Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Have Tongue, Will Talk

Phew... Long long long time since I've blogged... Infact I'd forgotten the URL of my blog... Attribute this to sheer laziness and no other alien activity... And the reason I'm blogging now is that I have nothing better to do while travelling back home from work; an activity that requires nearly 2 hours of my otherwise 'productive' time. (Read as facebook-ing/orkut-ing/Big Bang Theory-ing/HIMYM-ing etc...)...

(If you've followed some of my previous blogs, I tend to start off in this manner. It is a pure time-wasting, space consuming, getting-into-the-groove, getting-out-of-the-writer's-block activity. My sincere recommendation to all readers who have read upto this point is to kindly skip the above part. If you haven't, well , the joke's on you.)

Well, what I've actually done above is blabbered for a couple of paragraphs without conveying anything significant (not that the part following this piece is of any significant releavance). I've done this through writing; a significant number of people I'm currently in contact with do it, while talking.

I've always wondered how some people manage to incessantly exercise their vocal chords (much to the despair of the other members whose auditory senses have to bear the brunt). I had this eureka moment sitting in a meeting in office, when, 5 people in the meeting expressed the same thought (each trying to outdo the other in terms of decibel levels) in 5 different ways. All they were trying to do was set the agenda for the next meeting.

Ok. I'm not joking. Here's how it was:

7 people (including your's truly) sitting in a meeting room (And here's the clincher. No one knows why we were sitting in the meeting room. Ergo, there is a lot of small talk and cross talk happening). After about 5 mins,

Person 1 (Taking the initiative that has been talked about much in all the pre-MBA group discussion coaching forums): "Ok. So help me understand, what is the purpose behind this meeting. Do we have an agenda?"

Person 2: "I think we are meeting to discuss what we'll discuss in the next meeting"

Person 1 (Before person 2 completes): "I think what we should do is set up an agenda for the next meeting"

Random person(joins in conversation and tries to shout to make himself heard); " See, we are going nowhere. I really believe henceforth, there should be prior communication as to what will be discussed in the meeting"

Person 1 (Shoots down person speaking): "I think we should discuss the action items before we turn up for the next meeting".

The debate continues for about twenty minutes with other parties pitching in with their thoughts at decibel levels that would generally have been heard by members of the canine family.

At the end of twenty minutes, someone realizes that it is time for the next meeting and stands up and shouts: "All right. I think we should adjourn for the day. Let us come up with a basic framework of what we can discuss in these meetings going forward. Thank you everyone".

Me (Sitting in a corner, fiddling with the arm rest of the chair, clearly agitated, mutters to self) - "DUHHHHHH" (There goes half an hour of my Facebook-ing).

The point I'm trying to make here is that people seem to live the philosophy - "Have Tongue, Will Talk", without having any concern or pity for the person at the receiving end. I normally have half a mind to ask people to shut their trap if they have nothing valuable to contribute.

But I guess, there is a section of people who believe otherwise. And a considerably large chunk, at that. So, I guess I have to confine myself to venting my frustrations at the blog levels and be happy about that.

In a totally unrelated topic, I've been reading about some Katy Berry and some hippie getting married in the Ranthambore jungles and that they violated some 11 pm deadlines. I am pissed. Mighty pissed at that. For 2 simple reasons:

1. Why weren't the tigers invited for the wedding. I don't happen to see their names in the list of wedding attendees.
2. Why, of all available places on good ol' earth, did these hippies go to a jungle to get married. What the beep are Kalyan Mantaps/Marriage Halls meant for!!! That being the case, why dont they get the tigers to mate in one of their wedding halls and then be allowed to feast on the honorable guests present. It's got to be quid pro quo.
There. I'm done. Until my next post (God knows when that's going to happen), au revoir.