This is a letter written by me to my cousin in US (All persons and incident portrayed here, are not fictional. Any non-resemblance is pure coincidence)

and btw, its in pure Manglish. (Malayalam in English). so others please excuse me for this post!! moi will return with English soon...

"Ethrayum priyapetta americayile cousin ariyuvaan indiayile cousin ezhuthunnathu..

Avide ninaku sukham aanennu vicharikunnu.. evideyum anagne thanne.. nee poyathinu shesham nammude karumbi pashu vaikol onnum thinnunnilla.. paalum kuranju.. athukondu ninte fotam onnu udane ayachu tharanam.. neelandane vittu athu frame cheyyichu thozhuthil kettanam.. Kolothey mash paranju thanna soothramanu..

Nammude vadakele shantha, adutha maasam Gelfil pokukayaanu.. avar kadamaayi 5000 roopa chodichu.. kaiyil kaasayitu illathathokondu, ninte credit card koduthittundu.. avarku bhayangara santhoshamaayi.. athu kandittu ente kannil ninnum vellam vannu.. kayari irikaan paranjittu kettillya.. enthaa vinayam.. udane ponam ennu paranju madangi.. ethra nalla manushyar..

Idakide kathezhuthanam.. sambalam kittiyaal aa vivarathinu mani yorder ayakan marakaruth.. saayippanmare kandal adhikam samsaarikan nilkanda.. ikkalath oruthnem viswasikkan pattilla..

ninte card avar adutha maasam madakitharamennu paranjittundu.. palisa tharamennu paranjappol njan venda ennu theerthu paranju.. namukkeppozhum abhamaanama, mole valuth.. alle?

ennu snehathode,

cousin.."

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Today was crazy. I mean, crazier.

In office, I could see people running everywhere like in Mumbai metro railway stations. Couldn’t understand what happened to all of them. No. No fire drill was going on. The shrill noise that they make on such situations, like my room mate singing was not there. That was certain. I have heard that generally people tend to be weird in IT companies. Poor guys! They fail to understand that money is not everything. I became all philosophical, thinking and all…

Later, I was with my boss in a meeting. There was a client on the phone. At a very crucial moment when the client wanted some serious pointers about our services, my boss started fidgeting with his eye brows. A warning sign of “we are gonna lose this bugger”. I watched with horror as his facial expression changed into something which more or less resembled Himesh Reshamiya. All of a sudden he took off. He ran outside the meeting cubicle and then told me, "Naveen, India will criticize the cockroach families for attacking the Mars". Or that’s what I understood from his sign language. Well… Anyway bosses never made any sense.

It was useless continuing the conversation with out boss on the line. So I decide to catch up on some lost sleep. I dreamed about me chasing a BIG cockroach which was trying to break the fire extinguisher with a broom. After 15 min or so, the cockroach turned in to a maintenance guy and he was poking me with his broom to wake me up. The client was still rambling about Indians not being communicative enough. I thanked him politely for his patience & time and cut the line.

I came out of the cubicle and Gosh!! No one in the bay.. The clock showed 10.30.. Shit.. I slept for 6 hours in office??? Nooo.. Cant be that bad.. Aaahh.. Its 10.45GMT.. so Its 4.30IST only . Damn the clocks. Then where is everyone? Shit.. Today must be someone’s birthday. All the pot bellies must have gone to cut.. shit shit shit.. I mean cut the cake.. I ran to the food court.. Up the stairs.. 3 steps at a time. Not time to wait for the lift.. up up and awwwayayyyy.. err.. to my utter curiosity and pleasure and dismay, I found no body out there.. then WHERE the hell is everyone??

Then I saw it. I lost my balance.. I couldn’t see anything. Everything became black (or white.. don’t remember exactly) I was about to fall down.. I held on to a chair.. A small notice on a white board saying, “Hi people, today is the last day to submit investment proofs. Thanks for your cooperation”

THAT’S the reason. THAT’S the reason why all were so busy. Thats why my boss ran out on me. They were saving money when I was sleeping. So I have managed to miss the deadline! Again!! Wonderful!!!

Recently I had managed to conjure some money out of thin air (guess I should compete for the 2007, Best Swamiji Award) and invested in some godforsaken funds. I was waiting for their account statements so that I can submit it to the finance dept. Now what to do?

I will end up paying tax after all I think..

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People have been asking me off late as to why I am working so much. Guess it’s a problem of the Japanese.

To the uninformed, I have been getting up at 8.30 everyday (yeah, AM AM AM), correctly going to office at10.00 and coming back at 8 sharp. I make use of the flexi timing thingy of my company to the maximum extent possible. A proud employee! All the companies should follow this policy. When I joined here, I guessed, assumed, presumed, thought that flexi timing means people can come at whatever time and go at whatever time people feel like (in malayaalam, thonnumbol varaam thonnumbol pokam).

I celebrated. No more rules. I have found paradise. I proclaimed; if there is a heaven on earth, it’s this; it’s this; it’s this…

But after a week I found some discrepancies. All my colleagues are not following this flexi timing thing. Dumb people! All are coming properly early morning and leaving by 6. Why so? But immovable items like the coffee vending machine are having flexi timing. (It works only when it feels like working). I couldn’t exactly fathom this phenomenon.

Then one day it dawned on me. I found out that, I am not exactly part of the “people who feel”. It’s my boss and my seniors. I can leave whenever THEY feel like I can leave and I have to come whenever THEY feel like I ought to come. Tiger Tail!! (pulivaal ennu malayaalam) So I started my protest by coming to office on time. I like Japanese. Someone told me it’s their strategy. You work more to protest. So I became Japanese and worked my butt off. Ha. One day I will make them realize they shouldn’t come in my path.

But I forgot Rule No.1. My bosses are not Japanese.

PS: Rule No.2: Coffee vending machine is the boss of all bosses

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How many of you like the Hutch ad? many.. i am sure.. Airtel? also many..

This is one of the ads that i liked the most.. Just amazing..

The product is bottled fresh coconut water..

u can see the shadow of the bottle actually is a coconut tree.. Brilliant Idea..

and fresh.pure.divine. --> excellent tag line.. combined with the background.. the ad sense is too good..

No.. it didnt make to the front page of the Hindu or TOI.. may be thats whats so special abt it.. it featured in one of the ad competition at my B school.. u can meet key ad maker in Orkut at

http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=735346705675118564

My friend and classmate, Phalgun..(thanks to him for letting me use the ad here)

More about ads, coming soon.. let me go and get a bottle of Fresco..

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The moment of reckoning for Orkut! Orkut started earning money for Google when it started advertising in its communities.

This has been the topic of discussion as to when Google will take its online community to the advertising piranhas. I guess this is the second most coveted realty space on the web after the Google home page.

But I am wondering why Google has not gone one step ahead and started advertising for each person on Orkut rather than for the entire community? May be the analytics engine that Google is developing is not yet complete. That day will be something.

Imagine… One day you scrap your friend that you are going to buy a camera and after 15 min you get a mail through your Gmail account which contains all the possible locations near you (the location they get from your Orkut account) that sells that particular brand and its variants. May be some more links through Google which gives you the review of the product. And may be a snap shot of Google earth showing the topography of the shops where you can have a look at the camera. Guys... It may not remain fantasy for long. I can bet my teeth on that.

As of now I am connected to some 38,224,198 people through a modest number of 209 friends. Imagine if someone can tap all the needs and wants of these people and channel them to buy some product by suggesting all possible offers. That will be a revolt in the way one does marketing now. Sadly, many of the marketing mantras may have to commit suicide. Google will prevail over all. Frightening? Hmmm.. Guess so..

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