ATTRACTING ATTENTION

For a brief period, when I was about fourteen, I liked bright colours and attractive designs. It was the seventies. Those were the ‘hippie’ days. People used to say ‘groovy’ when they saw someone dressed colourfully. Many people wore colourful clothes. My bicycle. School bag, File, T square etc all had attractive colours or decorations. I had stuck shiny colourful tape on my bicycle at several places. I had attractive stickers on my File and T square. Most of the stickers had a flower design because those were the days of ‘Flower Power’. I bought a bright red school bag which I found attractive.

Soon afterwards, when I realised that the things I possessed were attracting attention towards me, I did not like it. I started changing. I reduced the stickers on my File and T square. I removed some of the decorations on my bicycle. I tore my bags handle and told my mother I needed a new bag. With the money she gave me I bought a new less colourful bag. I felt better, now that people were not looking at me for the things that I had.

EVERYBODY IS NICE

I had a one month training at a factory in Indore in North India for my first job. While there, I met a young man who came to the factory for a few days. He was tall and handsome. He spoke fluently. He was being considered for a sales position and was getting to know the products. He was also meeting the Boss to negotiate the terms of employment. So one day I asked him ‘How is the Boss? Is he a nice guy?’ He said ‘Everybody is nice, so long as you don’t come in the way of their interests.’

A few days later he told me he was leaving and that he would not be joining them. He looked happy. I think he had asked for a salary they were not willing to offer. It was against their interests to pay him that much. So he had come in the way of their interests.

SAME SHIRT

I once had a boss who would wear the same shirt every day. He would wear a light blue shirt with thin white stripes. I thought he must have a few of them. One day I went with a friend to a place to collect his clothes. He had given them for ironing. People who did not want to iron their own clothes could get it done at such places. They charge a small amount for each piece. While waiting for my friend to collect his clothes, I noticed some shirts that were already ironed. They looked like the ones my boss wears. I asked the person running the facility about those shirts. He told me that it belonged to my boss. I counted the shirts. There were 14 shirts. All looked alike. I then realised my boss must have more than 14 of those shirts since he was still wearing them when these 14 were being ironed.

ONE DOG NIGHT

I was about eighteen when I had to go to Delhi on the way to Kurukshetra. It was my first train journey to the north of the country. I left Kollam in the afternoon and arrived at Madras the next morning. I booked my ticket to Delhi and boarded the next train. I was travelling in a first class cabin. There was only one other passenger in the cabin. She was a middle aged white woman. She had a small dog with her. I asked her where she was from and she told me she was from Australia. I thought she was a tourist but she said she worked in India. Later on, I would come to know that she was a doctor working in a missionary hospital in Nagpur.

The train started moving. At one stop, she asked me to keep an eye on the dog and left the cabin. The dog ran out of the cabin and was near the door by the time I got hold of it. I brought it back to the cabin and put it on the leash which was attached to her bag. When she returned she released the dog from the leash. I think she preferred it to be free.

After dinner that night we went to sleep. In the middle of the night I woke up to find the dog sleeping next to me. It was her dog. It should be sleeping next to her. I looked at her and realized that there was no place for the dog to sleep next to her. She was a large person. I was thin and there was a lot of space next to me. There was nothing I could do. I went back to sleep.

HOT CUP OF TEA

I was travelling on a train in North India during a winter night many years ago. There was another passenger in the compartment. He was wearing a sweater and a muffler. He also wrapped himself with a thick blanket. He seemed comfortable. I was wearing a sleeveless sweater. The cold made me shiver throughout the night. I think the metal body of the train made it colder. I did not expect this.

When we reached Bhopal the next morning, I was still shivering and my teeth started to chatter. I bought myself a hot cup of tea. Drinking it stopped my shivering and I felt so much better. That must be the cup of tea that I appreciated the most.

MY BROTHER PASSED AWAY

My younger brother Mathew passed away on Monday (22/7) morning. He was having a fever and difficulty in breathing for a few days. Funeral was held on Thursday (25/7). He was 59. Mathew was a Chartered Accountant and was working as a Finance Manager in a Government Organisation. I will not be posting on this blog for some time. Thank You.

PAID NEWS

I once had a boss who would tell us that we should befriend some journalists so that we can pay him or her to write something favourable about us, our products or our service. He said it was cheaper and more effective than advertising because people tend to believe the news more than advertisements. He already had some journalists helping him in this way.

Later on, I came to know that the media can also be paid to reduce the coverage or even not report news that is not favourable to an organisation.

MONDAY MADNESS

I was at a factory in North India for training during the end of 1983. I met an Engineer there who had just returned from USA. He had a Master’s Degree from USA and had worked there for 8 years. He was a helpful person. Since I was new there, he introduced me to some restaurants. He invited me home for Christmas and told me that he understands the importance of the day since he had spent many years in USA. One day, he told me that a person can succeed by hard work in USA but in India hard work alone would not be enough. He said that in India one would need to be cunning too.

