We had an Ooty drive with my 7 colleagues on last 12th September. It was really an unforgettable trip. Rather than lake and garden we roamed around a lot of beautiful places in Ooty. One of my colleague was an excellent traveller who knows each nook and corner of the place. We had driven to heights, lakes sidewalks in rain, barbeque etc.
Visited an Irani cafeteria run by an old lady from Bahai community. Oh we can’t forget the cake still tastes in my tongue. It was a special item prepared by that lady. Unfortunately we could not purchase enough cake to home as it had great demand. Better luck next time.
We had a shopping session just prior to our return journey. We roamed in shops and our experienced friend directed us to right shops . Ooty is famous for Chocolates and we too were great passionate about the same.
One of my friend had a great passion for DARK CHOCOLATE. So we planned to buy some chocolates to home. We went to Modern Confectionaries General Store run by a mallu. There was great rush in the shop and we managed to order seven independent packs of DARK CHOCOLATES of each 200 gms. I planned to get the DARK CHOCOLATES for my grandpa as he had a great crush for the same. Shop keeper told that it will take some time to pack it up and asked us to wait. So we shifted our mind to purchase other goodies. I was planning to buy some Red Wine (Non Alcoholic) for my dad. But my friend advised me to buy another one from Calicut. Then me and Binu were busy in purchasing some packets of potato fries and other eatables. Arun was busy with taking snaps with his mobile cam. He has shooted each nook and corner of the shop. Meanwhile my friends were busy with purchase of some goodies for home. We could see nice girls busy with purchasing. We had no other choice waiting for the DARK CHOCOLATES and watching the girls. There were two different counters for billing chocolates and other goodies. Unfortunately I was accidently assigned as the treasurer for the whole trip. It was the only boring job that I ever hated throughout the journey. I had to keep a note of every penny I spend across.
Meanwhile I was watching the packing of chocolates and I received the bill of Rs 525. I was busy in paying the bill as we were running short of time. I got my balance ready and was busy with keeping the account recorded. If I were correct I asked one of my colleague to collect the DARK CHOCOLATES. We left the shop.
We stopped at Gudallur for Gobi Masala Dosa. Before we start our journey, I searched for the chocolates purchased. Unfortunately we could not locate any trace of DARK CHOCOLATES in the entire cab. So everyone reached to the conclusion that i missed the chocolate at the shop itself while paying the bill for the same. From there onwards it was a hectic journey for me till Calicut. Everyone started to kick my ass for the issue of DARK CHOCOLATES. I had no other choice to keep my mouth shut for another two hours till Calicut. Arun was in leading role to hit. Everyone was busy with framing the stories to be narrated at the office next day. Even they narrated the stories to the extent that I paid the other girl’s bill.
Next day I had a very nice time in office. The stories were flashed in office as fast as light. My friends told me to call up the guys to enquire about the chocolates. For my surprise the Chocolates packs were there and they agreed me to courier it. But for my luck my friend’s cousin told me that he will get it back.
Atlast DARK CHOCOLATES reached next Saturday. It took one week for the DARK CHOCOLATES to reach Kerala from Ooty. Everyone had a nice time in enjoying the chocolates.
But still I confused whose mind run behind the girl. Is that my mind or my colleague’s whom I asked to collect the DARK CHOCOLATES. Any way Binu’s share of DARK CHCOLATES is still peacefully resting in my friend’s refrigerator.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Vampires
We a gang of 4 in my Engineering College days, call ourselves as "VAMPIRES". Vampires gang consists of me, Amal(Mr Palakkad),Rajiv alias Kunjappu and Prasad alias Palu. We were the vampires who sucks BEER instead of blood. What made our friendship even stronger? The reason is we were of similar frequency in all activities starting from scooting exams, films and beer.
We all believed in the following laws
You can enjoy a beer all month long
Beer stains wash out
You don't have to wine and dine beer
Your beer will always wait patiently for you in the car while you play baseball
When your beer goes flat, you toss it out
Hangovers go away
A beer label comes off without a fight
Beer is never late
Beer doesn't get jealous when you grab another beer
When you go to a bar, you know you can always pick up a beer
Beer never gets a headache
After you've had a beer, the bottle is still worth 5 cents
A beer won't get upset if you come home and have another beer
If you pour a beer right, you'll always get good head
A beer always goes down easy
You can have more than one beer a night and not feel guilty
You can share a beer with your friends
You always know you're the first one to pop a beer
Beer is always wet
Beer doesn't demand equality
You can have a beer in public
A beer doesn't care when you come
A frigid beer is a good beer
You don't have to wash a beer before it tastes good
(extracts from 25 Reasons Why Beer Is Better Than Women: )
We used go for boozing thrice in a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Fort Palace a three star hotel in Palakkad was our destination. We had an area in lawn reserved for us :-). Usual busy schedule of our sessions
Venue FORT PALACE - Palakkad
5.30 PM : We find ourselves occupied in lawn
5.40 PM : Krishnan Kutti chettan (our usual bearer) comes for order. We all go for ICE BEER - our favourite one.
6.00 PM : ICE beer comes with compliments. We never goes for side dishes as they are very costly.
6.00 PM to 8.00 PM : We kicks off our sessions, starts from 1,2,3 ICE beers…..cigars…. Usual talks…. College issues n gals.
