Restroom or Washroom??:: 5 minutes of confusion :-o

Posted on February 28, 2007 by amitbhatnagar

Well.. This was my first day at Adobe.. Once I was done with all the basic formalities, I was led to my seat. Had some basic intro with my immediate cubicle neighbors… After I was back on my seat after lunch, I needed to go to the rest-room. ( or washroom or loo!! Why am I repeating all this? Read on.. )

I asked the guy next to me where the rest room is. To my surprise, his answer was:: “yaar suna to hai maine bhi ki kahin hai; lekin am not sure where it exactly is??” I was a bit amazed.. 😮 That made him defend his ignorance. “Actually maine bhi abhi ek hafte pahle hi join kiya hai naa…” Well even this does not give you the right for not knowing about the basic amenities.. I thought better ask some more aware person

But the worst was yet to come.. I went to this guy who I knew for sure was with Adobe for some time now… I again repeated the same question “Where is the rest room??” His answer was even more classic:: “Kyon kya ho gaya??” I was taken aback at the awkwardness of the question and as far as I remember I just let my expressions answer his stupid question.. Then he continued.. “Rest-rooms are there on the 7^th floor…” { i was surprised.. Shouldn’t they be there at every floor?? 😮 }

“But you need to call the security for them.. “ {What for!! 😮 }They’ll make an entry and then you can use the rest-rooms..” { This is weird!!!!! 😮 }

Confused I went back to my seat… Whatever he said was surely too weird to be true.. Moreover, I distinctly remember using a rest-room on my interview day and for that I certainly did not go to the 7^th floor!! I was thinking whether some planned ragging session is going on. But that didn’t seem to be a possibility.. At least the first guy looked quite innocent.. (First impression is rarely the last impression… 😀 But that’s another story)

Suddenly it occurred to me if people are taking the word rest-room for it’s literal meaning rather than the euphemistic one.. .. Ya right.. Every piece seemed to fall in its right place now… It makes sense to have rooms designated for employees to take rest at one place ( seventh floor in this case) The new guy need not know about these rooms right in his first week.. And definitely the company has right to keep records which of his employees are taking rest during work-hours and for what reasons… Yes!! For sure, people had gone for the literal meaning.. I stood up from my seat, but this time I dared not ask anyone about it.. I started the hunt my self and to my relief very soon..I found a marker arrow pointing to the WASHROOM… And yes. That was right on my floor!! 🙂

Around the corner I have a friend….

Posted on February 21, 2007 by amitbhatnagar

Actually I got this beautiful poem as a forward, when I was in second year of my college.. I had liked this then too..But it’s now that I truly feel the depth and the pain of the poem.. The poem is realistic to a scary degree… I guess all of us who have become so much involved with this corpo-life have some thing to learn from it…

It’s easy to think that it’s not only the ‘I’ who erred, Jim too has to share the blame…. But in relations that matter, it’s better not to wait for the other guy to take the first step.. else it may just be too late for you… ( I’m not preaching here, just drawing som conclusions for myself to think about.. I guess I’m the one who needs to learn the max from it)

Here’s the poem::

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.

And I never see my old friends face,
For life is a swift and terrible race,
He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.

And he rang mine but we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.
Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.

“Tomorrow” I say! “I will call on Jim
Just to show that I’m thinking of him.”
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner, yet miles away,
“Here’s a telegram sir,” “Jim died today.”
And that’s what we get and deserve in the end.
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Bharat Ek Khoj:: An India Quiz

Posted on February 18, 2007 by amitbhatnagar

This 26th Jan I had a chance to organise an India Quiz titled Bharat Ek Khoj at Adobe.. The quiz was to be about everything that is Indian::Indian history, Indian sports, Indian movies, Indian business, People of Indian origin.. In short, about anything connected to India… I wanted it to be a formal quiz with the main rounds to follow the written elims,but the organisers wanted an open quiz with everyone to take a chance at every Q.. So had to go with the format… 🙁

Well.. It’s never easy to design a quiz for non-quizzers. U dont want it to be flop show with every 2nd Question going over the audience’s head..So have to keep the level moderate.. So this quiz may not be to the liking of the veteran quizzers.. Also some questions were a direct repeat from old quizzes.. Actually with the very little time that I had at my disposal I cud not design many original Qs and the level was a bit lower than I’d have liked it to be..

