He sat looking at the cake, a part of his 70th birthday celebrations… a once in a lifetime event… and wondered how he loved and looked forward to these once in a while events… from the simple stuff to the really ‘once in a lifetime’ events…he allowed himself a brief flashback of his life so far…
he loved his birthdays from the time he could remember.. he was the centre of attraction on that day, and would be flooded with presents…. on the birthday that came once a year…
but he loved the simple things too… sleep, for example, because he was awake all day and slept only once, at night… he liked sundays, because all the other days he had to go to school, and later, work… he used to love saturdays too, because that was the only day he dined out…
he had looked forward to his marriage, because he knew he would be married only once.. yes, an old school thought, but thats the way he was… he used to look forward to anniversaries, the day in the year when everything would be special.. he cherished the day his only son was born, because they were sure there wouldnt be a another..he also had fond memories of the day he retired from work, it was the end of a big chapter in his life……
lately he had started to cherish all moments, because he felt he would be wasting his life otherwise, because each moment of life was special…but these days, there was a contradiction…. he wasn’t looking forward for a moment that was soon to come, a moment that came only once in life… the moment he would die…. no, he wasnt looking forwarded to it, though life happened all the while and death happened only once, but he wondered why…. because he didnt have a choice? because he didnt know what happened after it??…
until next time, live another day…

He was not very comfortable getting into the meeting. he had played around with the numbers and done a last minute damage control exercise, which , though helped him to meet his targets, was not going to go down well with the others in the meeting. Not that he hadnt done it before, but each time he had done something like it, he had faced a lot of flak. he was,understandably nervous.
the meeting began, and as all the other guys mechanically began describing achievements/development work and other parameters in the overall appraisal, he wondered how bad he would look in front of his peers and superiors. finally it was his turn.
as he was explaining his facts and figures, he could feel they were in no way convinced. finally one of the top guys held up a hand. “there are a lot of things that we require clarifications on, that wont be covered in your presentation. it would be better if you answered a few questions.”
“okay”, he said, closing his laptop.
“it has been seen that you are trying to hard sell yourself, when our policy has always been for our target audience to get comfortable with our concept and therefore make decisions accordingly.”
” that has been primarily because i feel now, that it would take too long for them to arrive at a conclusion in favour of us, and during that while, there might be a whole bunch of losses,which i feel is avoidable.”, he replied.
” i think we can afford the delay, and the losses cant be greater than what your actions seem to be achieving now”
he kept silent.
” also, it has been seen that you have a preferential treatment for a particular niche within our target population.”
” i feel they are intellectually much more advanced and therefore would relate to our concept much faster than others”, he said.
” your judgements of intellectual capacity leave a lot to be desired”
he was silent again. he felt the tones of a distinct powerplay to oust him from his position.
“and how could you come up with an idea of using natural disasters to achieve targets. i am referring specifically to the recent geo activity in the asian region. do you know the kind of negative impact it could have?”
“with all due respect, sir, i have met my targets and created a distinct recall phenomenon for our concept”, he replied.
” the means are also important. by the way what is with this fancy name you have gotten your niche audience to call you?”
” i felt that for the value proposition we give, a name would make the audience connect better with me and therefore the concept”
” let me assure you that a concept like ours does not need a name to back it up. we are not pleased with your performance and the next review will be your last chance. and meanwhile, stop getting your favourite audience to call you God. the concept, of faith in a greater power,is quite strong by itself”
until next time, never play god..

