Of Sense and Nonsensability

Courtesy: zcool.com.cn

What does “MS” in “MS Word” mean? Think am off the rocker, eh? Don’t… it is indeed an innocent question stemming from worldly ignorance…

It all started with Bhaskar and me deciding to take a coffee break on a lazy Friday afternoon. We were thinking of beginning the weekend early but lady luck had other plans for us. Just as we began browsing through the movie shows with the rest of the gang we heard a bellowing sound. Praveen, one of the managers we worked with hissed into our ears making us jump out of our skin. “I have been looking for you two all day, where have you been?” That being more a rhetoric, he continued- “There is a strategic presentation that needs to be shipped out ASAP and no one but you two can do the job! There has been a special request to get you’ll to work on this!” We did not miss the genuine fakeness in his flattery, something we had learnt to recognize; “Btw”, Praveen added; “Veena will be working with you on this tonight, I have asked Muthu the designer to hang around too”.

Muthu was a good friend but Veena a complete stranger. We wondered how this manager would be… smart? Arrogant? A delegator?... nothing we imagined could have prepared us for the onslaught that followed.

We returned to our desks to find Veena impatiently waiting. Before we could introduce ourselves she took off “ I am stretched for bandwidth and…”  Bhaskar tried to interject; her displeasure was all to be seen on her already frowning face. “We have to blow the clients away and you have to help me do it!” she cut him. We stared after her open-mouthed as she swaggered out of our bay area.

Shaking our heads we sat down to create the slides. Muthu was working his magic, bringing our points to life using his gift for colours when Veena appeared out of nowhere to “supervise” what we were doing. Mind you she was quite stretched for bandwidth to work with us; after all talking on the phone does take up time doesn’t it?

She (thankfully) ignored us this time and walked straight up to where Muthu was seated. The awestruck look on her face told us that she had never seen graphics in the works before.  “Muthu! This is so beautiful! How did you do this??” Like a school kid excited by the sight of a candy she exclaimed. Muthu happened to be working in Word at that moment. He turned around and said very matter-of-factly “this is just MS Word Veena”.  Veena looked very thoughtful and then seemed to have a Eureka moment “I know what Word is! ... But... but... what is this new thing MS Word??? Is this a new tool in the market used to make such graphics?? It must be!” She said with a smug look on her face.

There was a moment of silence; we stared at each other... Muthu looked like he was struck by the Confundus Charm. Bhaskar and I were trying hard to keep a straight face but he lost the battle and burst out into what seemed like a concoction of a giggle, a snort, a laugh and a cough. Veena immediately turned around sensing something to be wrong. Not understanding what was going on she yelled “Do you want to say something Bhaskar? Come to the conference room next to my cabin, I don’t like doing this in public, we can do it in private!” That was the last straw; both Muthu and I burst out laughing uncontrollably making Veena leave in a huff and turning Bhaskar red with embarrassment.  It took a while for us to get a control over ourselves and get back to work.

An hour later we shipped out the presentation and called it a day; but Veena was nowhere to be seen. As we stepped out, one of our friends called lamenting over us missing the movie and some Friday evening fun... It didn't matter much... after all we did have our share of entertainment... didn't we? ;-)