Name/Nick name: SHREERAM RAGHURAMAN aka IYER

Date of Birth: 4^th NOVEMBER, 1982

How long have you known each other? 7 YEARS

How long have you been friends? 7 YEARS

What do you admire most about the other 2? SRIRAM – HIS EAGERNESS TO ACHIEVE THINGS IN LIFE. CS – HIS HELPING TENDENCY.

Name one annoying characteristic of the other 2 you would like to change? SRIRAM AND CS – PUNCTUALITY!

Which animal do you resemble the most and why?

Your greatest achievement so far? BEING PART OF SYNAMEN

What's your favorite color? BLUE

What do you do to relax? WORK

What do your parents think of you? HOPING THAT I’LL START EARNING A FEW PENNIES AT LEAST IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS

Theme song of your life? I LOVE MUSIC …. BUT NEVER REALLY THOUGHT OF A THEME SONG TILL NOW

When you eventually go bald what will you wash your head with, soap or shampoo? HOPE THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN, BUT IF AT ALL IT SHOULD, THEN SHAMPOO

Are you a wise-man or a wise-guy? OF COURSE A WISE MAN

What was your pet name when you were a kid? AHEM …. I NEVER HAD A PET, BUT WOULD ONE DAY LIKE TO OWN A HORSE [WHAT? THAT IS THE RIGHT ANSWER ISN’T IT?]

At the moment, what are you enjoying? High salary or job satisfaction? HIGH SALARY! I AM EARNING MORE THAN ANY CM IN INDIA!

Who would play you in a movie and why? KAMAL HASSAN …. HE TRIES HARD LIKE ME.

What would your life be like without Harry Potter? WHAT IS THAT …. A SWEET??? WHY SHOULD IT CHANGE MY LIFE?

Describe your body shape in geometric terms: CYLINDRICAL

Your favorite joke: I LOVE KOUNDAMANI’S JOKES … ESPECIALLY THE ONES IN THE MOVIE, ‘ULLATHAI ALLI THAA'

Name/Nick name: SRIRAM GOPAL aka G

Date of Birth: 19/09/1982

How long have you known each other? CS FOR 13 YEARS AND SHREERAM FOR 7 YEARS

How long have you been friends? THE SAME NUMBER OF YEARS I’VE KNOWN THEM

What do you admire most about the other 2? CS; HIS PATIENTS IN TOLERATING ME. SHREERAM; HIS FRANKNESS

Name one annoying characteristic of the other 2 you would like to change? CS - NEVER OPENS UP. HE IS THE ‘SECRET-BOOK’. SHREERAM - SOMETIMES HE’S TOO ANNOYINGLY FRANK

Which animal do you resemble the most and why? BULL BECAUSE OF MY STUBBORNNESS.

Your greatest achievement so far? BRAINWASHED 2 FRIENDS TO LEAVE THEIR WELL-PAID JOBS TO START SYNAMEN. THAT’S WHEN I REALIZED I HAD THE POWER OF THE GAB. AND NOW WE ALL WORK FOR NO SALARY.

What's your favorite color? BLACK

What do you do to relax? THINK OF A DIFFERENT PROBLEM TO ESCAPE FROM THE CURRENT ONE

What does your father think of you? HE’S CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT I AM UP TO

Theme song of your life? ‘MAA, THUJE SALAM’ A. R REHMAN

When you eventually go bald what will you wash your head with, soap or shampoo? I USE SHAMPOO NOW

Are you a wise-man or a wise-guy? A MAN GETTING TO BE WISE

What was your pet name when you were a kid? I REFUSE TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION

At the moment, what are you enjoying? High salary or job satisfaction? SALARY? SATISFACTION? WHAT ARE THOSE?

Who would play you in a movie and why? GEORGE CLOONY BECAUSE HE COPIES MY STYLE

What would your life be like without Harry Potter? PEACEFUL [I HATE HARRY POTTER … I’M LOOKING TO REMAKE THIS MOVIE AS HARRY DAUGHTER]

Describe your body shape in geometric terms: MOLTEN CYLINDER

Your favorite joke: An entreprenuer goes to a fortune teller and wants to know his start up's future.

Fortune teller: Oh my god! Your start up and you are going to have a very hardtime for the next three years!!

The Entrepreneur: Oh! thats horrible!! But, what happens after the three years???

Fortune Teller: What else..

You will just get used to it.. :)

Name/Nick name: C SUBRAMANIAM aka CS

Date of Birth: 18^th NOVEMBER 1981.

How long have you known each other? SRIRAM GOPAL FOR 13 YEARS AND SHREERAM FOR 5 YEARS.

How long have you been friends? THE SAME LENGTH OF TIME.

