Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Three's Company

Scene - The cafeteria

Present - Obnoxious R, Simple Simon P, Fake Charming D and poor 'ol Me

The four of us are seated in a table

D(to me): So, what are you doing?
Me: Eating! duh
D(loudly): Ha ha ha! I mean, in your project
Me: Coding
To prevent laughter again
The design is almost done, just started working on implementation
D: Wow, great yaar. Design, coding and all!
Oh yeah, software is not rocket science
Peace reigns for a while as chatter continues in Telugu

R(trying to include me in the flow): You know I shouted at someone today
Me: I couldn't care less Oh I see!
R: Actually it was at that S blah blah blah....... I don't know why he did that!
Me: Because he wanted to do that? Yeah!
R: So I told to him that I would report this. And nicely shouted at him.
Me: You don't tell "to" people, you tell things to people. And nicely shouted? Hmm
P: Yeah R, you are right. He shouldn't have done that. And then starts babbling in Telugu, obviously in the same vein 'coz R keeps nodding indignantly

Two recent hires join us at the table
Me: Hi, I am Janani and I'm in XYZ team
They introduce themselves and I am asking them about their college
R: Ragging huh?
Me: What?
R: Ragging the juniors. Hahaha Raucous laughter from all around
The guys throw awkward smiles and soon excuse themselves to join their friends at another table

P: My telephone bill is very high this month - its xxx.
xxx is just 20% of my bill and I express this
R:
You have a boyfriend that's why you bills are high. Nudges me and laughs again
I smile and continue eating. Not fool enough to start a discussion about my singlehood
D: No R, even if Janani wants she can't get a bf Turns and beams at me seeking appreciation
What?? This is supposed to a compliment? Oh God, just take me away
Me: Oh no, I use normal sunscreen, it screens only UV rays and not guys
P: No no I know you mail this guy xyz@abc. com everyday. You must be calling him in Bangalore everyday, that's why your bill is high.
I almost choke on my food
Me: How the hell do you know I mail him?
P: I checked out the SMTP logs. Don't worry I can't see your mails, just the headers.
I silently resolve to use only gmail for all personal correspondance

I finish my lunch and leave.
Time spent in cafeteria - 17 mins
Time allowed for lunch - 1 hour

5 comments:

Vetty Max said...

Don't worry...you will also get your chance to get back.

Sagnik Nandy said...

what :O isn't that a breach of privacy. interesting table discussion and amazing thought description. reminds me of wonder years where the best part of the show was the thoughts that were overheard :)

janani said...

@vmax - No no I don't want to get back at them, just want to get away from them!

@sagnik - God knows! The best part was the way it was said, very matter-of-factly.
Wonder Years was one great show. Sis n I used to rush home from school to watch Wonder Years and Small Wonder. :-)

littlecow said...

when VSNL started their internet account (it was a lynx based text only dial-up account), their dead.letters were public readable. so if a connection dropped while composing emails (which was quite often), the letter was there for all to read... anyways, the great thing about your SMTP log is that you can fake it and take these fellows for a nice long ride... (and blog your way to instant stardom!) :)

janani said...

@littlecow - Yeah I remember those days. Later they started offering those as "student" accounts. :-) Even at BITS, we had just pine for email. One day there was some screwup somewhere and people were able to login without a password. I remember rushing to the IPC to delete all my mails. :-)
And abt faking SMTP logs, I don't have permissions on that box!!! :-(