Thursday, December 10, 2009

< BORDER ISSUE >


Kids!! Don't try this at your corporate.

Sometimes, a phone call is all you need to take a decision which has been bothering you for over a year.

Stupid statement.. I know...till you know.

This was when I was working with a MAJOR corporate.(see. I wrote MAJOR in capital letters), so that's real MAJOR.

Many people who are good with geography knows that KERALA looks like Karela(Bitter guard). When this incident happened I was at the northern tip,in Kasaragode District, trying to 'FIX' things up.(Theory: When you are running the show, you always FIX things up.)

On a beautiful Friday morning, I made a call to the CORPORATE HEAD OFFICE to 'FIX' things up.

I dialed the number that belonged to the lady who was responsible for communicating stuffs from my sector with the Boss.

This lady is a new addition to companies existing _______ pool.( I give my reader's the freedom to fill that up with appropriate word.)
..
..

Me:Hello, I am calling from Kasaragode.(The border district between Kerala and Karnataka)

Lady:Why you calling here?

Me:[I check the number to make sure I had dialed the correct number]I am supposed to be calling there, madam. It's our regional HQ.

Lady: Regional HQ. You are calling from Kasaragode. You should be calling Bangalore. Not Cochin.

Me[ Thinking: WTF?]: errr.. I said, I am calling from Kasaragode.

Lady: Kasaragode belongs to Karnataka.You should be calling Bangalore.
[She said that with all confidence in her Geography]

Me[ Thinking..When did it happen?] : Excuse me, I have some info for you, I am calling you at 9:30 Am IST and till now,Kasaragode district is with KERALA . I don't think they redrew the border.
[ cynical laugh.]

Lady: You should be calling Bangalore.

Yes!! the new recruit who has to handle the communications think, Kasaragode district is with Karnataka. She must have slept in her geography classes.

To give you an idea, do refer the map





Me:C
onnect me to Mr.Boss , Please.

Lady: He...

Me: I won't call you on this line unless otherwise important.

.. She connects me ..

Me: Good Morning, Mr.Boss

Mr.Boss: Good Morning.

I briefed him on the situation, and how difficult it is to run "The Show" without handling the 'Ground Realities'.

Me: I will be quitting. [ Yeah!! the last one of the league 8]

Mr.Boss:You were one of the 8 who started the brand here.....

[Input Violin music]

Me:errr...

Mr.Boss: You got something to say.

Me:Can I speak to you off the record sir?(I finally got to say that "Off the record" thingy, just like in Hollywood movies)

Mr.Boss:You know, you people don't need any formalities.

Me:Ok. Next time, we have to make sure that our task force knows a little bit of geography.

Mr.Boss:Haha..We will have to.

..
..


I don't know why I am writing this. May be all the news on TELUGANA happening on channels, reanimated this incident in my memory about redrawing border.

The moral of the story is, if you make a mistake, accept it. This way, you will cut short your strip show before it exposes it yourself in all its blunder(oops..Splendor).

Well!! there's another saying too

"Don't take anything personal."

Yeah and another one too

"Be sensitive to other people's time.They may need to use the loo too.."

__________________________+


14 comments:

Chanz said...

Hahaha... Now you have someone who is a fan of your geogrpahy... :P

Anonymous said...

LOL!

Off the record!! Makes me wanna use these words too :~P some time soon!

You meant Telangana ??
You have no idea what fun most of the ppl here in AP are having right now :) :(

And ha...I am wondering,How come you find time to write everyday,reply to all your comments and also comment in other blogs????

You are AMAZING and your blog ADDICTIVE! :)

Ashley said...

ROFL!
I want to use the words "off the record" too... :|
And the lady was IN Kerala AND did not know its districts!!! :o
tch tch...Fun read thou :)

Unknown said...

HEHEHE!!
What a pity!
May be the lady was new in Kerala.
I cant pronounce its capital's name in a single turn. I dont think people their remember the names of each other also....:)
Gr8 job done dude!!
Nuts//

Readers Dais said...

Hi!
Aha, That was a nice one dude
Yeah! Me too have come across people like this,
Hope if not for keralas geography,she may be well aware of other geographies :)

sulagna said...

heyii Sorci..its oki ya...to err is human...plus she gets an added discount being a new addition to the company's____________ pool

and my husband cant differentiate between a handkerchief and a dusting towel!!!!so much for geniuses!!!

DiDo said...

lol... Kasaragode is definietely a part of kerala.... i dnt how tht lady got confused being a keralite... maybe becos its in the border of karnataka.... actually truly speaking... ppl frm mnglore n kerala.. travel to n fro so much... tht they dont realise tht they r in another state... u reach karsargode frm mnglore in 45mins - 1 hr.. thts why the lady dint bother with her geography lessons :P

Saurabh Panshikar said...

maybe she din know how to pronounce it.... so she shifted it out of kerala!
Well I got something to tell my Work Ppl "on" the record. A lot more than a goodbye kiss!

And yes...
Thanks a lot for taking time to go through my blog. In one way or other you have encouraged me to keep on blogging.
Thanks a lot!

Sorcerer said...

@saurabh
hmm.that could be one reason.

@dido
yeah..its 45 mins..and the road is good. so its pretty fast to travel to mangalore.
yeah could be.. but the point is that area comes under her responsibility. nyway.thats not an excuse I will take.

@sulagna
I called him genius cuz.. her gave me a new understanding about 'cloth lines'.

@readers dias
haha...irony is that, kasaragode comes under her responsibility.
nyway.. well..if this is the case, I would rather not test her understanding about "other" geographies.

@nipun
yeah, at times I cant remember names, its better with screen names thou.

@ashley
hmm... things happen. thats why its called cor por ate

@yemiledu
hmm..its all over the news..all channels.
:( sad.. i hope we soon find unity in micro diversity

@chanz.
haha..thanks for the comment.

Ramit Grover said...

I was sleeping in all my geography classes. But Thank God for Sat Nav and Google maps!

Megha said...

dont take it personal sorcy ;)

Sorcerer said...

@ramit
yeah...google maps is actually a blessing

@megha
I was thinking why ppl are not saying that..
haha...you said it..

Bhargavi said...

this is a nice one !!! the affiliation border thingies happen all the time.. mysore & hosur are always cat on the wall cases..esp hosur. at a bank i used to work for hosur was part of the TN portfolio!

Pratik Gupta said...

awesome dude!! too much :)