Of feet in mouth

This post is written with the genuine well wishing intent of enlightening the blogger junta who come here to get some cyber gyaan from great people like me … yeah right.

Point #1: This is not about Foot and Mouth disease.

Point #2:This is not about Mad cow disease, either.

Point #3: This is not about Bird Flu, Chikun Gunya et al… So I think you basically get the hint.

Most often than ever, people end up putting their feet in their mouth [not literally, gross!] in the most unexpected ways.

E.g #1: The ‘Enna koduma saravanan idhu’ F.I.M

• You are racking your brains for a particular fix … have checked all the bleddy possibilities under the sun. Your TL does the same thing … and he ropes in the senior developer to glance at your code.
• You heave with a sigh of relief! Phew ….
• 5 minutes pass.
• 10 minutes pass ….
• You get frustrated [since you are hungry , hell it’s lunch time dammit!] and utter “Enna koduma Saravanan idhu??”
• Your team is laughing out loud.
• Your Tech Lead giggles uncontrollably .. all is well until you catch the senior developer’s expression -> 😐

Then you finally glance upon his name tag and realise , the dude’s name is Saravanan 😐 oh crapp …..

E.g “The uncomfortable silence amidst the F.I.M”

• A friend of yours belongs to a different community and hence may have different sentiments about somethings that one might hold as sentimental or close to the heart. One thing that is actually good about the software industry is that people from all over the country come together under one roof. It brings out the true spirit of unity in diversity.
• And also the potential risks of saying something that may tick off your other “diverse” friends.
• I am in pretty good terms with people from other states, it feels nice to speak a different language once in a while or to meet up and talk about a place far far away, [which in their case, could be their hometown].

Point of this post is:

Sometimes the most brutally frank people get a big kick in the butt [mostly self inflicted] out of saying something which hurts the other junta. This may seem perfectly harmless when you play it in your head, since your biased perspective will be the judge of it’s harmlessness.

So the best way of avoiding the F.I.M :

• Think.
• Think [dammit] before you open your mouth and say something.
• If someone comes to you with good news like “Hey, I’m getting a promotion!” , dont just go “You got a promotion????” without thinking twice 😀
• Be calm and stay focussed, since this is something that every chatterbox might end up facing at some point of time in his/her life.

The aftermath of a typical F.I.M and the modus operandi to follow:

• Aah, the uncomfortable silence and palpable tension.
• Hey, my teammie is calling .. catch you in a while?
• Did u see the trailers of “OM shanti OM????” [To be spoken page3 ishtyle]

• If the F.I.M happens over IM, simply type “brb” and Esc on that chat window. Voila! 😛

As is the case with most such instances, prevention is always better than cure. So stay wise and most importantly, stay silent! 😎

On a totally unrelated note, two of my buddies are walking towards the threshold of a wondrous journey with their better halves.

Here’s to Simran and Ajit ji , wishing them all the joy and bountiful happiness in their lives ahead and all the very best too. 😀

Here’s also to Anirudh and his gal, may god keep them all happy and blessed as they take this step towards a lifetime of togetherness. 😀