mycorner’s blog

It all began a few weeks back (now I don't recall how many weeks back). I was talking to one of my colleague at her workstation and all of sudden my eyes rested on one small object on the desk of another colleague and without thinking twice I walked upto her desk and picked it with lots of anticipation and satisfaction. I was feeling like a kid only. As I picked it and cracked it open to eat, I was full of feel of my hometown. However, this nostalgia didn't last long as the moment I ate it, I was back to the reality. It was not what I had expected! I was aghast. But then I am not the one who can be let down so easily so immediately I dialed my another colleague (well, I know there are quite a few colleagues in my team, we are 27 in number, Bangalore and Gurgaon taken together) in Gurgaon office from there only, not even bothering to be back on my desk.

"Hi" (a laugh follows, as usual)

"Hiiiiiiiiii" (another one follows; we both have developed this habit of greeting each other with dangerous laughter. This is until we are not bogged down by monthly billing, then the hi is as meek as a mouse in a trap)

'Kya kar rahi hai?'

'Time Pass.'

'Acchha, usme kya naya hai, heeee heee, achha sun tu mera ek kaam kar degi?'

'Haan bol?'

'Jab koi Gurgaon se aayega ya yahan se koi jayega to tu mere liye moongphali bhej dena.'

A loud roar and lots of giggles followed, sorry I can't put that laughter in words, it is so unusual; I mean females are a funny lot; they can laugh at anything, just anything.

'Kyun bhai, tujhe yeh achanak moonphali ki yaad kaise aayi?'

'Yaar, maine abhi ek uble hui moongfali khayi hai and I can't tell you how sick I am feeling after eating this. Its just spoiled my taste.'

'Oh! Kyun wahan apne jaisi moongfali nahin milti kya?'

'Pata nahin? Maine toh dhoondhi but nahin mili.'

'Chal tu tension na le, main haridwar jaongi, tab le aaongi tere liye bhi'

'Haan theek hai, mujhe koi jaldi nahin hai par tu mujhe please bhej dena.'

'Haan Pakka.' And some more giggles followed. I was back to my desk, mentally making a list what else I could have asked her to pack and parcel.

Yeah! This is all about the Groundnuts or peanuts or whatever moongphalis are called. This is one of the things which I miss about the winters here in Bangalore (there are few others though). Days passed after this conversation, she went to home on diwali i.e to Haridwar and I waited for the day when I will hear the news that someone is coming from Gurgaon. Another billing cycle was over, revenue accruals got over and in the midst of the reconciliations and meetings, our boss said, 'Please ensure that whatever you people want to finish, do it today, I am not there for another 2 days.' 'I am traveling.'

When I heard this I was all ears. Sometimes I enjoy when he wastes time like this. In the middle of reviews and meetings, he will call 10 different people and check things. This was one of the days and I had the first hand information that next day he is traveling to Gurgaon by 10 a.m flight. Happily I was back at my desk and first thing I did was call her (my colleague in Gurgaon!).

'Oye!, he is coming tomorrow.'

'Is it? Which flight? How many days?'

'Hmmm, most probably morning flight, 2 I guess, not sure but will let u know if I can get hold of the information.'

'Ok.'

'Tujhe yaad hai na? Meri Moongphali.'

'Haan yaad hai, or kuch chaiye toh who bhi bata de, isi ke saath bandh doongi.'

'Nahi kuch aur nahin chaiye, bas yahi.'

'Arrey sharmaa mat, bata de kuch chaiye toh, chal tu bata dio uske aane tak.'

'Sure, done, chal ok bye!'

'Bye.'

I am on the top of the world. I am telling Raj about the moongpahali and he is all confused. I am trying to explain what it is, and then finally I gave up. I told him that he should see when  I get it, after all it is a matter of two days only. So I keep posting my colleague about the departure and dreaming about moongphali. I never knew that it will ever be a luxury for me and I will have to wait like this. I was instructed by her not to tell my boss in advance that something like this is waiting for him.

It all started in the evening. He called me in evening from Gurgaon to finalise of the billing and we were on con call. All of sudden, in the middle of the conversation, he told me that she is sending some thing for me. I told him, yeah I know and I had asked her to send.

He laughed. Bosses are like that, when you don't expect them to laugh, they will laugh. He asked her to tell me the weight of the packet.

I protested,'No, its not that heavy, it may only 250 gms or at the max 1 kg.'

'Arrey tere 1 kg mein mera toh na jane kya hoga.' Another roar, this included the manager in gurgaon, myself, boss and her.

'Accha, divya let me try to understand, matlab, what it is? Groundnuts, right?'

'Yeah.'

'No I mean to understand, what is so special about it?'

