Tag: Ajit Ninan

Passing The Buck.


What a topic to start off the new year’s 2 on 1 Friday Blog Post with! It is my idea for it and I hope that my readers and Chuck’s will enjoy reading our takes on a topic that must ring bells to all of them. Please do go over to his blog too to read his.

I have been in Non Management, Lower Management, Middle Management and Top Management and have come across this phenomenon at all levels. Sometimes overt but, mostly covert. I personally have passed the buck, to the bottom, sideways and to the top without any shame and have also received the buck from all sides to know what a delightful pastime this could be in corporate life.

Passing the buck can operate in our normal every day life too, like it just happened to me which is what prompted me to come up with this topic.

My classmate’s grand daughter who lives in Gujarat,  wanted to study in a college near where I live which offers a very expensive Liberal Arts programme.  My classmate asked me to find out details and I was quite lost as I have had little to do with colleges for over a quarter century.  I however remembered that another friend’s daughter had gone to that college and so asked that friend if she could talk to my classmate and she readily agreed.  Both of them not only talked to each other but got the girls to talk to each other too!  Just see how many bucks were passed! The girl in Gujarat talks to her parent, who in turn consults his mother, who talks to me, I talk to my friend, she talks to my classmate and also to her daughter and both the young ladies talk to each other too.  At the end of it all, the decision maker continues to be the first girl in Gujarat who will decide one way or the other.  Nobody else will be responsible.

Or take the Uber driver I had the pleasure of going with recently.  He missed a pothole and jarred the vehicle so badly that I was thrown up and my head banged the roof of the vehicle.  The driver, coolly looks at me and blames the Municipal officials for the poor condition of the roads.

I hope that you enjoyed reading my post, if not, I accept responsibility for the disappointment.

What Makes You Laugh?

The topic for this week’s 2 on 1 Friday blog post is from Shackman who actually suggested “You can tell how smart people are by what they laugh at. What makes you laugh?” Since, I flatter myself that I am not among the smart set, I can get away with shortening the title to just “What Makes You Laugh?” I hope that after reading my post, Shackman will realise how smart I am or not. Please do go over to his blog to see what he has to say about the topic.

I am one of those characters who can find humour in the most unexpected situations and burst into laughter. What may be serious to others often appears to be comic to me. Perhaps it is my puckish sense of humour that is responsible but, this trait has landed me in some very embarrassing situations.

Having shared that, let me address the question. The things that make me laugh are;

Comic strips in the daily newspapers. Particularly,  Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Dennis the Menace, Dilbert and often, single illustration cartoons by Sunil Agarwal & Ajit Ninan. A sample of one from the last, but with a different partner.
Pompous politicians.

Dogs and cats in real life as well as in stories.

Jokes that come to me through Facebook and WhatsApp.

Old movies with Charlie Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy etc.

Here are two representative samples  that combines two of my choices.

Another type of humour that can make me laugh out loud is that where an unexpected twist takes place in the conversation. Like this one.

 

Life.

I am inspired to write this post by Rachel’s post The Day I Woke Up.

For the greater part of my working life, I had to travel extensively and when I finally retired, making the odd journey for pleasure was like new adventures. Even that has now stopped since the last three years due to health issues.

Now at the age of 75,  I lost my younger brother to cancer eight days ago.  He was just shy of hitting 74 in two months’ time when he died.  While my son and daughter in love were able to visit him and spend time with him , I was unable to due to my handicap.

Many friends and members of my extensive family have been communicating their desire to visit with me soon and I suspect that they want to do this before I pop off.  I keep telling them that I am not about to oblige any time soon but, who knows?

When I look at my life now, I could not but agree with Confucius.

“At fifteen I set my heart upon learning.
At thirty, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground.
At forty, I no longer suffered from perplexities.
At fifty, I knew what were the biddings of Heaven.
At sixty, I heard them with docile ear.
At seventy, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right.”
~ Confucius.

The next trip that I make may well be the final one.

The Last Sufferer.

The Common Man, made immortal by our famous cartoonist R K Laxmn is the last sufferer in the above cartoon. He is the sod who pays the massive amount of indirect taxes in India which goes to finance all the shenanigans of our establishment.

The highest form of shenanigans is currently going on in our parliament. Parliament is held to ransom by unruly behaviour from our elected representatives who are playing politics at the common man’s expense.

The common man would get sacked if he did not do the work he was appointed to do and got paid for. The common man has appointed our legislators to legislate. They are not doing it at great cost to their employers. This has been caught beautifully by another noted cartoonist Ajit Ninan

I as a common man have decided that I shall not cast my vote for any sitting legislator be it for our state assembly or for our parliament. In other words, sack him/her using the only tool that I have at my disposal.

I earnestly request my fellow common women and men of India to do the same to express our disgust and displeasure.