8.10 PM: We gets enough mood for the day , we plans to leave. There was a common climax dialogue
"We should reunite after leaving our college days once in a year in the same FORT PALACE. We should book an A/C room here, spend whole day for beer . " Dil chahtha hai……song plays in background
8.30 PM: Noorjahan restaurant - our favourite restaurant for Malabar food dishes.
10.00 PM : Reach college, move directly to GMC (Gentle men's corner) a place next to ladies hostel. We had a policy once we drinks we should show off our skills to someone.
10.00 PM- 11.30 PM : We play around in hostel, make our friends asleep.
12.00 PM : goes to bed.
Every beer sessions had a common resolution "We should reunite at the same Fort Palace after a long time.". Did u believe it happened. Yes it happened in January 2009 (after a duration of 4 years).
VAMPIRES that sucks beer reunited in the same FORT PALACE…….it happened
We all believed in the following laws
You can enjoy a beer all month long
Beer stains wash out
You don't have to wine and dine beer
Your beer will always wait patiently for you in the car while you play baseball
When your beer goes flat, you toss it out
Hangovers go away
A beer label comes off without a fight
Beer is never late
Beer doesn't get jealous when you grab another beer
When you go to a bar, you know you can always pick up a beer
Beer never gets a headache
After you've had a beer, the bottle is still worth 5 cents
A beer won't get upset if you come home and have another beer
If you pour a beer right, you'll always get good head
A beer always goes down easy
You can have more than one beer a night and not feel guilty
You can share a beer with your friends
You always know you're the first one to pop a beer
Beer is always wet
Beer doesn't demand equality
You can have a beer in public
A beer doesn't care when you come
A frigid beer is a good beer
You don't have to wash a beer before it tastes good
(extracts from 25 Reasons Why Beer Is Better Than Women: )
We used go for boozing thrice in a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Fort Palace a three star hotel in Palakkad was our destination. We had an area in lawn reserved for us :-). Usual busy schedule of our sessions
Venue FORT PALACE - Palakkad
5.30 PM : We find ourselves occupied in lawn
5.40 PM : Krishnan Kutti chettan (our usual bearer) comes for order. We all go for ICE BEER - our favourite one.
6.00 PM : ICE beer comes with compliments. We never goes for side dishes as they are very costly.
6.00 PM to 8.00 PM : We kicks off our sessions, starts from 1,2,3 ICE beers…..cigars…. Usual talks…. College issues n gals.
8.10 PM: We gets enough mood for the day , we plans to leave. There was a common climax dialogue
"We should reunite after leaving our college days once in a year in the same FORT PALACE. We should book an A/C room here, spend whole day for beer . " Dil chahtha hai……song plays in background
8.30 PM: Noorjahan restaurant - our favourite restaurant for Malabar food dishes.
10.00 PM : Reach college, move directly to GMC (Gentle men's corner) a place next to ladies hostel. We had a policy once we drinks we should show off our skills to someone.
10.00 PM- 11.30 PM : We play around in hostel, make our friends asleep.
12.00 PM : goes to bed.
Every beer sessions had a common resolution "We should reunite at the same Fort Palace after a long time.". Did u believe it happened. Yes it happened in January 2009 (after a duration of 4 years).
VAMPIRES that sucks beer reunited in the same FORT PALACE…….it happened
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
My outsourcing days...
How you will feel if you get a chance to work in US timezones/shifts.Let me brief a busy day schedule from the list of my sleepless nights of the Outsourcing days in Chennai.
A car came near to the appartment in Chrompet.
11.30 PM
My mobile rings showing "Driver Calling"
Driver: Sir cab has come, we are late, two more picks on the way...
Me: Hey boss please wait for five minute let me finish my brushing...come inside and watch the TV
11.45 PM
Car starts journey to office in Alwarpet.Driver started his usual chats, background FM radio is in its full fledge.
I can see the empty,trafic less highways of the Chennai in the mid night.Chennai is onto deep sleep unless few outsourcing cabs are running up and downs.
12.00 AM
Reached Velachery ,
Driver : Please call that gal ..she is the next pick from this area..