On Saturday, the Production Manager assigned him some work to be completed by Monday. He forgot about it. When the Production Manager asked him about it on Monday, he looked at me and asked me whether I had completed the work. He was pretending that he had assigned the work to me, in order to evade the blame. The Production Manager looked at me and left without saying anything. He knew it was not work assigned to me. Later, when the Engineer was sitting next to me, I noticed that he looked disturbed. I think he was feeling guilty for trying to put the blame on me for his mistake. He looked at me and said ‘Monday Madness’.

BOMBS

I used to think bombs caused widespread damage. I thought all bombs were somewhat like the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. My only real experience with bombs was during my stay in Africa. There was a border conflict and sometimes aircraft would fly across the border and drop bombs. We would hear a loud sound and then see smoke rising from a distant place. I then realized that the usual bombs have an affect only on a limited area where the bomb falls. Moreover bombs are expensive. Most countries cannot afford to drop hundreds of bombs. They usually have only a small number of fighter aircraft which are also very expensive. Bombs are dropped on selected targets so that they are not wasted. Targets are carefully chosen to avoid civilians and property owned by friendly countries.

When the border conflict escalated into an all-out war I had to think of leaving and was staying at a hotel in the capital. One day I noticed an aircraft circling at high altitude. It was trying to avoid the anti-aircraft guns on the ground. Soon it flew down dropped a bomb and flew back up again. We heard a loud sound and saw smoke rising up. I did not know where the bomb fell. Most people thought the airport was bombed. I was worried because that would affect my plan to leave the country. I listened to the news and came to know that it was indeed the airport that was bombed. There were two sections at the airport. They had bombed the section used by the air force. The commercial section was not affected. They avoided the commercial section because there are airlines from several countries operating there and those countries may respond. I could fly out within a few days.

CARRYING A TABLE

My colleague who was staying nearby asked me if I would help him carry a table. I said 'of course' and followed him. I noticed he was walking hurriedly towards the table. He stood on one side of the table and was smiling. It was the less heavy side. So I had to carry the heavier side which had the drawers. I then realized why he was hurrying towards the table. I helped him carry the table. He thought he outsmarted me but I understood what kind of person he was.

MY LAST FOOTBALL GAME

We were at a picnic when some of my friends decided to play a game of football. I have played football regularly as a child but never as an adult and thought I would give it a try. Most of them were young, in their twenties or thirties. Some were in their forties. I was the only one in my fifties. I could not run around like them so I decided to play a defenders role. Soon I was coming under attack because I was trying to stop them from scoring a goal. Some of them collided with me. At other times I got kicked in my leg. After the game I was aching all over. My legs hurt too. Later I saw some swelling in my leg. It must have been the spot where I got kicked. The pain and swelling lasted a few days. I then realised football is a very rough game and decided never to play it again. I thought about my childhood days when I played football regularly during the holidays at a school field nearby. Never once did I get hurt. Maybe, children’s kicks are not so powerful.

SIDEBURNS

In the early seventies it was cool to have sideburns. Many movie stars, sports stars and musicians had them. I wanted to have those groovy sideburns so badly, I would look into the mirror everyday hoping to see some hair growth on the sides of my face, only to be disappointed. Unfortunately  I was just into my teens and the hair on the sides was very sparse. It would take some more years for me to have the thick sideburns I was looking forward to. By the time I could really have those cool sideburns, it was not so cool anymore.

MAN BEHIND

I was on a flight. A lady was sitting next to me. We were being served our food. I finished mine fast. I noticed she ate slowly and fell asleep before finishing hers. She must have been tired. A man behind us put his hand between our seats and reached for a fruit juice on her tray. He took it. I did not know what to do. Do I wake her up and tell her or do I confront the man. I decided to ignore it. After some time she woke up. I think she noticed that her fruit juice was missing but she did not say anything. Maybe the man behind was her friend and it was just a prank.

ON LEAVE

I was sitting in staff room when my colleague, a Sri Lankan national, walked in. I noticed she was dressed casually. She sat nearby and began looking into some exercise books. She was correcting some students work. A few minutes later the Supervisor approached her and told her to go to class. He thought she had forgotten that she had a class at that time. She looked at him and said ‘I am on leave today’. The Supervisor was surprised and left,probably to check if she was really on leave. I asked her what she was doing in the staff room, if she was on leave. She said she had come to correct some work she had given to the students and that she would be going home after that to take care of some other things. It was the first time I saw someone coming to the work place while on leave and choosing to do some work and at the same time refusing to do some other work.