"Nahin, I didn't find it Bangalore, it is roasted in sand and eaten. Yahan par boiled milti hai.'

'Divya, main tujhe maar doonga! Tu Bangalore mein rahne layak nahin hai.' All this was happening in the middle of the conference call and we were finalizing the billing that too one of the most problematic one!

'You should go to Basvangudi and you will find it there. Wahan mela lagta hai iska.'

'Basvangudi mera ghar se London jaisa hai.'

'Haan aur Gurgaon bahut pass hai na?'

'Nahin, I mean who taste nahin milega na!'

'Haan Divya, isme point hai.' We all laughed and the billing got finalized.

Another call, and it was all giggles, hooting and some more suppressed laughter.

I asked her what she told the boss that she is sending. She said she told him that she wants to send something for me and he agreed at that time. After some time he seemed to remembered and he asked her if she is sending some eatables, she said yes. Then he was little skeptical because he also needs to carry Dhodha for his home from Om Sweets in Gurgaon. This fellow makes one of the most delicious dhodha I ever had and it is so indulging and awesome.

Next day, he is early to office which was little weird. And he calls me if I am at office. I am like yeah, I am at office. He asks me to come down to Ground Floor. I rush down, why shouldn't I? After all he had carried my 1 Kg Moongphali all the way from Gurgaon. There I find him struggling with the bags. There were three of them. I was little taken aback. Then I realized that the third one is his laptop and tiffin. So there he was walking with his laptop and I was carrying two bags. In lift he was telling me how he managed to fit in everything. There was a frock which was sent by one of the admin person. In another bag, which was heavy we had 1 Kg dhodha, 1 Kg Besan Laddoo and My 1 Kg Moongphali.

First thing that I did was pulling out the poly bags and treat myself with handful. It was one of the most relishing feelings that I had and I sat smiling at my desk waiting for others to come in. I kept those sweet boxes separate for distribution. After we distributed Dhodha, came the chance of moongphalis. I took one of the packets and distributed. Our finance controller kept the full packet. Soon in the finance bay there were crackling sounds all around and each desk had those peanuts, all the way from Gurgaon. At the end of the day, one entire packet was over. I came back with only half Kg packet. Everyone was laughing and kept eating and giving me their piece of advice, only if I should have told them they would have brought it for me.

What so ever, daily I am eating a few of them, I want them to last as long as possible even though I can ask my local colleagues to find a few for me. It just reminds me of my good old small town.

Life is all about a little dhodha and lots of moongphalis with Gur. Enjoy the winters J

P.S. I was all smiles writing about this, it is a long one and I have cut it short by avoiding as to how my colleague helped my boss in packing and a couple of more conversations between us where we enjoyed at the expense of our boss!

Oh yes! Please go and watch Dostana, it is fresh from Bollywood and dance on the tunes of Desi Girl. It is a mast maja maadi movie. Go and have fun!

Eeeeeeeeekssssssss………..can somebody tell my new office people that there is a life beyond work or rather i need to understand exactly how one shoud be working without smiling or laughing and talking to anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well-well, it seems by the title of the post that I am going to write an essay about my new office, huh!
No I am not going to write any such thing, it’s just how am i getting along here with others.The city is new so are the people including my inlaws and my hubby…….i donno know how long will they remain new to me, heeeeeeee-heeeeeeee although we are a family now.I don’t have to worry that my husband will get bald after he reads all this, ‘cos he cut his hair short very short yesterday……so he cannot pluck on them out of sheer madness………heeeeee-heeeeeeee.
Ok back to office now! First day was as if my husband has left the kid at school, in this case the kid is little overgrown ‘cos of the puppy fat all around, that’s me!!!!!!!!! Even I felt the same.I almost was in tears(God only knows why?).When I left the school, oh sorry the office, people would have considered me mad………..i was grinning from ear to ear the moment i was out and saw papa-hubby waiting for me.
Second and other days were spent in considering and deciding if I should have stayed back at home for some more days…….well almost everyone reached to the same conclusion that yes I should have taken a proper break! But then this is what is life all about(wah wah I shud be a bollywood dialogue writer!)……….
Today’s the Fifth day and I guess I will survive…………so what if the other AM doesn’t speak except ‘hi’(how much he be troubling himself?????)……..so what if i get scrutinised from top to bottom by everyone ‘cos I am new…..strange but people don’t simply reach out to each other.I wonder why? How can one not be curious to know about other when u end up spending almost 8 hours under one roof? I have named that fellow AM as “Constant Expression” ‘cos he always have same ex-pression all the time, ouch! his facial muscles pained when he smiled……..the admin lady is sweet atleast she takes her lunch with me.So far the boss is fine.
Tomorrow is half day……………what a way to end the post……..more to come on my office series……….i miss my old offices and the people out there.

