Tiger & Babu

Many months ago there was a story writing competition in our ODC. The story was to start with "Tiger was chasing him wildly..." and end with "he finally got a salary hike." Below is my attempt :

Tiger was chasing him wildly over monitors and cubicles as if it was the easiest thing to do. Now, Babu realized why all his colleagues used to call their PM as ‘The Tiger’. Not only was he as ferocious as a tiger but also as fast. On any ‘normal’ working day though, anyone in our ODC would assume him to be at the most a ‘Crouching tiger , hidden dragon’. … You may be wondering what I am talking about. So let me start from the beginning. Babu is one of my colleagues and he’s a terrific football fan. Enter his cube and you would find the All Time Greats of football … Pele, Maradona,, Beckenbauer …. Etc all pasted left and right of his work desk. But he is not the only one. Our PM, Mr. Bos is also extremely fond of this game where a small black & white ball controls 10 people (or is it the other way around?? )
Mr. Bos has a collection of flags of all the great football playing countries which adorn the walls of his cube. Now during the WorldCup you could daily see those flags of the winning teams hanging outside in front of his door . In that week our ODC was having ‘PEOPLE’s WEEK’ and lot many games were held. Both Babu and Mr. Bos were eying one particular competition namely ‘Kickstart’ our own football game … but not so the game but more the football which is an exact replica of the one used in FIFA WorldCup.
….. Fimally the day arrived when the game was to be played between our wing and the next. Babu and Mr.Bos were also among the spectators …. After lot many whistles and half a dozen yellow cards (and two red cards for the other wing) our wing finally emerged winners. Yahoo …. Everyone celebrated ….. Among the hustle and bustle no one realized that Mr. Bos slowly approached the foot ball. Once it was in his reach, he grabbed and made a walk back to his place ….. But not for Babu …. He watched Mr. Bos’ every move and slowly followed him. Once he was behind him, Babu quickly grabbed the ball from Mr. Bos’ hands and gave a run , not for his life though …. Mr. Bos was perplexed for a split milli second …
He too started sprinting ….. And there we saw Mr.Bos, alias Tiger , chasing wildly after Babu ….
A quite peculiar sight in an office…. One person in his suit hunting behind another having a football …
This race continued from the bus park area to the entrance of our tower …. Then the battle continued inside … Babu ran up to stairs… Mr. Bos , not as agile, luckily saw the lift opening and jumped inside and pressed hard for 3rd floor …. Babu rushed for the wing entrance , Mr.Bos close on heels …
Now both were inside … For the very few who had been able to resist watching the game outside or who were too busy with work, this was an unexpected sight …. Literally, like monkeys jumping around in a jungle you could see Babu and Mr. Bos running and jumping around the wing over chairs , monitors, etc …
This continued for some minutes …. Till when finally both were out of breath and came to a stop .. .metres away from each other … The air was as static as in a tight football match with no goals scored and with the last two minutes for play ….
Finally Mr.Bos cried ‘Babu, gimme the football ‘ …. ‘Sorry, Sir’ Only over my body …’ was Babu’s reply …. Mr.Bos started to shout … but Babu would not move …. Then , suddenly, Mr. Bos started crying … Babu was surprised but suspicious …. Maybe another trick of the ‘Tiger’ ….. ? Mr.Bos wept and wept …
and then he fell on his knees and he begged Babu to give the football …
‘Babu, please …. Please give me the football’ All my entire life it has been my dream to get one like this … Please don’t do this to me … and Mr. Bos wept and wept ….
Babu never had any feelings for Mr. Bos but now he felt pity for his boss …. Finally, he thought that the football was in the end not that worth it …. He went towards Mr.Bos and helped him get up and then he gave him the coveted foot ball … ‘Here mr.Bos, it’s Urs ‘ … and slowly he went out …. To cake corner to get a choco milk shake, coz the race made him thirsty …
Mr. Bos couldn’t believe his luck … he held the football like a father would hold a new-born baby … and went to his cube, closing the world behind him …
The next day, Babu received a mail from Mr.Bos …. ‘Thank you, Babu …. To show my appreciation , I am planning to give you a salary hike next month. … Thanks & Regards, Mr.Bos’
Babu didn’t know whether to be happy or not … Well, whatever … he may not have got the football, he thought …. But ......he finally got a salary hike.

The meaning of "Messages..."

I was wondering what title to put for my blog .....
Many things had come to my mind ... like "Pursuer of Happyness" ...
well, you are right ... i was influenced by the movie of the same title ...
But then I thought, aren't we all doing that ? I mean pursuing happyness ...
(and just like Will Smith in the movie, I like the spelling with a "y" :) )
Then this title struck me.A few months ago I was looking for a birthday gift - book for a friend ... and I came across this one "Message in a bottle" ... I just fell in love with this title ... (this has nothing to do with the fact, that this is supposed to be a love story). And the picture came to my mind, of a bottle floating in water with a paper message in it, just as I had seen in so many pirate movies when I was a kid ... sadly not nowadays though ...

I feel this title reflects what I want to say ... It's not necessarily an "SOS" sent out because I am stranded in an isolated island ... like Tom Hanks with no one but a football to talk to ...
It is rather small messages about my state of mind ... about the people I have met and will be meeting .... and the little bits and pieces in my daily life that in the end will frame the "Life of Syl" ...

Once again I have been inspired by this dear friend of mine ... I'm not gonna mention names ... as many names will certainly be mentioned in the future posts to come ... Sometimes we need people to push us in the right direction, I feel ...
Thank you :)

My Second Blog

Hello again ... :)
I had started out in writing a blog some months ago ... to be precise March 5,2007.
Like many of my attempts it evaporated into thin air ... so here I am ... again ...
Below are the excerpts of my very first post ...

My First Blog - Mar5 2007
Hello,Well, how does one start one's first blog ... ?I have no clues. Today I was reading the blogs of a friend ... and I just liked it ...Not that I had not read it earlier but as always I am just so good at procrastinating (i hope that was correct ;) ) things I want to do ....Always so many excuses ... There shouldn't be none tonight I thought...So let's start off ... I like to express myself... Not much of writing... rather I prefer talking ... But in this digital-age where everything is designed to shorten or totally avoid human interaction, one does not get to meet so many people who would be interested in talking about anything and everything under the sun ...I feel this is a good medium to express my thoughts and emotions ....I used to keep a diary when I was younger ... so this isn't much different ...Though this would be an open one ... coz I would be glad if someone will be interested in reading this ...As someone said "Life is a box of Chocolates" ... and if we all would share our experiences in life,we would soon understand that we all are more or less same ... So let's start off on a beautiful journey ... ( I hope so ... :) )Thank you for reading this ....