Thursday, March 30, 2006

An offer Coolie could not refuse!

This is the story of Mr. Hernandez Coolie.

He works for one of the fêted bubble gum companies.

He was born there, he was brought up there, he lives there, he feeds there and he sleeps there. (And he thinks he will die there).

He has been working indefatigably for a long period with the company, in an unbelievable co-existence of reciprocal consent and reverence. He was loved by all and he enjoyed his freedom of not enjoying more freedom. Charachterwise, he was a philosopher and he always made it a point to employ his philosophical ideologies in his life.

His Don’s were always concerned about him, because they just loved him too much. They never wanted him to be sitting jaded and idle. They said they respected the abhorrence of Mr. Coolie towards free time. They asked: “Hey Coolie, You are anyway working till late, why don’t you take up this work as well. It will just take 2-3 hours more.”

Thus Mr. Coolie kept on working for blowing the big bubble even bigger.

Although there were times when he grew sentient about superior ‘mouth-freshening chewing gum’ firms outside, he never moved out. There were moments when he told his Dons that he has decided to move ahead, but the loving elders always used to say that he is one of the best people they had, and that they would provide some bizarre protein supplements for his ‘growth’. Every other occasion where he almost had a foot stamped outside, he realized the truth that these well wishers are never going to let him go easily – not without creating lots of problems. The supplements never came and he imparted in his psyche a ‘selective amnesia’ to the thought of moving to ‘mouth freshening chewing gum’ companies – It’s his destiny to ‘learn’ and ‘grow’ by being an ethical bubble blower – Anyway, he was loved so greatly and cared so vastly by his Dons, so why look for greener pastures? Many a times, many a things, he forced himself to believe – Being a philosopher helped him a lot.

It was on such a week that the organization triggered a survey named TIMEPASS which is the supposed to be the abbreviation for ‘Campaign Against Replanting Trees Which Are Already Replanted’ (abbreviation?? – aah..Whatever - Dons can’t be wrong!) survey. Various departments organized diverse backstabbing techniques in getting more people participate, since the department who gets maximum number of participants will have their department name pasted in the company boundary wall and the Dons in the department would win a free Dairy Milk chocolate.

Mr. Coolie ignored the campaign since he really did not mind replanting trees that are already replanted. He was a man who had a clear judgment about philosophical things (as I already mentioned!). The campaign TIMEPASS was supposed to end by Friday.

Meanwhile, the Dons had recently read some books about team motivation –They even had some sessions by experts about providing motivation to the team and leading by example. They were brooding for a chance to apply their leadership ideas and tactics - TIMEPASS is their golden chance and they see the guinea pigs grazing in front of them. Dons starts injecting motivation to their employees through a rapid operation portraying 'leadership by example' named ‘Operation Fool’s Gold’.

Monday morning: Mr. Coolie sees a mail from his Don Apostrophe, copied to his whole department. Don wanted the department name on the boundary wall.
Our department is now 82nd in ratings. We need to pull ourselves up. Do your TIMEPASS.
I have done my TIMEPASS. What about you?

Coolie thought "Wow!! Even Don Apostrophe did TIMEPASS. This is really motivational"

Wednesday Morning: Mr. Coolie sees a mail from the Don Semicolon (who is the Don of Don Apostrophe), copied to his whole department.
“Do your TIMEPASS.
I have done my TIMEPASS. What about you?”

Coolie thought "Wow!! Even Don Semicolon did TIMEPASS. This is really motivational"

Friday morning: Mr. Coolie sees a mail from ‘Don of Dons’ Don Full Stop (Don of Don Semicolon), copied to his whole department. Don Full Stop is a ruthless person who would do anything for a Dairy Milk.
You cannot pay abstinence to TIMEPASS.
I have done my TIMEPASS. What about you?”

Mr. Coolie who had done lots of research and even discovered the close relation between replanting of trees and evolution of 45th leg of centipedes, was disappointed that he could not pen down his thoughts due to the workload he had been given by the Dons. (Coolie is not very clear on his thoughts, now – although he still remains philosophical!)

The disappointed Mr. Coolie did not think further when he replied to Don Full Stop with CC to all the people in the department:

I didn’t do TIMEPASS.
I have work. What about you?”

That's it. Within a couple of weeks, the affectionate and compassionate Don Full Stop himself took the initiative in allowing Mr. Coolie to explore the world outside. Don Full Stop told Don Semi Colon “He might have been a great Coolie, but he deprived me of a dairy milk, and also let the whole department know about it. Don’t worry – We will get another Coolie from somewhere, there are so many on the prowl”.
Don Semi Colon told Mr. Coolie in 'Don Michael Corleone' style “I will give you an offer that you can’t refuse!”. Mr. Coolie did not refuse it and in the process achieved what he could not for the past 10 years!! He finally moved into a ‘mouth freshening chewing gum’ corporation.

In an unrelated incident, a bubble started to burst elsewhere.

Hernandez Coolie lived happily ever after.

13 comments:

Venkateshwar Sahai said...

Hello boss.. I did my TIMEPASS. You didnt?? And what abt this moving to new refreshing bubble-gum?? Dont tell me that you are finally moving on?! If yes, then ALL the best man.. I cant tell how much irritated i was getting by all these mails... And we at onsite, were getting mails from onsite Dons too.. really novel post.. this dairy milk prize was a novelty allright :-)

Krishnan said...

Amazing man! Awesome!!!
i work for a good refreshing bubble gum company. wanna join?
We're all Dons here and can get Diary milk from the pantry :-)

pophabhi said...

Venkat: Thanks a lot, Venkat! Dairy milk has lot of analogies, rite? :). Also - I am not moving anywhere, but this irritated Coolie has moved on. I guess I am waiting for the saturation!!
Alexis: I value your compliments a lot. Thanks a lot!
Seena: Chempankunju vellathil veenu. Pakshe ithu vere nananjilla. (At least avan nananjathu arinjittilla!)
Kich: Thanks da. Your words are more than encouraging. Sounds like 'Its a whole new world out there'. You know what I am thinking on. :)
Razor: Nandri Da. You also continue writing. I find this as a new hobby - pretty good one too!!

Unknown said...

Good one!!! You've got an amazing writing style. Keep blogging.

Avi said...

Superrr!!! Would like to sit with you to know the actual story and the real characters dude... :-)

SNM said...

Thanks for dropping by! Hosur road has really become a boon for my reading. Just about to finish another book...

Btw, I didn't do TIMEPASS, not because I had work, but because I knew it was meant to be what its name said. Well, I guess I too am waiting for the saturation...

Attribution said...

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. :)

pophabhi said...

Randhir: Thanks a lot! Hoping to see you back in India..:)
Avinash: Thanks! We will do that at Pavithra...When Chilli is around we can expect more stories.
snm: Great. If interested in Malayalam books as well, we can do some exchange - I might be in the same bus.
Attribution: Same to you! :)

hope and love said...

great post..!!

Sridhar Raman said...

Yes, Pavithra has been beckoning us for quite some time now. Let's do it before I am out of this e-city.

And of course, no point in saying that your post rocks. :) Seriously amazing writing.

pophabhi said...

Doc: Thanks a lot, Doc.
Sridhar: Chilli, Pavithra lunch needs to be done soon, I guess. Thanks a lot, Chilli for all the encouragement - you are the reason for me to start bloggin!

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