………………………….any other establishment or class of establishment which the Central Government or a State Government may, having regard to the nature thereof, the need for protection of persons employed therein and other relevant circumstances, specify, by notification in the Official Gazette;]

This is sub clause (h) of clause (ii) of section 2 of the Payment of the Wages Act……….now what i am looking for is the clarofication if the call centres/BPOs are covered under this definition of the establishments or class of establishments…….

Where can I locate Payment of Wages Act online??????
Its urgent……….anyone reading please chip in…………….if one can locate the same also any latest changes to the definitions or the establishments covered by the Act……………

I don’t know if my company has its own rules or not but then jo bhi hai bahut hi kharab hai.
Now as I said yesterday that they want the salary date to be 15th of every month, I fail to understand and appreciate the logic behind it.Its already 29th and people have already started asking me “kab aa rahi hai salary” as 7th is sunday so everyone is expecting before the weekend………….but then the poor souls………..what wud happen and how wud they feel when they will realise that its gonna be 15th!!!!!!!!!!

The reason is same that they want the attrition to be controlled.I have put a bet with my operations coordinator that things will not change no matter what ‘cos salary was never an issue in my organization but the happenings on floor are and yes the office politics(and i hate it like anything).The CEO says that the agents will not leave ‘cos they will not get the jobs mid month.Why can’t he see a simple fact thru his specs that even we recruit mid month then why won’t any other organization recruit them during mid month?????? Then there is another bloke Steve to be taken care of.He can speak all the bull shit to any one but when he needs help then it will all honey and sugar and he will come after you calling you ‘honey’ and ‘darling’ etc etc………………and he is the culprit who want this to happen…………
Yesterday, our whole part time shift from 9 am to 3 pm has resigned.Reason - insecurity of job.How will they ever overcome this insecurity by postponing the salary transfer date?

Then Sachin says-’divya you are an emotional decision maker.’ Well let me admit, being a libran I am a decision maker who always takes time to make decision…………but then salary transfer has nothing to do with emotions.Its a simple fact that I have worked for the whole month, reported to work on time, sat late as well to finish their pending works to work out their meetings, called up clients/vendors even after the office time to coordinate things then why can’t these idiots pay us on time??????
I am on look out for a law that prohibits all this………….anyone reading…….in case they have any fair idea about such law then do let me know…………….I just want to make sure that employees do not suffer due to the whims and fancies of the top slot…….

I hate this………..now these stupid want that the salary be transferred on every 15th of the month.
Why the hell can’t they do something more reasonable????????

Hey I am back from break………..and I am back with a bang.
Good for me………..atleast I had some smiling faces welcoming me back to office with comments like”arrey koi kitne dino baad office aaya hai”
It was refreshinh to be back to work and to be at peace with self for the time being.Yes there are some lonely moments when I miss Yogesh but so far fine and I think I will be eventually sail thru the crisis………….yet to know about him as to how is he handling.In case he did finalise the girl then as such he has something to look forward to and I hope he has ‘cos he was weaker emotionally than me.Lets hope for the best for him…………
Office is as such lots of hullaboo………people asking me about the trip and I regailing them with the incidents that never took place except a few close ones………….oh Yes ! got the complement for reducing kilos and shedding that puppy fat……….credit goes to Yogesh.He felt that I was too fat for him and he was not too thin for me so i had hit the gym and simulatneously joined vlcc and lot of diet monitoring…………and yes the results are out with people approaching me and asking what did i do………….yipee……………….thankfully people who know about the breakup are supporting and keeping me in cheerful spirit.
Good that I am back to office………..back to work…………for once I feel that I belong to this place may be for the time being……………..

I am learning new things in my organization and I am surprised as to how tough can that learning be at times!!!!!
When I look back I realise that I never had a chance of true learning no matter how much I struggled to keep abreast with the happenings around me.
I thought I have earned the experience of life while preparing for the CA exams.That was an experience of the life time.I went bonkers while preparing for the same……………but then now in my second job I strongly feel that I am really-really lagging behind with the things.
Boy!!!! Don’t transfer the salary in order to control the attrition rate. Mera toh dill hi toot gaya………….infact the truth was that I went out of mind when I listened to this.
I am responsible for the payrolls in my organization and I am the one who arranges for the fund transfer from our parent company by following it across and then finally getting the salary transfers in the accounts of the employees.Hence, I take it not only as a professional responsibility but also moral responsibility of putting up the whole picture together in time lest someone faces the problem.
Yesterday everything was in place, just everything, the transfer sheet, the cheque which was required to be put under high value clearing……..the only thing that was pending - Signatures of Authorised Signatory.So, when me and Ashish(my junior) asked him to sign the cheque - he refused to sign……”we will do this on Monday”
Ashish & Myself - “why”
Authorised Signatory - “I am fearing lot of attrition.We need to control the same, so lets do this on Monday.”
Both of us give blank stares to each other.Nothing comes out of the mouth.Fortunately Sachin- our External Financial Consultant was in the office.He was bewildered.He interfered.
Sachin - “Are you sure?”
Authorised Signatory - “Yeah Sachin, you know these agents will not turn up on Monday or rather on Saturday itself once the salary gets transferred.”
Sachin - ” Sir, dekh lo, I mean everything is ready, we won’t be able to this tomorrow ‘cos high value will not take place being saturday, are you sure that you don’t want to transfer the salary?”
Authorised Signatory - “Yes-yes.Lets do it on Monday.”