Me: Yup
We picked her from Velachery and lost 15 minutes there waiting for her.Cab is going, we guys rarely speaks as we are onto different processes.
Just a wishing hai..thats it.
Meanwhile driver is getting calls from the Command centre in Office to track the cabs..this is a routine check up the office does every day.Then we had one more pick up from near to our office.
12.20 AM
Reached office.Now we begins our day...We can see many guys are leaving the office as their shift ends..everyone are rushing towards their cabs.
The funny thing is that around three thousand guys are working here in different processes in different shifts but rarely knows each other.
My search for my team starts here and locates the bay where they sits.I took my place.My testing for the headphone,Avaya phone starts.The fact is that each one will get a different place to sit each day in the office.Every team comprises of ten members with a Team lead.
12.30 AM
I completes my login process, ready to take the call.We have a lot of stuffs to do in the login process.Logging into different applications.Everything has to be set up before we take a call.
You will think what this Call refers to.Dont get confused this is not a Customer care or an Insurance outsourcing firm.But we call our self as Tech Support Engineers solving the American's technical issues in the netwrking field.This is purely a Technical Support Industry.Each and every call to our office is very important as that it counts and its our revenue.
We treat our Customers as god.Our managers tells us that we (Tech Support guys) are the bread winners for the company.Yes its the fact.
Technical support guys includes the candidates from BTech , MSc,Bsc,MBA,almost all graduate levels.
So what actually attracts them.The answer is very simple this job acts as a temporary resort for their race ahead for a good career and which provides the economical stability to stay in a metro.
Our shift starts from 12.30 AM to 9.30 AM in the morning. This is the hectic hell shift with huge call volume as its peak time of the Americans .
A call can lasts from five minutes to 1 n half hours depends on the issue.Every day we take around 30 calls.Our communications with the clients will be barged by our teamlead,quality wing etc.
So its for sure that we may get screwed up at any time if we are not in the track.If our client is happy he sends us the CSAT i.e. Customer Satisfaction Score which adds to our salary credit a few bucks.
Every one are watching their phone for the calls. If any call comes to any phone ,then we are sure we should get ready into the action and the call starts booming up.
Phone rings...
Me: Good morning Sir ,thank you for calling Technical support...how may help you today....sir...
(the usual geeting that we are taught by our trainer)
Client: I bought this product...i have this issue....bllah...blah...blah...
.........
Me : Thank you for calling....
If we attend a call we have to update the details onto many case trackers internally and externally.We have to do this in between the calls.
After a call if the client is very happy that his issue is resolved then he will say..."You guys are doing really a good work..working in the night...really appreciable and so and so.."
Every coin has two sides , so its vice versa he will shower us with all the English "fk...sk..words....".We are not supposed to say anything against,just put into mute.Thank god the Phone has alot of such facilities.
So the process continues till 9.30 , a long nine hours race in the night.But just one hour relaxation split into our own convenience.We likes these intervals,we put the phone on hold.
3.00 AM - 4.00 AM
We rushes to the lift and to the basement for a smoke.You know one thing a cigarette and a tea can keep you awake and active in the night.
Then we have alot of snacks waiting in the cafeteria like pizza,sandwitches,cakes etc with tea/coffee/rose milks and colas.But no one feel it nice to have these in this time shift.
If we really needs a break in between a call, we guys just do one thing, tell a phrase to the client "May i place you on hold for a moment so that i can research on this issue".
We put a call on hold music for them.Its just another tricky tip to get rid of a call.
8.00 AM
Me :Guys lets go and have the break fast...and have a cigarette.
Its our time to have the breakfast from the cafeteria.We may have idli/dosa/vada etc south indian vegetarian dishes.Oh god one more hour to pass.
Now we gets relaxed since we are reaching the end of our shift.
9.30 AM
We are about to leave the bay.Meets the team lead and gets his feedbacks for the day.Rushes to the basement.
Cab and driver will be waiting in the basement.
I usually sits in the front seat,pushes the seat backwards and gets ready for a short sleep before i reach my appartment through the high traffic.
The same FM starts playing in the background.Its 10.00 AM in the morning , Chennai is getting into busy and we are onto sleep.
10.30 AM
Mobile ringing , Mom calling....
Mom : Hi son how are you... , had your breakfast...
Me: yes mom had my dinner and its the time to sleep.
...
...
Me : Good night mom...
A car came near to the appartment in Chrompet.
11.30 PM
My mobile rings showing "Driver Calling"
Driver: Sir cab has come, we are late, two more picks on the way...
Me: Hey boss please wait for five minute let me finish my brushing...come inside and watch the TV
11.45 PM
Car starts journey to office in Alwarpet.Driver started his usual chats, background FM radio is in its full fledge.
