Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Not So Dumb!

Early morning I got a call from this guy in our Finance department. He said that there was some tax form that I hadn't filled in yet and wanted me to do that right away. So I went down to his cabin and he gave he some form where I had to fill in some basic stuff and sign. I am not so good at reading the fine print, but after watching umpteen Thamizh movies, I know that one shouldn't sign anything without knowing what we are doing it for. So I put on my polite persona and asked him what exactly this is for. He said with a straight face, "Let me explain it to you. You've joined this company a year back and every month the company pays you a salary. You have to pay the government income tax for that." I was flabbergasted. I told him that I was familiar with the concept only to have him launch an explanation about TDS and how the company deducts tax every month from my salary. I filled my form in silence and left.

This kind of behaviour beats me seriously. I didn't know what to do this morning. It's not like the usual dumb questions that we all ask and don't expect a reply - like asking "Are you getting married?" when someone gives us an invite card or "Are you eating?" to a person who has an open box of pizza on his table and a huge chunk of it in his mouth. I don't know what makes people think that they are surrounded by imbeciles whom they have to enlighten. And what do you do in this kind of situation?? (if you are not an imbecile awaiting enlightenment :-) )

I get this feeling a lot while watching movies. I know a movie isn't real yada yada yada, but sometimes while watching something reallllly stupid I feel like taking my brain out and literally throw it far away. And I feel like screaming to the film maker "I am not this dumb." It is worse when the director is someone sensible, the movie is kinda off beat and gets yourself thinking "Hey this could have been me" and then that thing happens!

And yes, if any of you are looking out for tax gyan, you know whom to ask now. :-)

34 comments:

Jinguchakka said...

Such characters at the same time will leave out the most crucial info, which will be the one you are after. You ask wheat and they feed you chaff! :-(
By the way, I am yet to file my return. Thanks for your reminder! :-)

totti said...

My computer administrators fall into the enlightening the masses category. However, their advice is like microsoft's. factual but useless.

janani said...

@jinguchakka - Very true! :-) If he had told one word "returns" everything would have made sense.
And btw the last date is July 31st! :-)

@karthik - lol! I guess we should stick a poster in the cube "Tell me stuff I want to know, else do NOT speak" :-)

Eroteme said...

Hmmm. Been a while!

I usually let them prattle on and once they are done I start telling them about something arcane (like device driver internals or how the FFS is much better than the UFS) and then they would be like "Why are you telling me all this?" and I would go like "Oh! I thought we were playing "Let's share useleess info" and I thought it was my turn. I still think you beat me"
:-)

I remember the HR did something like that to me once and I had a ball of a time.
When he said that to you (though honestly, I might have done the same to someone who asked me "Why am I filling out the tax return form"!! :-) you should have told him "Really? When did they start this new scheme? Is there an SC/ST reservation for this? Is there an age limit? Is there a special provision for vegetarians? What if you didn't tell them that you are paying me? I promise not to tell them!"

And I would echo your friend jinguchakka's question (on another post)!! You really are "busy" nowadays! ;-)

janani said...

@? - Welcome back. :-)

Wokay, first to clear my name. I am a little dense with finance, tax and other related matter, I do know what is tax returns and why we file them. But me has never seen the forms before and added to that I thought we had to file returns and didn't know the company would do it for you. If the words "tax returns" had been uttered by him then I would had the halo of understanding around my head. But he didn't! :-)

And yeah your idea looks good in writing, me wonders if it will actually work. What if I take all the pains to be super sarcastic and the other guy doesn't get it at all? :-)

Jinguchakka are you listening to what you've started??? :-( You've wronged me and everybody is doing jingchak for you. :-( Moi is truly busy. :-(

Jinguchakka said...

ROTL!! Suddenly I noticed you were more prolific in posts. Everytime I'd visit your blog, there would be a new article waiting. So couldn't help asking. And you survive in this world by jingchakking. Bound to happen. :-))

Eroteme said...

Oh trust me! It works but you have to end it with a sweet smile (which works wonder when the face around it is that of a woman!). Sometimes it falls flat, but someone around would surely be laughing. BTW, those things are tried and tested and not mere conjectures!

I agree with JGCK; everytime I visited your blog, hoping that it would be inactive under the "pressure" of tight deadlines and ever tightening "work" I would find a new post. I wanted to comment on the Japanese post (I happen to love a lot of things associated with Japan) but I really was busy! But then hey! :-)
BTW, JGCK, what does ROTL mean?
Roaring out too loudly? ;-)

janani said...

@jinguchakka & ? - Awwww! Look at you two guys bonding over how vetti I am! :-)

Me is isn't vetti and I am not proving it to you by not blogging. :-)

Vinesh said...

Interesting post! I have been in this situation once too often...know how irritating that must be!!

janani said...

@Vinesh - Glad to know I am not alone! :-)

BB said...

First time here...Good one you are on to!...well I agree with you...they have tyhe same thing here at the sorry States of Amborica!...you keep telling something seriously...and you hear the other one asking..."Oh! really?"...you will be like...no honey am kidding!...they choose the right time to irritate you!

janani said...

