Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The "AWFUL" train journey

Yesterday was just another day as usual. Not much of a change. Completed with my usual routine in the office and started to catch my train at 5 05. We have to take the company cab to reach the station.The office is located about 4 Kms from the station. Okie. Enough of geography.

I was waiting for the train at the station when a dozen buses of Infy made a screeching sound of the brakes and stopped near the station. (Oops, I'm sorry. Forgot to leave u an information. Infy is just opposite to my company) We waited for almost 20 mins and as expected the train came 10 mins late and another half a dozen Infy buses unloaded.

"Oh, no. Today its gonna be a difficult to get a seat in the train", I thought.

People were standing on the edge of the platform, peeping through, checking whether the train is on its way. And yeah, there it was. The train slowly emerged to my sight and a swarm of people started to gather near the train as it neared the platform.

The train was fastened with the 'Chennai Super Kings' poster allover. Dhoni, hayden, Murali became warriors with those posters. The driver honked the horn as loud as he can, and the train passed me and the intensity of the sound slowly faded. The train decreased its speed before it could halt and everyone started to take positions , as if they are saving a corner kick from Ryan Giggs. I took a few steps back to see whats happening on all the other compartments. The scenes were the same, except that even the amazons were getting ready to make their move. One difference, they were waiting near the Ladies compartment.

There was a lady waiting near the General compartment, and she stood beside me. "Thank God. Not all people are indecent. And she looks like a Project Manager, should be decent", I thought.

The train came to a stop.

Thats it. !!! I stood there in aghast. These "Software Engineers" were swarming inside the train like the bees from the beehive. The entrance to the train can allow only 2 ppl to get in at a time, and then there were 6-7 ppl trying to get in and get the Window seat.

"Hey, you guys are Software Engineers.", I wanted to shout, but kept my voice low enough tat only my ears could hear those words. People inside the train saw these and made a smile.

Atlast, after a minute of utter disorder, it was time for me to get in the train try to get some seat. I was feeling mentally tired after a lot of thinking about all these that happened just a min before.
"Okie. Get in", I told myself. Took my bag and made an entry to the train. A fella turned towards me and smiled. I couldn't understand the meaning of it. I started my hunt for a seat. There was just one seat at the end of compartment. I started towards the seat and then suddenly I saw a white cloth on the seat. I was about to sit, when the person next to me told "Cant you see the Kerchief. Reserved".. "What the ****??? ",I almost shouted at him. "That person is coming here", he told pointing his index finger towards the other end of the compartment. I turned my head towards his finger direction.

And there came this Miss/Mrs. Decent Project manager.

"Oh.. ", I told him. thou i was telling all the bad words i cud remember in my mind.

The guy started to speak something technical and started to use his software jargons"best practice, client focussed, best practice, bench mark, value add". He was trying to wheedle her, might be for his appraisal.

I started to make my walk back to the entrance(Of course, to stand near the entrance. Where else?). The guy who smiled at me(when I entered the train) smiled again. I could understand the meaning of it now. He was smiling as if he has won $100,000,000 and I lost $100,000,000. I tried to avoid him.

The train journey sucked as usual, the train stopping almost at every signal to let the other trains pass-by. I got a seat in the very next station.

I was about to get down at the Guindy station and I found a similar scene about to happen there too. Yes. The train came to a halt and then the approach of the people were the same. People who boarded the train were mostly vendors, poor.

When I got down, I just could find slightest of the difference between folks who boarded with me from the office and people who boarded at Guindy.

The former were equipped with .NET, Java in their brain and with ID cards around their neck.

I couldn't find any more difference. Can you ? Please leave a comment of the same then

4 comments:

Mind...Heart....n more.... said...

Thats life dude....when it comes to getting wats required, people tend to stoop to any level!

Vignesh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vignesh said...

Ha ha.. ROFL(appdina rolling on the floor laughing-ama) Culture has to be taught from home.I don't think working in an IT company alone will bring social etiquette... ellam tasmac la quater adicha pasangathana... TAG maatunu enna palasellam marathuduma!!! :)

உமா said...

vignesh is right..
.technology cant instil discipline

same IT folks will behave differently if they go to U.S...