I can see the empty,trafic less highways of the Chennai in the mid night.Chennai is onto deep sleep unless few outsourcing cabs are running up and downs.
12.00 AM
Reached Velachery ,
Driver : Please call that gal ..she is the next pick from this area..
Me: Yup
We picked her from Velachery and lost 15 minutes there waiting for her.Cab is going, we guys rarely speaks as we are onto different processes.
Just a wishing hai..thats it.
Meanwhile driver is getting calls from the Command centre in Office to track the cabs..this is a routine check up the office does every day.Then we had one more pick up from near to our office.
12.20 AM
Reached office.Now we begins our day...We can see many guys are leaving the office as their shift ends..everyone are rushing towards their cabs.
The funny thing is that around three thousand guys are working here in different processes in different shifts but rarely knows each other.
My search for my team starts here and locates the bay where they sits.I took my place.My testing for the headphone,Avaya phone starts.The fact is that each one will get a different place to sit each day in the office.Every team comprises of ten members with a Team lead.
12.30 AM
I completes my login process, ready to take the call.We have a lot of stuffs to do in the login process.Logging into different applications.Everything has to be set up before we take a call.
You will think what this Call refers to.Dont get confused this is not a Customer care or an Insurance outsourcing firm.But we call our self as Tech Support Engineers solving the American's technical issues in the netwrking field.This is purely a Technical Support Industry.Each and every call to our office is very important as that it counts and its our revenue.
We treat our Customers as god.Our managers tells us that we (Tech Support guys) are the bread winners for the company.Yes its the fact.
Technical support guys includes the candidates from BTech , MSc,Bsc,MBA,almost all graduate levels.
So what actually attracts them.The answer is very simple this job acts as a temporary resort for their race ahead for a good career and which provides the economical stability to stay in a metro.
Our shift starts from 12.30 AM to 9.30 AM in the morning. This is the hectic hell shift with huge call volume as its peak time of the Americans .
A call can lasts from five minutes to 1 n half hours depends on the issue.Every day we take around 30 calls.Our communications with the clients will be barged by our teamlead,quality wing etc.
So its for sure that we may get screwed up at any time if we are not in the track.If our client is happy he sends us the CSAT i.e. Customer Satisfaction Score which adds to our salary credit a few bucks.
Every one are watching their phone for the calls. If any call comes to any phone ,then we are sure we should get ready into the action and the call starts booming up.
Phone rings...
Me: Good morning Sir ,thank you for calling Technical support...how may help you today....sir...
(the usual geeting that we are taught by our trainer)
Client: I bought this product...i have this issue....bllah...blah...blah...
.........
Me : Thank you for calling....
If we attend a call we have to update the details onto many case trackers internally and externally.We have to do this in between the calls.
After a call if the client is very happy that his issue is resolved then he will say..."You guys are doing really a good work..working in the night...really appreciable and so and so.."
Every coin has two sides , so its vice versa he will shower us with all the English "fk...sk..words....".We are not supposed to say anything against,just put into mute.Thank god the Phone has alot of such facilities.
So the process continues till 9.30 , a long nine hours race in the night.But just one hour relaxation split into our own convenience.We likes these intervals,we put the phone on hold.
3.00 AM - 4.00 AM
We rushes to the lift and to the basement for a smoke.You know one thing a cigarette and a tea can keep you awake and active in the night.
Then we have alot of snacks waiting in the cafeteria like pizza,sandwitches,cakes etc with tea/coffee/rose milks and colas.But no one feel it nice to have these in this time shift.
If we really needs a break in between a call, we guys just do one thing, tell a phrase to the client "May i place you on hold for a moment so that i can research on this issue".
We put a call on hold music for them.Its just another tricky tip to get rid of a call.
8.00 AM
Me :Guys lets go and have the break fast...and have a cigarette.
Its our time to have the breakfast from the cafeteria.We may have idli/dosa/vada etc south indian vegetarian dishes.Oh god one more hour to pass.
Now we gets relaxed since we are reaching the end of our shift.
9.30 AM
We are about to leave the bay.Meets the team lead and gets his feedbacks for the day.Rushes to the basement.
Cab and driver will be waiting in the basement.
I usually sits in the front seat,pushes the seat backwards and gets ready for a short sleep before i reach my appartment through the high traffic.
The same FM starts playing in the background.Its 10.00 AM in the morning , Chennai is getting into busy and we are onto sleep.
10.30 AM
Mobile ringing , Mom calling....
Mom : Hi son how are you... , had your breakfast...
Me: yes mom had my dinner and its the time to sleep.
...
...
Me : Good night mom...
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