auto-rickshaws in Chennai. Can I think of any alternative: yes there are trains and even the Metro is coming up by 2015. but there could be unexplored business models in terms of public transport, not just call-taxis. We need taxis that are easily available in the streets and not some on call basis. But then how long does it take for a new system in place to follow something as sinister as the auto-rickshaw system. We are not just very good at plagiarism but we should call ourselves the best when it comes to mutated toxic plagiarism. We not just copy something, we copy and destroy the beauty of the original.

I presume someday a guy or a girl may just turn to dire steps to curb auto-drivers: maybe a murder or a fate worse than death. These guys are slowly becoming the vermin of the city that survive even in poison, stuns me. That whatever legal action we can resort to is stained in similar fashion.

As I end this post: the question still remains: can we have something that would better this rick or should we simply resign to our fates to whatever is available?

Regards

Kay-MaaN

Secret Santa Results

I must admit the Secret Santa game is ending on a really good note. My xmas-mom happened to me Ahamed - the new Business Development guy in the the BD team. He has indeed outdone my expectations especially with the daily gift affair. Somehow all my guesses this time around was wrong. He managed to keep it quiet and discrete.

The earlier gifts were really nice. A toy kinda thing that illuminates upon impact with lots of elastic tentacles on it, the twin pen set from Reynolds, the miniature Harley motorbike ... all were not fit for my age but yes it was fun as well as funny. Everyday was a pleasant surprise. Now the big one was the Manchester United 2010 Calendar. This year is ending on a really good note. I do not know how to put it in words. The visit of the Brits has jump-started a tide of good tidings from the look of it :)

Regards

Kenny

Dinner @ Midnight Masala

The mention of Midnight Masala in South India or probably or probably the whole of India would raise eyebrows and some weird giggles since it happened to be a popular term associated with lewd stuff shown on TV during late nights. Well having said that, imagine a restaurent with a name "Midnight Masala". Yes, there is such a place in Chennai located at Arcot Road, Kodambakkam. The thing is this place has nothing to do with the famous TV programme broadcasted on the SUN TV network. Probably the only relation would be the poster of the Deputy CM outside the resto :)

Last Friday, I happened to visit some colleagues of mine. We were at Saligrammam: probably a place that could be termed as a shoddy version of Beverly Hills or Sunset Boulevard since quite a good number of celebrities live around in this area. Both my friends were pretty much on a high and pretty close to being wasted. Luckily they were just drunk and merry. It was around half past eleven in the night when we decided to move out for dinner. Having eaten just a little of Andhra-style chicken (damn spicy) I was hungry and I must admit that having not drunk at all that night was a good thing.

One of the friends suggested we go to "Midnight Masala". So my friend who has a car drove us till there and we went in. The place looked dim and pretty doubtful enough. Food was not that great but then in Chennai around that time, any place open would be a welcome sight for any normal person. Its sad that most places in Chennai close pretty early. I am told that all this are happening thanks to some really sorry incidents that took place in the city a few years back: probably before I even came to Chennai.

Now the room where we had dinner was lit like a bar more or so. Whatever you ate looked blue thanks to the lighting. Chicken Biryani had probably a piece of chicken and all this led to some really funny comments from my friends who were merrily drunk. Finally we made out of the place and I must say I am thankful that there are a few places as such that exist to feed a few people no matter how late it is. Eating dinner at Midnight Masala was quite a strange and yet funny experience I would say. I would not recommend it but then if you are in Chennai around 1130 and have nowhere else to go for dinner, this is probably one option :)

Regards

Kay-MaaN

The Secret Santa Game

Once again people at work have decided to celebrate the season with the Secret Santa game. Funny enough so far, it has been fun of sorts. People are beginning to use interesting ways and even certain funny ones. Unlike in the west where Xmas season is almost a month thanks to following it well and jump-starting the festivities from Advent onwards, things here as I see it are much subdued :)

However, each one according to own. So far my beneficiary is ignorant about who his Secret Santa is and I have tried to be as much as invisible as possible. Its quite ridiculous at times but then when you loook at all the things that happen on a serious note, that too is ridiculous. With enough eaves-droppers and gossip-queens hovering around in the name of work, even my blogging can be endangered but then does anything get over in this world. Everything is a flow, if something stops, its just the beginning of a diversion :)

So far so good !! The game has brought a lot of surprises: good as well as bad for some :) hehehe

Hope the end turns out well

Regards

Kenny

A month called December

A month of festivities. I have had a small break from my blog thanks to the effect of my friends' visit to Chennai. Well, I am still reeling from the effects of the same. To be honest I do not find any reasonable cause for doing the kind of work I get to do at my office. I have no other source of income to start with. With some of the worst people one can imagine I can only pray that my misery gets over soon enough.

