The Lalu Story

In 2017, I had the pleasure of encountering Lalu, a remarkable dog with a beautiful coat that seemed to transition from brown to a captivating shade of red. Lalu, as it turns out, acquired his name from this unique feature. This meeting took place shortly after my return from the United States, and I was immediately struck by the regal and powerful aura exuded by this magnificent canine.

he didn’t know me initially and barked on me a few times till the time he realised that I also live on the same street.. and after that he was very amiable.. 

once there was another black dog who was kind of crazy dog and she used to bark on everyone, no matter stranger or living on the same street. Once she barked on me too, and then Lalu barked.. after that she went quiet and never barked on me.. perhaps Lalu told her that I was a local resident and she must not bark on me.. 

then I and Lalu were comfortable with each other and it kept getting better for next 6 years to come.. whenever I was passing by, he used to come to me.. in return I just used to massage his forehead.. he loved that feeling and so did I.. whenever I used to bring chicken, I used to feed him the bones.. we kind of developed a friendship.. 

and then there were times when my mom used to go to temple early in the morning. And Lalu accompanied her all the way, a good 350 meter distance.. he used to pass from the area which was not his, and yet he used to go with mom.. 

slowly we all started liking him.. and we were not alone.. 2 more families were fond of him.. he was always well fed by them.. 

time slowly kept ticking and Lalu got old.. he was no more as powerful as he once was.. a frail shadow of his glorious past.. he was weak.. then came the worst time.. he got infected.. his hind side was infested by some insects.. wound was huge.. he was bleeding through it.. felt as if it is the end of him.. doctors suggested euthanasia.. 

But We made some last ditch efforts and got him treated.. he started recovering.. we were glad.. deep down we knew that he is in last stages of his life.. but this recovery nonetheless was a heartwarming.. his walk had improved.. and we started believing that he will live through this season.. 

then he got infected again.. this time much worse.. he was bleeding again.. his wounds were seeping the puss.. leaving stenches all around.. alas.. we had no way to be able to treat him.. 

with heavy heart we decided to send him to a dog shelter where he could be treated .. we called a dog van.. they brought him in the van.. he was in pain.. he was distraught.. he realised that he is going away from his home of years. The place where he came as a puppy and where he spent his whole life.. he knew he will never return.. 

then he looked out of the window, in my eyes.. as if complaining to me.. asking me why are you letting it happen.. why are you taking me away from my home.. his eyes had exact same expression which my son gives when he wants to complain about something.. 

And that one look of Lalu choked me.. broke my heart to thousand pieces.. I had no words left, nor the energy.. tears were on the verge of coming out if not already out.. slowly the van left.. and with that went Lalu.. I came back and hit the bed.. showed as if I was tired. But in reality I just wanted to be alone till I could get a handle on my feelings.. till I can wipe my eyes.. till I am able to speak a word coherently..

Now we get updates of his treatment and his condition.. he is definitely in better shape.. but only question which I ask myself is whether Lalu understood that what we did was for his own good.. or does he consider us all a guilty who uprooted him of his own home.. perhaps I will never know..and no matter what he thinks, he is right.. only solace is that his pain is less… at least the physical pain.. I think I can live with it.. 

Lalu, you had been a part of our life.. and my command on any language is not good enough to be able to express what you meant to us and how we felt sending you away.. hope your last few months are not passed in agony.. see you on the other side my friend.. THANK YOU FOR THAT UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.. 

Against All The Odds

I have been trying to write this story for so long now but it is the time when it is now or never…

So as it happened, my son was born in Sep last year and our home was decorated to welcome him home.. there were balloons used for the decoration in our room.. balloons were stick on the roof of our room.. white and blue color. I think blue outnumbered the former by 2:1 ratio..

now obviously since it was a boy, blue made lot more sense.. and balloons were really beautiful.. and I started liking blue color balloons more, obviously.. few days would have passed, few of them burst and other started losing the gas, and got deflated. Now the decoration was such that one white balloon was grouped with many blues.. and position was such that white balloons were more exposed.. so it was obvious that they lost the gas faster… now without any reason a battle had started in my mind about which one will last longer. Or which one will be the last balloon standing…I was cheering for the blue..

Days past and whites were losing the fight fast.. so much so that it wasn’t even a contest anymore.. whites were getting slaughtered..

a month would have passed.. only a handful whites were left and so many of blues.. seems that fight was already over… I think it was an unfair fight from the beginning, with heavy stacks against whites..

a quarter would have passed and total 2 whites were left while 8 blues were still hanging. Furthermore whites were almost depleted while blues were in relatively better shape.. poor whites, they didn’t stand a chance..

another month passed.. 1 more white fell down.. remaining white one almost limp.. blues had taken the hit too but they were still 8, with less gas.. odds were so odd.. 1:8.. or more of .5:8 , looking at the gas in the white…

another month passed.. white hanged in the balance.. but this time blue took a hit.. 2 of them burst.. others lost the gas.. white lost the gas too but it was still there.. so this one was fighting back..

another month and last round got repeated.. white had literally nothing left in it, but it was not ready to give up.. on the other hand 2 more blues left the battlefield.. one white ( almost dead) against 4 blues..odds were just too odd..

another month and this time almost all the balloons lost all the gas.. and 1 more blue vanished.. 1 white vs 3 blues.. white had been taking the beating for so long and yet standing there.. almost dead but not ready to give up..

another month.. all 4 of them hung in there.. none had any gas left.. and yet they were willing to put a fight.. white didn’t budge and blues didn’t want to lose it either..

