Friday, March 28, 2008

An affair to remember!

“You spend the entire day with me…looking right into my eyes most of the time …running your fingers all over my body…. glancing every inch of it…and yet…..and yet you say…. you want to spend the weekend without seeing any of me?”, she was furious.

“Yep. Pretty much!”, I said.

“Barath, I am having serious doubts about us”, she was concerned

“Listen…there is someone else..... as well”. I did not know where I had the guts to tell that to her

She was dumbfounded! She did not know how to react…!

She pulled herself together and asked me!

“How long has this been going on?”…She wants to know how long more than why and who?god I cannot understand them. I thought to myself.

“I saw her a long time after I met you…she is nice and very….”

“Does she look better than me?” she jumped in without letting me finish the sentence

“Well…what kind of a question is this? You can’t compare yourself with others…why are you doing this?”

“Answer the question! Who is better?”

“I don’t know…you are different and so is she...…but she is definitely smaller than you!”

Oh my god! I can’t believe I said that….

Well…. folks…its been a good life so far…see you in next life…I am sure she is going grill me…

Aaaah! Surprisingly she did not react…

“Do you really mean it?” she asked with her voice shaking!

“Do you want the truth?”

“Yes”

“Yes!”…now I have handled the bigger issue …I might as well be more honest with her….I told that to my self…as I started saying….

“Listen…what I have with you beautiful…I agree…but with her its different…..with her…it feels like …am not the only one in to this whole thing…there are things from the other side as well…whereas with you…it feels like you are doing only what am telling you to do!?….I don’t know how to put this together…”

“So you are saying its over?”

“No baby…With you …it can never be over!…I can't imagine a life without you!”, I really meant that.

“What about her?”

“That’s the problem…she is getting important as well…I think I will want both of you to co-exist”

“Do you really mean that? Because it sounds crazy to me…and I don’t know why am not getting furious even after hearing what you just said”

“Honey…. you will have to understand…there are certain things in life that one need to know how to share and create harmony…I guess this is one of them….This weekend... I really need to go and spend some time with her…! I was with you all week…. I was with her as well…however I need to give this to her…. please understand”

“I guess don’t have an option here…do I?”

“I guess not!”

Then I had to do it…it was one of the most difficult things to do this weekend…!

I turned my computer off in pain…. but then I looked at my cell phone…and said we have the weekend for us sweetheart!


p.s. This is what you do when you have friday evenings all to yourself

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Aggravating Acronyms

“Is this your first meeting on the HS’s”

“uhhhh...Yes…”, I said with a pause! I guess I know what he is talking about…hmmm…do I?… What is HS?..…but before my brain cells Googled…

“You should have been for the JHS meeting man. These THS are kind of advanced you know, and is certainly not for a newbie. If you had been to the JHS, you would have understood the concepts much clearer…Never mind you will have your way through…. but am saying man ….I did not know that the DUDs and DURs means the same thing until I attended these JHS meetings…Anyways as you move on to the DHS you will know what we are talking about”, he said as he walked towards his cube.

“Did you realize that this is my second day at work and you are throwing acronyms left right and straight at me….”, I was yelling…well to myself!

Well, at that time, whatever you got from the earlier monologue is literally what I got as well. However, now, it’s different! As you work on.. you get the hang of it. But it makes one wonder. Why would we use acronyms so often?

Now with stores almost starting to sell Textotine patches for avoiding addictive text messaging, the use of acronyms is getting worse. To a certain extent, I understand the use.

Well, when you write a formal letter/report/article and you foresee using something quite frequently at a later stage…you parenthesize the acronym in the earlier stage and let the reader know this is what it means… In essence you do the same thing while you talk in business/working terms…you assume that the paranthesization stage has been crossed and that the person you are talking to, understand what you exactly mean when you say XYZ. Unfortunately that’s not the case all the time!

Now, even in the non-professional environment! In a room with people who might not have any clue on your daily routines! Dialogues like these do fill up some folk’s days!

“Machan…what about TOC?”

“Table of contents?”

“No. Taste of China”

“Okay…GTC?”

“Good ‘till cancelled?”

“No. General Tso’s Chicken”

“By the way AT&T is not working today”

“What?…that’s not true…! I just called…may be they are not working just for you! Did you check others?”

“No. They are not working today…I met them home…Aarthi, Tara and Tarun are not taking a break today”

“Dude..this is confusing. Lets go eat. On our way back, you wannu hit SBC for a HB?”

“Southern Baptist Convention? Why there now?”

“God! I meant Starbucks for a house blend…. Come on we need to HB soon?”

“You are so addicted to coffee bud”

“I meant hurry back soon”

Sure! These does happen in some of the folk's life ..the people I almost know/ew

For those who come to me in a non-professional environment with bundles of acronyms like Karan Johar movie titles…I politely let them read between the lines…. of a little more than half of my handful of fingers! Whereas in a professional environment … you sometimes don’t have the liberty to be yourself…in this case smudged with profanities…..so, I say…..I don’t know and I do not understand. By the way, that is very difficult!

Anyways, as we progress through time we need to realize that using an acronym is fine as long as it holds its value! If using them only leads to confusion and eats more of your time and brain cells…..a couple of seconds more on a conversation would certainly help.

All I am saying is bear with me..I am bored! :)