P K Rao was his name. My boss for a few years. Nice person. Harmless. But he was scared of one thing. 360 degree survey on him, the survey in which his boss, peers and reportees give feedback on him.That fine day he called us, one by one to his room. Though this is the first time he did this exercise that year, it was not first time for us. Every year during appraisal time he does this. To achieve several things in one stroke. He would seriously ask all leading questions that would sufficiently address most of the areas in the survey. So that he gets good rating on most of those disliked areas by him. He wanted to load a few good things to our memory so that when we respond to the survey that phenomenon happens "Last in First Out"
That time some thing extra happened in my interview. He openly asked me "do you have any feedback for me?". I was a bit worried. If I tell some thing good for him, it may turn out bad for me. But I decided to give him a bit harmless advice " Rao saab, you are so bogged down with your busy work and you forget to appreciate explicitly our good work, then and there". There was a smile on his face, I was relieved as well.
One week after that episode, Rao saab asked me to review a book to give our recommendation to the library whether to procure a few copies of the same. Using all my "incompetence" on the subject, I prepared a note and went to his room. He was as usual doing some math touching on that 19 inch monitor of his desktop PC. Don't get me wrong, touch screens never existed those days, even if you slap on that screen, nothing would change on that screen, unless you use a keyboard or a mouse. By the way, you must have heard that Microsoft is going to come up with screen, you don't have even to touch. Non-touch screens, just gestures by fingers will do. First a screen to look, then the screen to touch and now a screen with no touch ( This reminds me of the joke on my old friend Namboodiri again. Namboodiri goes for a circus. He sees a tiger jumps through a big steel ring, three tigers can jump in one go, so wide it was. Then the diameter of the ring starts reducing. It becomes too small, the tiger can just get through. Namboodiri could not control his excitement. He yelled "wow, if this trend continues, the tiger might jump even with out a ring !! "). I get a sense that, the day is not far, when we will be able to use a computer/mobile even without a screen.
Coming back to Rao saab, who was still continuing to finger on his monitor. I told him "here is my reco". He didn't even look up when he said "OK". I did not find anything unusual as I walked back a few steps. Till I heard him shouting "Shenoey". I looked back, he was attempting to put up a broad smile on his face and said "Thanks a lot". He appreciated first and the last time in that year, responding to my feedback, which was fed in last in to his memory.
Organic chemistry, those hexagonal representation of those Benzenes and Toluenes was always a nightmare for me. Those hydro carbons are a bit complex, though individually Hydrogen and Carbon are so simple. I know Hydrogen well, simple to understand. From my child hood, I knew that open secret that it is this fellow that makes a balloon fly so high with no support. Carbon, any way a dark fellow, not liked by many, but remember with out a pinch of Carbon, an iron knife can not cut even butter. Iron needs Carbon's tiny presence to get converted to hardened steel.
So what I used to do was 5 minutes before the start of chemistry exam, I would mug up all those hexagonal pictures of Benzenes, Toluenes and their close/distant relatives. Soon I get the answer sheet, I would draw those last fed things into my memory on to the sheet. I could anyways strike them off from the sheet if questions didn't come from those, right? Open book, Open book exams, make lots of sense to me.
Now yesterday suddenly, political parties remember Ustad Bismillah Khan as elections come nearby. They want to feed into our memories how great an artist he was. Like Bismilla Khan there are many great artists who struggle and struggled to make both ends meet. At least once in a few years, those memories are fed in to us in the last minute, to get our first reaction as we go to polling booths.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/lok-sabha-elections-2014/more-stories/Suddenly-political-parties-discover-Ustad-Bismillah-Khan/articleshow/32448296.cms?intenttarget=no
One way it is good. Memory has to be short. Else nobody will be around to talk to me, if they remember all the ill treatment I have been doing to them. I also will not have anybody either to talk to. I may have to purely depend on posting my views in FB or Twitter with no "likes" or "favourites".
Time for me to refresh my memory, going to listen to some old Hindi songs like "yaad aa rahi hey...".
You too have a relaxing weekend. Don't worry too much on what is there and what's not there in your memory.
That time some thing extra happened in my interview. He openly asked me "do you have any feedback for me?". I was a bit worried. If I tell some thing good for him, it may turn out bad for me. But I decided to give him a bit harmless advice " Rao saab, you are so bogged down with your busy work and you forget to appreciate explicitly our good work, then and there". There was a smile on his face, I was relieved as well.
One week after that episode, Rao saab asked me to review a book to give our recommendation to the library whether to procure a few copies of the same. Using all my "incompetence" on the subject, I prepared a note and went to his room. He was as usual doing some math touching on that 19 inch monitor of his desktop PC. Don't get me wrong, touch screens never existed those days, even if you slap on that screen, nothing would change on that screen, unless you use a keyboard or a mouse. By the way, you must have heard that Microsoft is going to come up with screen, you don't have even to touch. Non-touch screens, just gestures by fingers will do. First a screen to look, then the screen to touch and now a screen with no touch ( This reminds me of the joke on my old friend Namboodiri again. Namboodiri goes for a circus. He sees a tiger jumps through a big steel ring, three tigers can jump in one go, so wide it was. Then the diameter of the ring starts reducing. It becomes too small, the tiger can just get through. Namboodiri could not control his excitement. He yelled "wow, if this trend continues, the tiger might jump even with out a ring !! "). I get a sense that, the day is not far, when we will be able to use a computer/mobile even without a screen.
Coming back to Rao saab, who was still continuing to finger on his monitor. I told him "here is my reco". He didn't even look up when he said "OK". I did not find anything unusual as I walked back a few steps. Till I heard him shouting "Shenoey". I looked back, he was attempting to put up a broad smile on his face and said "Thanks a lot". He appreciated first and the last time in that year, responding to my feedback, which was fed in last in to his memory.
Organic chemistry, those hexagonal representation of those Benzenes and Toluenes was always a nightmare for me. Those hydro carbons are a bit complex, though individually Hydrogen and Carbon are so simple. I know Hydrogen well, simple to understand. From my child hood, I knew that open secret that it is this fellow that makes a balloon fly so high with no support. Carbon, any way a dark fellow, not liked by many, but remember with out a pinch of Carbon, an iron knife can not cut even butter. Iron needs Carbon's tiny presence to get converted to hardened steel.
So what I used to do was 5 minutes before the start of chemistry exam, I would mug up all those hexagonal pictures of Benzenes, Toluenes and their close/distant relatives. Soon I get the answer sheet, I would draw those last fed things into my memory on to the sheet. I could anyways strike them off from the sheet if questions didn't come from those, right? Open book, Open book exams, make lots of sense to me.
Now yesterday suddenly, political parties remember Ustad Bismillah Khan as elections come nearby. They want to feed into our memories how great an artist he was. Like Bismilla Khan there are many great artists who struggle and struggled to make both ends meet. At least once in a few years, those memories are fed in to us in the last minute, to get our first reaction as we go to polling booths.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/lok-sabha-elections-2014/more-stories/Suddenly-political-parties-discover-Ustad-Bismillah-Khan/articleshow/32448296.cms?intenttarget=no
One way it is good. Memory has to be short. Else nobody will be around to talk to me, if they remember all the ill treatment I have been doing to them. I also will not have anybody either to talk to. I may have to purely depend on posting my views in FB or Twitter with no "likes" or "favourites".
Time for me to refresh my memory, going to listen to some old Hindi songs like "yaad aa rahi hey...".
You too have a relaxing weekend. Don't worry too much on what is there and what's not there in your memory.
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