10th month from the decoration, I came to the room.. staring at the roof… one more blue was down. again thinking which one will be the last balloon hanging. alas!!! The white has gone too.. .. my heart filled with the sorrow.. I was mourning the demise of the balloon who I was opposing to in the beginning.. but wait, mid fight my own loyalty was shaking.

how did the white manage to do it.. by sheer perseverance. That balloon knew the outcome from the beginning and yet fought till the end.. fate was clear to him yet he didn’t give up.. his comrades keep falling and yet he kept moving.. he took the fight to the blues.. he gave them a chill.. he produced a fear in the mind of blues that they can lose.. he made them to be at their best to be able to come out winner.. he fought gallantly… he gave everything he had.. he fought when he was left with nothing.. he went down with his head held high.. what a guy he was.. how much courageous.. I have run out of the words to define that white balloon.

And then I saw the faces of remaining 2 blues.. they were the winners. But they were not happy.. this fight had taken the sheen away.. they had lost so much has in this.. but then I think I saw the expression of admiration on the faces of these 2 blues… I certainly felt the sorrow on the faces of blues. the courage of white was not lost on them.. though being their enemy, white put a fight which not many would have expected..

white fought and fought hard.. he may have lost but not before winning the respect of his enemies.. way to go my dear white balloon.. you have shown a way to live.. when life beats you down to your knees, take a breath and stand up one more time.. let’s put the life to the test.. as a popular Urdu bard says

सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

वक़्त आने दे बता देंगे तुझे ए आसमान

हम अभी से क्या बताएँ क्या हमारे दिल में है

खैंच कर लाई है सब को क़त्ल होने की उमीद

आशिकों का आज जमघट कूचा-ए-क़ातिल में है

सरफ़रोशी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है

:

Let’s be civil.. or should we?

Well.. she loved driving.. but patience was never her biggest virtue.. so whenever somebody used to drive rash, she never used to fail in giving her favourite expletives to them.. she specially loved the mothers and sisters of rash drivers and was never shy to tell them that..

so one day I told her to keep calm and not really lose her cool.. she took my advice seriously. And slowly she stopped curse words.. but she started complaining about how people don’t have civic sense and how people don’t drive right and so on.. so after listening to her complaints a few time , I reached the conclusion that she was better off earlier.. couple of words and her mind was calm.. now I have to hear her lectures!!!

Corporate Chronicles-4

This is the story narrated by my roommate who was very closely attached to the whole incident.. Furthermore, he was not the hero who salvaged the situation.. so he had no reason to lie or alter the story.. but anyway, story is based on what I understood and what I remember all these years later.. so here it goes..

In the US insurance sector’s one of the top 3 biggies an issue was reported in their IT.. issue was such that it happened in the very first system in which the business leads were created and passed on to the downstream systems (the system which take the data from it)…. means no new business or even the existing business could have come to the system.. means no more incoming money.. problem was that every lead had a numeric id assigned.. the field which held this value had some capacity, lets say it can hold any number upto 10 digits.. now that system had run for so long, all the downstream systems also had the same specification.. and one fateful day id of the record reached the maximum limit of the system.. it meant nothing will work, no new lead will be created, no old business lead will be refreshed to be worked upon.. and the time it will take to fix all the systems was just too much for the business to go on without money..

so in a big room, with all the big tech guns sitting, problem was briefed to the CTO ( chief technical officer).. and the amount of time it will take.. there was a pin drop silence in the room.. CTO knew that it meant he will be fired.. so he got up from his chair, told the group that “I am going for a smoke.. I will be back in 30 minutes.. by then if we dont have a solution, I will fire everyone in this room..” and he left..

everyone knew that this is it.. they all are gonna be fired.. then came the idea in one of the person’s mind.. he suggested that ”the record id had been increasing till now, lets run it in negative and reduce it”…Eurekaaaaaaaa.. this will give the time to fix all the systems.. someone had saved the day..

The Corporate Chronicles-3

The Corporate Chronicles & The Corporate Chronicles -2 were the stories where the dark side of corporate affairs were listed but once a blue moon you come across some incidents which have a shade of positive as well.. so let me recap one such incident..

The incident happened when I was in Mangalore and had a manager named Faisal.. in my team I had a friend called Raghu.. lets just say that Raghu and I had been cut from the same cloth.. as it happened, Faisal’s hometown was near by and he used to come slightly late on Monday morning as he used to travel..

on one of the Monday mornings, we got a call from Faisal that our onsite counterpart, lets call him RG, has sent us an email and wants to discuss it.. so we opened the email and called RG.. as the task was not clear to us, we asked a few questions..and this somehow triggered RG.. he, in a very harsh tone, said that if I have to tell everything, I will do it myself.. listening to which both me and Raghu felt offended and said a terse “Ok”. And we hung up, went on to grab some breakfast..

sometime later Faisal came to office and asked about the call.. so we told him that ”it ended abruptly”.. he asked why and we gave him the details.. he said nothing.. he simply opened the email sent by RG and analysed it with me and Raghu.. and in a few minutes later, we got a semi understanding of the task.. then he called RG.. and we asked few open questions we still had.. RG could respond to a few of them, and parked a few for more discussion with the client.. but we had enough understanding to give a draft version at least..

so what all things did Faisal do well in this:

1. he didn’t tell us that we should have done this and that, and didnt give any other gyan which most managers do.
2. he took the time to understand our side.
3. did his homework before calling RG.
4. Not for a moment did he lose his cool while me and Raghu were boiling.. a word or 2 here and there could have got us exploded then and there itself..
5. even though he didn’t say it directly, he made RG realise that even RG coulndt have done it by himself, even though his exposure was way higher than ours..
6. in all this, client had a draft version which was sounding impossible even a few minutes ago..

i think one of the best handling of the situations..