However thanks to a few the Xmas spirit is alive at work though the Usual Detractors are there to ruin it. The Secret Santa game has begun or what we also call Chris-mom Chris-child. I have got my child too now. Its kinda funny come to think of it but it should be fun anyways.

This month has rather started slowly. I am getting to hear a lot of family problems: most of them being my own, but everyone has them. Being the last month of the year, I guess its pretty usual that this month one would contemplate about the last 12 months. For me it has been pretty much a year of survival though it was very lackluster in all aspects of life. The biggest saving grace has got to be the meeting with Phil and Geoff. It was fun, probably one the greatest things to happen in my life:- to meet 2 people whom I befriended on Facebook for real.

Off late, thanks to a colleague at work Ananth I am getting drawn to the world of Physics. The only question which dimension: now that's hard for me to decipher, which dimension and with what purpose, I have no idea. The usual quote of "God only knows" now has an interesting thought for me: The String Theory and what Michio Kaku had to say about God and the theory: its freaking amazing. I shall be reading more of the same. Also I would like to get to the bottom of the Adiabatic Principles for all the obvious reasons. Sometimes when you are in pursuit of something, you do not know anything else, not even boredom ;)

Regards

Kay-MaaN

The Birthday Party

The title reminds me of the play I read while at college. That was written by the late Harold Pinter, I guess after that crazy plot the party that took place at Zaras came close to being a crazy one. The participants were Phil Ramsey, Geoff Ling, Penny Leslie, Ravikumar Rajagopal and then the birthday boy ME :)

I do not remember drinking anything but beers. I must have done more than 10 glasses I think. At point we were playing some game called 21. I remember phrases like "Chronic", "I am gay", "I like cock" replacing some of the numbers that had to be said. It was crazy fun. Me and Geoff saw the Manchester United vs Portsmouth game live and we had a great time cheering our respective clubs. Despite being a Manyoo fan, I decided to support Pompey though both me and Geoff knew well that Manyoo was likely to win and win they did 4-1. Rooney scored a hat-trick.

We had a brief discussion as to how I met these guys and then the usual sports related stuff. Penny felt really out of place. After a point of time we were just happily taking snaps and there was no idea as to what the hell was happening. We were literally flipping. The idea was to go to Blend (@ Taj Mount Road) followed by Pasha (@ The Park) provided everyone has partners. But none of that happened. Around 11.30 Ravi said lets leave and I presume P&G had left a few minutes ago towards Pasha. I dont think I wanted to go there. Ravi left for home. I looked around, Penny was gone too, she had to meet someone too if I remember. I texted Geoff and got to know that they had entered Pasha paying 2G per person. That is crazy.

I took my scooter. Yes this after having been pissed drunk. I took the U-turn under the flyover and then after crossing Chola Sheraton I guess, I remembered that I had forgotten my helmet back at Zaras. I crossed the road, I think I ran, got the helmet, thanked the bartenders and bouncers (God knows what I told them then) ... ran back to the scooter and then somehow (I dunno how) drove to Dennis' place. Trust me, If I am alive today its thanks to him, he kept me awake somehow. We went to Blend, guess he had something there, not me. Then we went to In&Out - a store next to a petrol pump on Cathedral Road. I remember making a lot of noise I guess.

Dennis took me back to his place and gave me the gift he and Ravi had planned for me. It's a great polo shirt. Must have cost a bomb and for them to do something like that during recession times: a really great gesture. He tried making me watch a great movie called 21 but I could not keep my eyes open. I was WASTED. I had to crash and saying that I just slept.

In the morning I left for home, after reaching so, my mom was like asking for explanation and I must admit I was not aware of having received calls from her and dad the previous night. Man, I dont even remember what I said. It was one crazy night, one helluva night....The pictures will be out soon on Facebook and then we shall know better ;)

Regards

Kay-MaaN