SAVING A BIRD

When I was living in Africa a bird came into my room one day. It was a small blue colored bird. It must have come in through the door which was open. I kept the door open and tried to get it to fly out but it was trying to fly out through the window. The window had a net with openings too small for the bird to go through. I thought it would hurt itself and decided to catch it but was not successful. I then removed the bed sheet and tried to throw it over the bird. After a few tries, I got the bird under the bed sheet. I could see where the bird was by its movement under the bed sheet. I caught the bird and removed the bed sheet. I took it outside and released it. As it flew away, I felt I had done something good and was happy.

A few months later, another bird came into our office. It was a small green colored bird. A local managed to catch it. I thought he would release it outside but was surprised to see him pull out a few of its larger feathers. He did not want it to fly away. He then placed it inside his locker and closed it. I asked him what he was going to do with it. He said ‘We will eat it’.

DOCTOR IS NOT AVAILABLE

Many years ago, I was working in a town near the east coast in India. One day I fell sick and wanted to see a doctor. My friends suggested that I go to a nearby hospital and they accompanied me. When we reached the hospital I looked at the list of doctors displayed near the reception. I wanted to see someone in General Medicine. I noticed that there were three doctors under General Medicine. One was a senior doctor with an MD and the other two were junior doctors with MBBS. I told the nurses at the reception that I wanted to see the senior doctor. They told me that he was not available. I asked them when he will be available. They said he would be back after about one hour. I said I will wait for him. I noticed that they were disturbed and looked at each other. Then they said that he was available and that I could go in and see him. I saw the doctor. He examined me, made a diagnosis and wrote a prescription. Before leaving I told him what happened at the reception. He seemed surprised but did not say anything.

Later on, when I thought about it, I realized that the nurses at the reception may have been trying to help the junior doctors. Most patients would prefer to see the senior doctor who was also more qualified and the junior doctors may have been getting very few patients.

MY FIRST DIGITAL CAMERA

I bought my first digital camera about ten years ago. It was a compact digital camera, making it convenient to carry. I used it a few times and then left it inside a bag. Many months later I wanted to use it again and took it from the bag. I tried to switch it on but it did not work. I noticed that the battery enclosure was slightly open. I checked the battery and found it to be leaking. It was not old enough to be leaking. The summer heat may have caused it to leak and the fact that I left it inside a bag did not help matters. I replaced the battery with new ones but the camera still did not work. The battery must have leaked into the camera and damaged it internally. Moreover, I could not close the battery enclosure properly anymore. I think the battery not only leaked but also expanded forcing the battery enclosure to open and damage it too. I felt sad since I had used the camera only a few times. I also felt lucky since it was not a very expensive camera. If I had bought an expensive camera the loss would have been so much more.
Later on, I bought another camera and now whenever I finish taking photos I remove the battery.

DUMPLING

When we were children my father sometimes bought street food from the hawkers. One day he brought home some dumplings. There were two types. The big ones had a sweet filling and the small ones had a meat filling. My mother opened one of the small ones before giving it to us. We were shocked to find a dead insect inside. I don’t know how it got in there. It may have fallen in accidentally while the meat filling was being prepared. That day we threw away all the small ones but we ate the big ones with the sweet filling.

After that incident I am careful when I eat something with a filling. I usually check what is inside before I eat it.

WE ARE NOT HAPPY WITH YOUR WORK

I was teaching Physics at a Private School in India long ago. The School attached more importance to English, Maths and Science. Teachers who taught these subjects were paid better. Some teachers leave at the end of the academic year. So at the beginning of the next year they would recruit a few new teachers to take their place. One year they could not get a teacher for the local language. The post had a lower pay scale. A few days after the School reopened a suitable teacher was found but she was not willing to accept the lower pay scale. She insisted on being paid a better salary. Since they had no other option they hired her. She did a good job and everything went well.

A few months later a man came to the School looking for work. He was a local language teacher. The School management found him to be suitable and asked him whether he was willing to work for the lower pay scale that the post offered. He agreed. They asked him to report for duty a few days later.

Now they had to remove the lady who insisted on being paid a better salary. They could not tell her that they found someone who was willing to do the job at a lower salary. So they told her ‘We are not happy with your work. We have received many complaints about you. Students find it difficult to understand you.’ She was made to resign and the new man took her place.

BEAR SCARE

I remember watching the ‘German Circus’ in Singapore. I was about ten then. A bear was performing some tricks with a large ball. Suddenly it ran out and came near us. Everyone sitting near me ran away. Somehow I was not afraid and remained seated there. The bear came near me and then it stood up. It was big. By then a girl from the circus came running towards the bear and she managed to take it back.

I don’t know why I did not run away like the others seated near me. Maybe I was too young to realize the danger involved. Maybe I was brave or maybe I was stupid.I liked animals and thought that if we don’t hurt them, they wouldn’t hurt us.A circus bear would be tame. It is not likely to hurt people but faced with a similar situation today, I think I would move away.