A Typical Work Day In Idea

Posted on by Roshan Leave a comment

The last few days I’ve been thinking about the 2 years that I spent working in the main office for Idea Mobile Communications, located in Ravipuram. I worked there from Jan 2004 till Jan 2006, after which I was moved to their new call center in Thoppumpady. I joined Idea,Ā  then known as Escotel, as a call center associates and got promoted to Supervisor in November of that same year and then in April I got promoted as a Call Center Mentor. These were some fun times right uptill the end and I truly enjoyed working there..well with the exception of the shitty management.

Still, I am truly nostalgic about my days there. From my old blog here’s what a typical work day would be like for me:

Monday – Saturdays – I did my usual stuff – strolled in at 3pm said the usual greetings, sat my cell down on the side of the mousepad and plugged in the charger (what with me browsing WAP on my cell the battery is always low), reading the days company e-mails & replies of ones that I sent the previous night until the coffee lady comes in with my brew. The coffee & tea that the canteen staff at the company prefer is what I have labbled “pregnant woman’s coffee/tea” – because it coffee powder, sugar & a cupfull of milk – no water to dilute it. Yuck! I usually have black coffee at home or if I want to add milk it will only be a quarter of the cup. This coffee is ridiculus, but being late afternoon I need something to keep me awake and it’s a slow burn while it goes down my throat.

By then an hour would have passed and I would start the audits, recordings, opening/creating/editting of numerous MS Excel sheets (I so hate Excel – it might just be the greatest office tool but I hate seeing a worksheet) and reviewing the preformances of the 30 call centre agents under my mentorship. Then it would be understanding of the issues of the day and speaking to my collegues in the office. By 6, the majority of the staff would start to leave and I would be deep in my work. By 7 I would go to strech my legs and another, much smaller cup of machine coffee and more work till about 8:15 or so when it is dinner time. By 9pm would be the start of my floor support section of the day, so I head down to the third floor to where the call centre is, relieve my collegue so that he/she can head on home. Then it’s on the call floor till 12 when I finish up all the pending e-mails & files and shut down the terminal. The company taxi would be waiting for me to take me home and in 20 minutes I would be at the gate, bracing myself as Shawny Jr. recognises that it is me coming home.

The affectionate puppy that she is, she comes running as soon as it is established that it is my sorry ass sneaking in at the gate and proceeds to bang into me. She leaps and lunges and a few times has been at the recieving end of my rebukes. I then give her some patting and brushing of her coat and then get into the house with dog slobber all over my hands. A quick wash and a change of clothes and I plonk my self onto the mattress with the remote in my hand. It would be 12:30 or 12:45 am by then and until I feel my eyes feeling heavier I’d watch some tv series or music videos. Then it’s off to never, neverland.

The Happening

Posted on by Roshan 3 Comments

I had kinda given up hope on Manoj Shyamalan’s movies getting the same kinda acclaim as Sixth Sense and Signs did. I liked The Village a lot more than most people did and have yet to watch Lady In The Water & Unbreakable. This movie is similar to the kind of movie that you would expect Shyamalan to make. Although I am surprised by the casting – Zooey Deschanel is not the kind of actress I would have expected in this role and neither was John Leguizamo in his small supporting role. I don’t like Mark Wahlberg but I guess he did ok in this role.

The Happening is about an unexplainable natural disaster that occurs on the East Coast of the US. It starts off in Central Park, New York when people suddenly start to commit suicide in the most accessible manner possible for no apparent reason. Stabbing themselves in the neck by a pen, walking off construction sites, policemen shooting themselves with their own guns etc.

Initially believed to be a bioterrorist attack using an airborne neurotoxin, the epidemic quickly spreads across the northeasternĀ United States, slowly moving from large population centers to smaller and smaller areas. The disease is spread through the air and the onset is depicted by the wind picking up. Wahlberg plays Elliot, a high school teacher, who tries to escape the epidemic with his wife Alma (Deschanel), his friend Jullian (Luguizamo) and Jullian’s young daughter Jess. Jullian dies when he goes back to search for his wife and is infected along with others that he is traveling with. Elliot & Alma take Jess with them as they try to make their way to smaller and more open areas with less people as they get the idea that this infections occurs where there are more people. They are joined by a group of people who soon split into smaller groups as the wind picks up and they start to get infected.

Towards the end, Elliot is left with just Alma & Jess and they take refuge in an old isolated farm house occupied by a paranoid oddball woman, who is unaware of the disaster as she keeps to herself and has shunned technology and interaction with other humans. Soon, however she too is infected and she kills herself by banging her head onto the windows of her house. Elliot, Jess & Alma hide out in different parts of her house until they feel that death is inevitable and they come out to embrace in the field. The wind picks up and the trio wait for the onset of the epidemic…but nothing happens!

As predicted by scientists in the beginning the outbreak abates as quickly as it has started lasting only a couple of days. 3 months later things are normal for Alma & Elliot who have adopted Jess and are also expecting their first child. The Northeast is almost back to normal, save for the deaths and some destruction of property. However, a scientist is shown talking onĀ  tv that this was probably just the signs of a bigger wave of the epidemic, saying that humans have been a threat to the planet and nature is fighting back. We are then shown the same epidemic strike in France as the movie ends.

7 outta 10 for me. I like it but they could have done better!