…………..Attrition Controlled…………………………….

Some one has missed the rent payment, someone could not send the money back home, a few of them will face the problem of cheques bouncing back because they are lined up for Saturday or Monday morning, a few of them will have to do without credit in their cellphones as they are saving the last penny for unforseen situations……………….what goes of our Authorized Signatory……….ofcourse he could not have his cheque paid to him as well as whole organization will receive the salary on Monday but then he gets paid 10 times more than a normal agent on the floor…………..what is important is the control of Attrition rate.He accomplished the same…………..but did he realise the actual unseen cost of the same?How would he ever define this cost-variable, fixed, opportunity, semifixed, semivariable………..or rather unmeasurable…………….can he ever quantify the pain, the hopelessness, the expectations, the joys, the eagerness attached with the salary………..I assume he never ever thought of the same……………I wish he could for once.

May be I am unable to appreciate the logic/thought behind the whole issue but then………………it hurts……………when an agent comes and asks - “Ma’am, salary kab milegi, landlord pareshan kar raha hai rent dena hai” or ” Ghar par paise bhejne hain, mere father nahin hain, sister ki fees deposit honi hai”…………..it really hurts and its painful……………

I am waiting for Monday to see how many will actually turn up and give them the leads and how far this attrition control exercise was successful……………..

Back to work again.I didn’t feel like getting out of the bed today, not because I was tired or had a body ache due to work out in the gym but more out of frustration over what happened in the office yesterday.

The director of the company is younger in age to almost every third person on the floor including me.However, being the director of the company has its own advantage of not being questioned on decisions and we being employees working for them are suppossed to carry out the decisions.
Yesterday he sacked the Campaign Manager on the floor……….reason except him God is the only one who knows.When someone among us asked the reason, its was plain and simple;he was unable to perform and things were not working out with him.
What the hell……what things are we talking about?Did anyone bother to give him sufficient time to settle on the floor?Did someone ever try to explain him the jobprofile?Did someone bother to explain him as to how the bloody dialer works?Did someone explain him the fact that the agents and teamleaders on the floor are smarter than him when it came to playing with the script?Did someone warn him that the assisstant provided to him is not what he appears to be?The answer is no then why the hell was he asked to simply leave the company.
Noone came to his rescue.He was not even given the time to sit back and think about the fact that he is losing the job.God, he has a wife to look after, car loan to take care of and ten different things that need his attention.The chap was really good.He was better then all other campaign manager we had so far and he was all favorite but then what, nothing helped him out…….he could not afford to do the chamchagiri of the senior.Just because they had to accomodate another Manager from different campaign,they asked him to leave.
This is the nth time that this is happening in the company.CEO’s came and went by then came back.Its a routine here but then when will it end.Why is it always that some one else’s mistake and some one else has to bear the brunt.
Our Director is famous for his impulsive decisions, always been like that then why can’t we do without him.He is all of 24-25 years of age.If he is not competant to do enough for the employees then who will.I have nothing against him in person but then we always look upto him when it comes to something……….whom do we look to when he himself is the wrong doer.

May be I am wrong in my thinking but where is the job security that everyone looks forward to in the organisation?I feel sad and disgusted at what is happening with people in the company.I even don’t know when my turn may come………………

Its Saturday.I hate to work on saturdays but then no other option. The tragedy of life is that they make us fool on saturday by saying that its half day………..but then we come to office an hour early than our usual time.Thus, we report at 5a.m. instead of 6 a.m. which in turn means that the cab will pick me up at 4:15 a.m. and for this get up at 3 a.m.so half the time i sleep walk most of the day.The day gets over at 1:00 p.m.
By the time I reach back to my home down for so called weekend I am dead…………..I want a chutti on saturdays but then who’s listening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its not only the saturday blues, its multicolor………….the eastman effect which keeps on killing me on Saturday……………..
I wish there were more Saturdays……………on which we had leave……….so that we could enjoy………