What do you admire most about the other 2? WITH SRIRAM I ADMIRE THE WAY HE THINKS AND HIS DETERMINATION TO MAKE AN IMPACT. AS FOR SHREERAM, IT’S HIS INCREDIBLE CONFIDENCE.

Name one annoying characteristic of the other 2 you would like to change? SRIRAM’S THOUGHT PROCESS AND HIS URGE TO MAKE AN IMPACT AND SHREERAM’S CONFIDENCE.

Which animal do you resemble the most and why? A DOG BECAUSE I WOULD RATE LOYALTY AS MY STRONGEST VIRTUE.

Your greatest achievement so far? BEING A PART OF SYNAMEN.

What's your favorite color? YELLOW …. AND DON’T ASK ME WHY.

What do you do to relax? WATCH MOVIES.

What do your parents think of you? THAT I’M SLIGHTLY MENTALLY DERANGED.

Theme song of your life? FAITH OF THE HEART (PATCH ADAMS SOUNDTRACK) ROD STEWART/ IRIS BY THE GOO GOO DOLLS

When you eventually go bald what will you wash your head with, soap or shampoo? SHAMPOO BECAUSE IT TASTES GOOD.

Are you a wise-man or a wise-guy? A WISE ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN A FOOLISH SOMETHING

What was your pet name when you were a kid? SUBRA

At the moment, what are you enjoying? High salary or job satisfaction? OBVIOUSLY JOB-SATISFACTION [LOL]

Who would play you in a movie and why? TOM CRUISE … BECAUSE HE’S INTO SCIENTOLOGY [HE SEEMS TO BE TERRIBLY CONFUSED, LOL]

What would your life be like without Harry Potter? JUST THE SAME? [WHAT’S THE MEANING OF THIS QUESTION?]

Describe your body shape in geometric terms: CYLINDRICAL

Your favorite joke: A BIRD IN THE HAND MAKES OT HARD FOR YOU TO BLOW YOUR NOSE.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING CUSHIONS – PART UN

I walk into the office and I can’t find my cushions!!

No need to panic Edel, I tell myself. You’ve weathered worse storms. They are bound to be here somewhere.

I type out an e-mail to Sriram, trying desperately to sound nonchalant and professional “Hey Sriram, SOMEONE’S STOLEN MY CUSHIONS! I WANT THEM BACK. FIND OUT WHO STOLE THEM AND GIVE THEM BACK TO ME!”

Well okay. So it wasn’t all that nonchalant. But there’s only so much shock a girl can take when she walks into the office on a Monday morning.

I can’t work.

A] Because I’m traumatized that someone would steal from me! [What did I ever do to anyone?]

B] And I can’t type without my cushions. My elbows hurt when I place them on the wooden tables and I need my 20 minutes of afternoon, post-lunch shut-eye.

I look at everyone in the office suspiciously. Could it be Him? He’s been eyeing them for a while. How about Him? Sneaky fellow that! Or Him? Could be …. Hmmmm …. I’ve seen him stretch his back and groan a couple of times when he’s working.

Today it’s my cushions. What’s next? Hector the Thinking Hedgehog? Theodore the Tiny Teddy? Flip! This is like a crime-wave!

The pressure’s too much.

So I march up to Sriram’s office to confront him and take the bull by the horns. Who am I kidding? I went to complain and snitch.

Sriram and Shreeram are busy working. I know they are busy because they both look like they’ve been munching on neem leaves and because Sriram forgot to spray the room with Old Spice when he saw me enter [something he does on automatic pilot before anyone can complain about toilet smell in his office] – either that or we’ve just hit a new low and he can’t afford bottled good-smells anymore.

Poop!

But I was committed to the cause and set my face like flint and proceeded to prepare to lament.

“Edel, I read your e-mail and ignored it. Is there anything else?”

THIS is why one needs to have a back-up plan!

I mumble something about the Give Life Marathon and meet mixed reception.

Deflated, I walk down to my station.

Looks like the ball’s in my court. I am going to have to solve this mystery by myself.

Watch this space for further updates on the cushions. The battle may have been lost but there’s still a war to be won and JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!

SIGN-BOARD 23/7/2009

Big day for the Synamen Office.

Our sign-board went up.

I was sitting in my booth when CS popped his head over the partition and told me that Sriram and Shreeram were ready for the meeting (I mean, seriously! Can’t Synamen function without me, even for a second? Apparently not!)

Trying not to look too smug I marched importantly upstairs and Shreeram and Sriram were sitting there with an impressive array of computer screens around them, looking not-at-all like hackers – what a pity that!

We talked in length about PROHIVE’s features and the various possible competitors. I presented them with possible new features and they argued the feasibility factor with each other – knowing that the technical details would be lost on me anyhow.

Invigorating.

