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A Story About Career (s)Kills

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
They needed some light.

They asked around.

They were told, get an electric one, which just needs to be connected to the standard electric supply to get the light.

They were also told, it will hardly consume about 60Watts power and meet all their lighting needs.



So away they went, looking for the 60 Watts electric device to meet their needs.



On the way, they met a fan.

"Hello there good device!"

The fan 'turned around' to look at them (it was a revolving fan you see ;))

"Yes sirs?"

"Are you an electric device?"

"Yes my good sirs."

"How much wattage do you charge your benefactors?"

"Hardly 60 Watts kind sirs!"

A wave of cheer passed all around,"Lets pop the champagne! We found our man oops... device!"

"Come with us good device, your life will be made, we will make you the ornament of our room and feed you with the choicest of perfectly sinusoidal, absolutely harmonics free electric supply!"


The fan couldn't believe his good fortune. He readily accompanied them.


They had the fan installation party that evening. Someone complimented the fan how great he was, with CE certification mark, ISO certification mark, and all that chutzpah! That evening the fan felt on top of the world.

(And that was quite 'fitting', because that wall-mount stand and that room was going to be his world from that evening, and he was sitting on top of it)


Next day, expecting to get some light, they switched-on the fan. They fan, on getting the refreshing cool blue waves of electricity, immediately started revolving.

The light-seekers just looked on, waiting for some light, somewhat confused, somewhat irked.
But they did not want to offend the fan, who was new and supposed to be so good with all those great recommendations and certification marks to back him up. And besides, they really needed some light and were ready to play the patience game if it got them some.

Few days went by in this way. They would switch on the fan. The fan would proudly do what it did the best. Sometimes it even commented, expecting some praise,"Nice cool breeze huh?"
The light-seekers sometimes responded, "Sure buddy, you sure know some 'cool' tricks". Sometimes they just smiled a pale, polite and fake smile. But one day, their patience ran out. So they retorted, "Thats all very fine, but you better get down to business soon. We aren't allowing you to guzzle all that electricity for nothing."

The fan was shocked and confused! It just stammered, "But..but...!"

While leaving, the light-seeker said in a harsh, incisive voice, "From tomorrow, you better stop dillydallying and put yourself to some serious work!"

The fan stood very still that night. It was a long night. Full of loneliness, cluelessness, emptyness and a lot of soul-searching. After digging deep into its soul, located in the ferromagnetic core of its windings, the fan arrived at a decision. He concluded, that maybe he was not giving his 100% when serving the master. Or perhaps, the master needed him to give more than that to be pleased. So he will spin harder...and harder....and harder...till his master is happy.

So from the next day, he spun harder...faster...spinning with all his dedication and might. By the end of the week, the fan was utterly exhausted. It coils got heated up. It got fever. But the masters just scowled. "Wonder when I am going to get some light around here!", the fan heard one of them mutter while leaving in a huff.

The fan thought and thought and thought. He resolved that he will give light! But since it was a fan, its thoughts as well as actions were limited only to spinning.
So it spun and spun, and the spun some more. And then it spun even harder. But still there was no sign of light. So the fan put in even more resolve and dedication into his actions, hoping that there will be light. But and resolve or dedication the fan put in could only get converted to more and more vigorous spinning.

At last, the motor of the fan heated up too much. It grew red hot. There was a red glow in the room! The fan had at last fulfilled his masters' wish! He had given out light.

The next moment it died. Literally a case of work related burnout, because of being caught in the wrong job.

:(
*Sob*

Even if a fan and bulb are both electrical devices, and even if both may consume same power, and hence same at the statistical abstract level as measured by the electricity meter, a fan is a fan and a bulb is a bulb. Never get a fan to do a bulb's job. And vice-versa.

(I have a similar story made up in which a bulb is caught up in a fan's job and dies due to work related burnout, but some other time :) )
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5 comments :

  1. u get these stories when u are working in the office yah ghar jaane k baad yeh gems aate hain dimag main?
    i feel like this fan sumtimes...ppl asking me do what i cant.. and somehow i still do it.,.even though it kills me

    ReplyDelete
  2. hhahahaha.. that one was cool :) enjoyed it throughly .. aptly said ' because of being caught in the wrong job.
    "
    and btw u know full form of sob ? ;) my colleagues and I had different meaning of sob but gossip mongers came out wid a different version of sob :) ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. So is it the fan’s fault or the master’s that he lays there with burned coils? What could the fan have done differently?

    I miss reading those ‘atma-katha’ stories. We used to write such essays in school during the exams.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @maryum

    few months back I was desparately trying to convey to some friend of mine how one should certain creer is a semi-disaster for me and how 'progressing' further in it would be even more disastrous. there was fan in the room. So I just made up the idea. Of course I conveyed it in only 2-3 sentences, not such a big story.

    @maryum
    :) So what's up?

    @chinmai

    yeh toh family blog hai.
    kyun mera muh khulwa rahi hai?
    anyways some I know of:

    On Of A Itch
    Ex On Each

    did these figure in the discussion?
    what else did they come up with?

    @kanan

    1) Mujhe aisa kyon laga raha hai yahan Vikram-Vetaal chal raha hai?

    Jahan har kahani ke baad Vetaal Vikram se ethical/moral/justice/philosophy related questions puchhta hai.

    Only here roles are reversed.
    Vikram hi Vetaal ko questions puchh reha hai!

    2) This is actually a semi-atmakatha story. So I am not too happy about it, and would not really miss it if I don't have the opportunity to write similar thing in future

    ReplyDelete
  5. Stupidosaur,

    I'm not sure if I'm being partial towards you, but this was one of the best 'stories' I've ever read!

    It began as something funny, but by the time I ended reading it, I felt guilty for smiling at the irony initially.

    Very, very well told, and maybe very well 'felt' too.

    Sorry for tit for kat in light of the revelation you made in comments.

    TC.

    ReplyDelete

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