Zoom meetings

Zoom meetings ..

Corona has made paradigm changes in the way we live in this world .

Amongst so many such changes I would put Zoom cloud meetings up in the list .

From meetings in a conference table with the boss looking at you making your presentation  ,where u chat with the girls on both sides, or spill hot coffee u took  for the meeting to make you appear meeting fatigued .

Abroad its the ubiquitous Starbucks coffee which one keeps sucking even when  empty ,label you see ,it sort of tells about you as the hard working mean eyed executive lasting on a starbucks through his or her busy day .

Its another matter that you sneaked into the cafeteria before you came to the meeting and wolfed a big fat buttered pizza like a true blue glutton .

All that was in pre covid days !

Today its all Zoom .

The Chinese released Corona on you as well as the Zoom .

In the early days many entered the zoom meetimgs half expecting a chink eyed Tsing Tsang to spring from behind the mobile or the laptop as it was said the Chinese knew all behind zooms .

But these days we wont flutter an eyelid if we do see one ,and may even ask him to get us a hot cup of bat soup ooops .

But the real fun in Zoom is watching the participants as long as one doesnt do what most do .

Many join the meeting in the  last minute dishivelled and if more than 55 have thier children guiding them into it .

For a few minutes one can see the ceiling ,the floor,the pants of the participant if hes lucky to wear one !

Arre its at home bhai .

Then  the nerdy teen disappears to play his games or twiddle in instagram and like a shipwrecked sailor ones left all alone  .

Many grin into the atmosphere vacantly making multiple greetings till they find all the tiny windows of dishivelled hairdos (covid no haircuts ) or unshaven chins and grey streaks for the ladies and  hurriedly smudged lipstick most looking like what the cat brought home cant hear them .

I love those windows with faces peeping like a poor mans Republic TV the best one can get if Arnob doesnt want you in his show .

And then the great mute unmute foreplay starts before any zoom meeting .

Most press the unmute button not knowing their conversations are heard like in an FM  radio .

And thus we hear S calling for his wife J

 can u get me that kattan ? 

 ie black tea for non mallus

 I need some energy to face this meeting 

and J answering 

didnt I tell you the tea dust is over 2 days back !!

And the sheepish grin of the rest of participants in knowing the macroeconomic details of S who in flesh and blood meetings was a formidable almost dangerous guy with an unerving presence .

Zoom does make you equals .

And R never realises hes on prime time viewing as he digs with three and half fingers on his right side of nose looks at the booty and goes to the left till he suspects he has become a snoot y celebrity !

These days Home is definitely not the best place to scratch where you itch ,you could become viral buddy .

And then the meeting starts with whispers murmurs ,guffaws, curses from those who are yet to grapple the mechanics of muting .

Suddenly G gets up obviously to go to the loo ,luckily he doesnt take his mobile with the zoom meet (tk God for small mercies ) along but places it on the table when the camera points to his striped purple underwear worn over a classy shirt and tie .

Poor man never knew his dark underbelly would be the talk of the town .

And then theres M who keeps cud chewing all through the meeting .

Most participants are trying to find out what he has been chewing for so long .

So in a zoom if participants stare hard dont think they liked your speech

 they may have just spotted that your zip was open .

The picture is from online nothing to do with this post

I can remove pic if objected

Happy zooming

Tied in Ties

The Tiring Ties 

I started wearing a tie for work only in UAE and continued till I left Brunei .

In initial days I was not very adept at tying one ,I was taught by my friend Sushil Daniel an opthalmic surgeon in Cochin who with a Stephanian past was well versed .

He came home to teach me before I left to Dubai 😁

When I landed in Abudhabi and later was taken to Al ain and checked into 

Hotel Hilton as planned by my hospital by  official Sidhu who recieved me .

 I  told him to wait and  had a bath and quickly adorned a ready made knotted tie I had  kept for an emergency to go to hospital to place my credentials .

Within days i used to knot ties in my sleep and also got a big collection as gifts or as my shopping as ties were sold in so many varieties in the malls there .

Come winter I started wearing jackets and coats and its collection too grew .

In Brunei the tie business continued ,though jackets werent needed much with its climate expect for formal occasions like meeting the royal highness or when making a presentation in conferences .

I hated to wear a two piece suit and preferred a suit over a jeans in colder climes or for grand evenings .

When working in Tawam Hospital ,Al Ain,UAE we had for a short time a medical Director of our Oncology dept Dr Sanjay Jain who was an American citizen and selected by John Hopkins group which managed the hospital .

Usually American hospitals preferred more comfortable scrubs or even casual wear but our Sanjay was old school .

He insisted all doctors wear the prescribed full sleeved white coat with tie .

Omg

It wasnt bad in the super cooled interior and in winter even outside but not in summer .

Tawam had a huge laundry to take care of the white coats not the ties 

Nowadays ties and coats are frowned as being transmitters of cross infections

In Brunei it was UK style always .

Doctors wore ties to work every day .

Somehow I always felt strangled and used to ease my tie whenever I had the oppurtunity .

I preferred a blazer without tie on informal evenings .

In India one just wore neat pants and shirt ie it .

Whatever we wore it was the work done which was more important .