@benoit - Thanks. :-)

@barath - Welcome and keep reading. :-)
If only people have some kind of irritation radar! :-) Sometimes I think they have one too, they choose just the right time to irritate us. :-)

Anonymous said...

sheesh!! these things happ even in coll:)..to cite an xample...n i m not kidding or mking it happen but this things really happened...i was in my first yr in coll when we had this prof for E.M(engg mechanics) n it was the first class n he asked all of us to intro ourselves..my turn n i stood up n with pride in my eyes(as i always do while mentioning my name:)..)said
"harini sundarrajan"..the next question shook me off my feet..he fired back "so wats ur initial?"..woww!! now i was dumbstruck...how cud i ans such a DUMB ques..the next question simply blew me off n i cud almost faint hearing tat! he asked me with a straight face as if to xtract some imp info 4m me"ok so who "sundarrajan?"..whoa!!i thought 'who else cud it be?'...so akka if u think u heard a really dumb ques...pls dont forget i hear ques which are more dumb(in geometric progressions:):)..in our 'lovely' coll..:):)....n these dosent simply beats us....it gives us big 'punches'...lol

janani said...

@harini - That's the wierd bit about thamizh names. Coming soon, a blog about names! :-)

Anonymous said...

yea i can understand....but still even when u get the whole thing of tamizh names...if someone asks a very illogical(or atleast seems so 4 tat min) ques abt ur name(even if u r awre of the twists in tamizh lang)..it hits u spontaneously...if u gho thru such situations ull realise how it blows ur head off:):)...coz at tat moment u cant think of logic...the ques is simple as "STUPID"..:)

Anonymous said...

gotta go thru it to get the feel of how it feels....HILARIOUS!!:D

Eroteme said...

This is fun! Now your sister thinks that your question was dumb? :-o
Geez! At least that HR guy didn't say it was dumb and answered it albeit elaborately! ;-)

Narayana! Narayana!

janani said...

@harini - Stupid people with stupid questions everywhere! :-) Cheer up, you can graduate soon to a refined level stupidity@work. :-)

@? - Nopes it isn't a dumb question and she doesn't feel so! That form said "Form 16AA" and the word "returns" wasn't mentioned anywhere, thats why I asked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rohan Kumar said...

That "I am too big a smartass for ur ass" behaviour beats me too, I just tend to ignore them to oblivion for the rest of my happy existence :)

Anonymous said...

H - You win the "Dumb Question Race". Your situation was definetely more dumb & stupid also. May be your Prof was trying a joke to entertain his students in the first class. Pity him ... he ended up being stupid.

J - How do you expect your Finance person to know that just the word 'returns' would get you going. Appreciate the guy's patience to explain the whole thing. But remember, there are numerous situations wherein information is not given even when asked. Compared to that, this is a lot better ... just that it is a little dumb ... but you don't miss anything. Coming to your movies point ... fully agree with you.

janani said...

@rohan - Good for you! :-) But I wasn't able to ignore that FinOps guy! :-(

Anonymous said...

H- oh ho mukund...god forbit it was not a joke...it was just tat he was sooodumb...but the entertainment pt is correct...thou it wasnt meant to be a joke it thouroughly entertained the whole class:):)

janani said...

@h - Good for your girlie! :-) In accordance with our conversation last night, I think Mukund has answered. :-) Was that prof non Thamizh?

@mukund - You want me appreciate that guy????? Arrggghhh!! Even if he had tried to explain about returns I wouldn't have fumed. The concept of income tax??? The point of the whole blog is about how people assume others are dumb! It is not about the dumb things we encounter in life. When H's prof asked her a stupid question, he exposed his stupidity and didn't assume she is also so. In my case, that guy actually thought that I know nothing about tax and tried to explain and hence my angst!!!

But enough said!

Anonymous said...

I'm just trying to compare 2 scenarios -

1) Hearing info you already know. Agreed this could be dumb & boring.
2) Not getting info even when you ask for it. This is kind of a serious problem where you really get pained. Imagine, you want some info badly no one gives that inspite of knowing that you don't know that.

Your Finance person is definetely not like some of the Govt employees who are reluctant to give info even when asked. So u can put up with him.
On a lighter note, I guess your Finance person got a little over enthu'd in helping out a girl :) Not sure if he would have explained so much if G had asked the same question to him :)

Jinguchakka said...

It's 3 days since last post! When is your next post? :-))

Anonymous said...

Where r u???

Adarsh A. Varghese said...

Chanced upon your blog today. Wonderful work, makes great reading!

janani said...

@jinguchakka - Coming soon my friend! :-)

@p - Where else but Hyd? :-)

@adarsh - Thank you, thank you thank you! And please keep reading. :-)

MA said...

Earth calling mars.... do you copy???

Anonymous said...

heyy where r u??? start writinggg!!!!

Jinguchakka said...

mAf kijiye! start blogging. I truly appreciated your prolific output amidst office work schedules.

janani said...

@ma - I am backkkk! :-)

@harini - You wish is my command my dear! :-)

@jinguchakka - Lol! Trust me, my temperoral blog suspension is certainly not because of what you said! :-)

Fathima Sagar said...

LOL ;-))))))))))))))))).
U know, when people knock my hostel(I am staying in a Working Women's hostel) room door, give missed calls to wake me up, and when I go and open the door atlast sleepily, they ask me, "Oh! so u were sleeping??? Sorry. I din't know that. Otherwise, I wudn't have woken u up" ;-((((((((((((((((((((((((. Now what does this mean.

janani said...

@fathima - lol!