But I must admit that I had grossly underestimated the quizzing levels of the general janta @ Adobe.. I’d say that though the last quiz which I had organised at my last company Computer Associates was surely better than this one in terms of organisation and overall event-rating, the awareness level here at Adobe is much much higher.. I had never thot that a hallfull of audience will all be able to identify Prahlad Kakkar!! Kudos to Adobe’s Quizzing janta!!

Coming to the main stuff, I had divided the open quiz into three rounds…
First was a mixed bag of direct questions.. Second was the traditional passwords round, where three clues were given one by one for a famous personality.. If u get it on the first clue, you get max points (bigger gift in the case of this open quiz) lesser points for guessing on the 2nd clue and still lesser for the 3rd one.

Last round was my original creation ( well… as far as i know 🙂 ) It used the Antakshari format for quiz.. As per the format, the answer for nth question will start with the last alphabet of (n-1)th question. Thus if if answer of the 10th Q is Abhishek Bachchan, the answer to 11th question will start with a ‘N’..

So if you’ve read this far, do take a try at the actual quiz questions and do leave a comment::

Round1: (For images, click here r1.pdf)

How do we better know a fictional character with real name is Sarkeshwar
What’s unique about a person called Nirmaljit Singh Sekhan winning the Paramvir Chakra?
A person called Raj kaul moved from to Delhi from Kashmir and was presented a house on banks of a canal. Because of the canal, the Kauls adopted a new surname.Which one:: a very important one in Indian history.
Connect the logo, the man and the cartoon character (Visual 1,2,3)
Expand AMUL.
Which modern-day game was earlier known as Poona as it was originally played in Indian city of Pune?
What’s common to the books: Glimpses of World History, Meri Sansadiya Yatra, The Insider, “India’s Export Trends and the Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth”?
What exclusively connects these great men? (Visual 4,5,6)
Name the only person to have composed the national anthems of two countries.
There has been only one instance of Bharat Ratna being withdrawn after being awarded. Name the person and the reason.
Famous words connect these three pics. Which words? (Visual 7,8,9)
Identify this formal Indian PM.

Round2: Passwords:

Grimace; Booker of Bookers; Midnight Children
Project Aden;Dheeraj lal Heerachand; Growth is Life;
Savli Premchi ;Manohar; Sunny Days
Abhas; Madhubala; Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi
Phoenix, Ben Kingsley ,My Experiments with Truth
Hema Hardikar, Mangeshi, Nightingale of India, song
“The Argumentative Indian” ; Trinity College, Cambridge; Economics

Round3:: Antakshari (Find the images here:: anta.pdf )

Which Indian city gets its name from the belief that it was here that Lakhsmana chopped off Shurpnakha’s nose?
If the middle name is Ramlal, last name is Nikhanj; Give me the first name
Connect these pics: (visual 1,2,3,4,5)
According to Hindu Mythology, whose twin sister is Yamuna?
This Indian place literally means division/land of forests. Name it.
India has always been stern with its stand on racism. Following the same situation, in 1974, India gave a walk-over to South Africa due to latter’s policy on apartheid in one of the only three instances that India had qualified for the finals of the tournament. Name the championship.
The magician shown is a famous Indian in his own right. A genius in field of advertising. Name him. (video)
AIshwarya, Diana Heyden, Priyanka Chopra were much later to follow. The lady won the First Miss World title for India way back in mid-sixties. Name her. (Visual 6)
Subhash Chandra Bose called them as Swaraj and Shahid. What do we call them?
Identify the company from the logo.
Whose punchline:: “Never Settle”?
Before resigning from Rajya Sabha in early 2006, he was the only Indian parliamentarian on the Forbes Richest Indian list. Name him
<< One more Q, which I’m unable to recall right now 😐 )
First person to receive all the three padma awards and Bharat Ratna..

Overall the quiz was a moderate hit.. Not many people turned up, but those who did seem to like it 🙂

You can find the answers here:: answers.pdf

Racing Towards Infinity

About my life! About my dreams!!

February 2007

Restroom or Washroom??:: 5 minutes of confusion :-o

Around the corner I have a friend….

Bharat Ek Khoj:: An India Quiz