Errr....

Last few days has been dull phase at work with few critical issues (Touchwood!). My manager aware of this wanted me to attend a meeting with a customer. Till date, I have never attended any project bidding meetings with customers. Ecstatic I was but also tensed that ‘why was a technical guy like me called to such a meeting’.

There was this one big conference hall with huge white screen for presentation. People sat around a round table clad in ties/suits. I was the only guy without formal ‘suitwallah’ attire. Yikesss!!! I was cursing my manager for putting me in such an awkward position. How mean of him?? Anyways, if he had even asked me to come in ‘those’ formal attire, I seriously would not have. I just hate wearing a tie. The only instance I wore was during my sisters’ marriage. Somehow, I need to cultivate the habit of wearing one.

So people around started talking on the project which our company was bidding. And my manager was convincing them that we have the ‘synergy’ to take it up. Wondering why I was there, I was least bothered of all the proceedings. Dealing projects in terms of $ has not been my forte till now. Happily, I was reciting the dialogues of ‘Kanda Naal Mudhal’ which I had watched umpteenth time last night.

For a change, this aint Trisha movie. Still I love the movie!! More here. Ok, back to where I was. As my manager started walking through the project proposal document, after few minutes, my eyes popped up. No, he hadnt mistakingly attached Aish’s Cannes 2004 snappo ;-)

“The design I had given was different’, me yelled with a vigour of a person who had found 6 lane roads in bangalore. *The technical document which I had given to my manager and the one in the proposal had a major deviation*

All the eyes in the room which was planted on the huge screen did a U-turn to see the bastard who had interrupted the session. I made a boo-boo!! My small brain then pondered over that my own company was presenting the proposal. Now, I had to somehow convince the people there, that my ‘dear’ company had done a mishap without inviting my managers’ ire. So use all the little (damn) management words I knew to cover up the soup.

Finally, the deal was signed with a note that the design had to be changed *sigh* And my manager pounded me with the extra work which my client-company does not consider as billable.

Moral of the Story: Never drool over a movie in a hi-profile meeting. If you do so, do it religiously. Don’t come out of it mid-way, as you would be spoiling the continuity of the movie (in your imagination) and also the meeting.

cheerios