adjective: characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions
He cursed as he read the sports page of the newspaper. the damn editor had written a special feature on the organisation he worked for, but he knew who the target was. he wished he could be editor for a day and take out his frustrations on the press. the way they ridiculed his work was as though they were wreaking some vendetta on him.it was guys like this who made him wish the old systems were still around. but maybe that was it.. these guys had started experiencing freedom of speech only a few years back, so they didnt know what to do with it. he hadnt heard even a murmur of a complaint those days when athletes didnt perform well in the sport he coached. it was only now that they had started having opinions about everything.
it had all started with his first protege.. she looked like an angel on court.. her critics pointed out that she could barely win a set, but he was okay with that… she brought in the glam that was missing in the sport, and inspired an entire generation.. she truly was the one responsible for his current crop of prodigies.ah, his current crop – 7 in the top 15 on the WTA tour… and at least one, MS, who looked as good (if not better) as his first star, and who could give any current athlete in the sport, serious competition. it was his bad luck that none of his damsels had fared well in the year’s first grand slam,and his biggest hope had got beaten at the hands of that american wrestler in disguise… the press guys had a field day, blaming him for all the failures.. and just when he thought things couldnt get worse, that guy MS had gone ahead and won the men’s category… and so he couldnt blame the system now!!
He wished he were in the country where that other kid SM was from.. SM, who was also beaten by the disguised american wrestler, … just like the initials of the names, the systems and press were also the opposite there… that would be a lovely place to be. that country had a population almost 7 times that of his country, what a gigantic resource pool, and still, when the kid got beaten, she became a star overnight.. hell, he had heard that she even became editor for a day!!
(just a fictional perspective of a russian coach.. the first protege was anna kournikova, the female ms is maria sharapova, the male is marat safin, sm is sania mirza….. other ms include michael schumacher, martin scorcese, manuscrypts ;)… )
until next time, do all MS make good icons?? 😉

Erica’s birth delighted a whole lot of people. there was something about her that made them believe that she would make her mark in the world. and she did nothing to dislodge their faith.on the contrary, her accomplishments were noted by everyone, and she was a sort of benchmark among her peers, and even her elders.her actions seemed wiser than her years, and people considered it very normal because the people who had a hand in her growth were certainly very intelligent folk. her morals were of the highest standards and she always stood for values like truth and justice. she resolved issues with wisdom and pretty soon her stance on issues were valued and respectedby people everywhere.
as far as her own growth were concerned, she was very industrious, and made friends of the same kind. her growing popularity and ability to influence others attracted a whole lot of people with different dreams.. people who wanted her help to realise their dreams. and when these people grew in stature, so did she, because she was the reason for their success.of course there were some rotten eggs among these, but not too many in number to seriously affect erica’s character.
a lot of people considered the early years of the twentieth century, a landmark time in erica’s life. she fought for all the right things during the time of the first and second world war, and further enhanced her reputation.
towards the end of the second world war was when things started going wrong. experts believed that it all happened because erica suddenly started believing that she could get away with anything, because of her global stature. her actions suddenly became extremely selfish. her ego bloated and she started vociferously declaring in words and deeds, “am erica am erica” until it finally became “america”. the rest,as they say, is history.
until next time, dont let the ego hurt you!!
oops, almost missed, happy valentine’s day, peeps!! 🙂

 

(circa 2002)
He waited impatiently for his potential customer to meet him. Exciting times, he thought. After only about 6 months of work experience, here he was, poised to become the top selling sales guy in the country, for the company. Quite an achievement, considering that he was not even in one of the metros, which were the best territories for any sales guy to be in, especially when the service you were selling happened to be a nascent thing called broadband internet. These were times when internet cafes and their customers were quite happy with the speed that a dial up connection gave them, and internet access itself wasnt exactly common.

The last few days had been a maddening rush, he was competing with someone he knew only by a name,a counterpart in Bangalore, who was a couple of years more experienced than him, and who had the luxury of working in a city that happened to be the nation’s IT capital, a city which had enough people who were educated about broadband technology.

In the past few days, he had used all his contacts and leads, and now had a score equal to the guy in Bangalore. Today was the last day of the month, and unlike his ‘opponent’ he had no ace, up the sleeve or anywhere. At least he had given the guy a run for his money, he thought.

That was when he got a call from the customer care department; he crossed his fingers. “There’s a guy who seems to be interested. actually very excited, insisted he wanted to meet you today itself”, said the customer care executive.

And so here he was, waiting for the man who could tip the scales in his favour. The wait was over and he shook hands with a middle aged man who was apparently into the shipping and cargo handling business.

” Timely information is essential for your business”, he started his sales pitch.
“I agree”, said the man, “so i thought i should have an internet connection, and a fast one at that, but i am a total ignoramus as far as technology goes, you’ll have to educate me”
“It doesn’t get faster than broadband”, he continued, and gave the man the entire spiel about the under sea cables, routers etc. The man appeared slightly confused, but convinced nevertheless.
“Sounds good”, the man finally said, “I’ll take it, but from what you say, I guess I’ll have to buy a computer first.. how much does a good computer cost these days?”

until next time, know your opponent…

P.S. please use comments.. we can finally be free of haloscan.. yippee!! 🙂