It was amazing to see the way these guys’ minds worked. One bounced an idea off the other and the other came up with pros and cons.

I felt like I was sitting in a tennis match watching the two of them power the ball to the other side.

While they talked, I flashed-back [movie style] to the day when Sriram first explained PROHIVE to me.

Who would have thought that from these 4 sheets of paper, these guys would have been able to create a portal that is going to revolutionize the way Creative Professionals are going to be doing business in the future?!

I certainly didn’t!

I felt like I was part of a ‘big picture’. Felt like I was part of a revolution.

I heard my voice say, ‘The change is coming’ [curiously in Sylvester Stallone’s voice] inside my head and got all goose-pimply all over.

“Edel, please pay attention” …. Sriram’s voice snapped me back to the here and now, but I continued to carry that special-glow-feeling.

The meeting went on for a while, and I when it finished, I came out a lot more impressed than I had been in the beginning.

A half hour later, I was sitting at my desk, when CS said, “You know that our sign is going up right? Why don’t you go and take some pictures?”

(Why am I always the last one to know anything?)

I ran upstairs and there were a couple of guys putting the Synamen sign-board up, from the balcony [thank goodness my bosses didn’t decide that – like that incident with ‘The Calling Bell’ - their Electronics and Communications Degree somehow qualified them to hanging off like Cliffhanger from the balcony and installing the sign-board]

I got slightly misty-eyed [thank God for auto-focus on my camera]

I was feeling all Synamen-y and the special-glow-feeling came back full force.

Looking at them, standing on the street, looking up at the sign [that they thankfully hired someone else to install] I couldn’t help but be amazed at these guys. Their strength and their determination to make something of their lives. To not just be, but also to actively become.

I left them to their moment.

On their way back to the office, Sriram said, “We’ll just sell Edel’s kidney to pay for the sign. It’s not like she needs 2 kidneys to sit in one place and Facebook all day long.”

That warm feeling, it disappeared in a flash.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING CUSHIONS – PART DEUX

Following a tip I received from CS this morning, I found my cushions!

They were hidden in the back row of the office, under a desk.

Who would have done such a thing? What kind of a world are we living in?

Cushions in hand, I stalked back to my station, noting smugly how everyone fearfully kept their eyes glued to their computer screens.

This is not over …. Not by a long shot!

Not till the guilty party is found!!!!!!

JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FLY ON THE WALL

Sriram’s called me to his office upstairs. I'm not feeling too good about this because, it is just a few minutes AFTER Sriram's caught me Facebooking/G-talking – AGAIN – instead of working. AGAIN being the bazillionth time AFTER I've been explicitly told that Facebooking/G-talking was against office policy.

Oh GULP.

Stupid Office Policy.

CS gets another call and he pops his head over the partition. I’m wanted in the office NOW.

My back sweating slightly, I walk upstairs trying to school my face into a mask of innocence.

Sriram’s on the phone and he motions me to sit down while he doodles on his diary and takes the call. “Oh Goody”, I think, “More time to stew.”

I decide that the plan was going to be, DENY EVERYTHING. Deny even having a Facebook/G-talk account. And the guiltier I am, the more vehemently I would deny all charges.

As plans went, I realized that there were more holes than plan in mine, but at least I felt armed.

Sriram’s doodle now covered an entire page. Looked like he was designing something for a carpet manufacturer. A carpet manufacturer who hopefully didn't have eyes.

The call ended and Sriram turns around to smile at me.

(That’s a good sign …. Isn’t it? Smiling? GULP)

“Edel. I’ve thought of something. You’re addicted to Facebook. Looks like there’s nothing we can do about that. So how about if we use it for our advantage? Synamen’s advantage?”

Eh?

“You remember the new marketing strategies and ideas you came up with to promote PROHIVE?”

Vaguely.

“So write a blog about us. About Synamen. About PROHIVE. About how you feel working in this office, being the only fe – er – woman here. Tell all your Facebook friends to read it. And if they are anything like you, they’ll promote it to others during their office hours (That’s hitting below the belt, I thought. True, but hitting below the belt nevertheless) We could use all the help we can get just about now.”

Sooooooooo ……..

I look at Sriram and Sriram looks at me.

“What?”

I blink. “Er. Nothing. This is unexpected that’s all”

“Well I had to think of some way to use your addiction to our advantage.”

OUCH.

Cheap-shot that.

So I’m now sitting in front of my ‘puter and writing this. BLOG.

A blog about my office and my colleagues. A fly on the wall account of what happens everyday.

Hmmmmmm. This could well turn-out to be very interesting.

New FB Status Message: ‘I have the coolest job in the whole world. I’m going to write a Blog about my office and get paid for it too’

Sriram rolls his eyes as he passes my booth. Ooops.