**.ID-Card Power.**

   There are different types of ID-Cards; there is the amazingly useless Voter’s ID card, the driver’s license, the ID card few of us had in school and college and the most amazing of them all, the corporate ID-Card – The one given to us by our employers.

   Till the end of college, none of us liked the ID card, people forced us to wear it. The HOD and teachers used to drive us crazy if we fail to wear it. It was like dog-collar for all of us; but things radically changed after we finished college and entered the corporate jungle.

   The dog-collar soon became a privilege, now we have to be forced to remove it. People wear it with pride and happiness wherever they go. In a city like Chennai or Bangalore, it is very common to see people wearing their shiny ID card with colorful tags in shopping malls, restaurants, multiplexes, road-side eateries, buses, autos and even in public rest rooms. They associate such a degree of pride to it that they are very reluctant to part with it even for a single moment. They wear it while traveling, shopping, eating, drinking and god knows when else.

   It is not entirely their mistake, people wearing ID-Cards or so called professionals are always treated in a ‘special’ manner. The ‘special’ here includes high auto fares, impeccably high prices in grocery shops and zero chance for bargaining. They don’t mind these as these things come with ‘real’ privileges like being addressed as ‘sir’ by everyone, no more ‘what-is-he-doing-here’ look in theatres or malls. They even get away from TTR if they travel without a ticket. Coz, 'people wearing ID-Cards never do a mistake on purpose'.

   Everybody who is wearing the ID-Card does not enjoy the privilege. This is only limited to people living in big cities and people working in big companies(not necessarily IT). The Id-Card alone does not have any power, it must be combined with an attitude to make it work. The ID-Card + attitude + branded clothing gives anyone the privilege of being fooled by auto people while falsely being treated with great respect.

   Enjoy ID-Card Power, to read about a privilege i enjoyed recently, read my previous blog - Test-Drove the chevy to the levy.

Test-Drove the chevy to the levy

Driving has never been my passion, i never lived to drive, driving never set my nerves on fire. All these coz of a simple reason; "I do not know how to drive a car"'

A brief intro about my driving experience so far...

1) Drove my uncle's maruti 800 once and almost killed a cow

2) Failed in my LLR test ( LLR not Driving License, i was one of the elite few to have failed that)

3) Started learning the ABC, rather C-B-A of driving in a stupid driving school vechicle

4) Drove my friend's alto and almost hit a wall, My friend(Sai) saved the day by pulling the hand brake on time.

Now, I would like to share my fifth experience of driving....

The day was pretty normal, it was hot outside.. There was one difference, a shiny new blue Chevrolet Beat was parked outside our office. A friendly looking marketing executive was outside offering pamphlets. One thing i like about these marketing executives is, they are always smiling&friendly. He was trying to sell the car or at least make some people drive it.

My colleague showed interest and started talking to him. With the heavy automotive experience(reading autocar, t-bhp) i had, i threw in words like 'ABS','60:40 split seats','1.2 litre 4 cylinder etc., The executive seemed impressed. That impression along with the default impression we software engineers give (ID-Card Power) prompted him to offer me a test-drive.

Poor guy, He did not know my history. I could not refuse, I talked way too much to escape with an excuse. I had just one option - 'Drive the damn car'. I took the key, hopped in and did the thing that I do best when it comes to driving - turned the ignition on. I remembered the exact words of our driving school instructor , "C->B->A , Clutch->Brake->Accelerator, Clutch a nalla midhichu first gear podu". I did it. Now, "Clutch la irunthu meduva kaala edu", I did this too. But the car did not go forward....

The executive came in, "Sir.. Hand Brake". The jeep in the driving school just moved forward when i take my foot off the clutch, the CBA of driving did not have an 'H'. The smiling executive released the hand brake and i repeated the entire procedure. This time, magically the car moved forward. A small step for drivers, but a giant leap for me..

The car started moving, I pressed the clutch down again, instinctively i started searching for the little picture on the dash that explains the gear layout. Oops, this is a normal car and normal cars do not have that picture. I relied on my instinct and slot in the next gear. PERFECT, the car was still on and running. Now i faced the biggest challenge... I had to make a right turn..

I choose the easiest way out. I slammed the brakes, the car stopped before i realized that i did not follow my instructors improtant advice, "Clutch a than speed a amukanum, Brake a meduva than pidikanum". Too late for realizations. The smiling guy was not smiling anymore. His next words confirmed that his realization did not take time like mine.

"Sir.. I will drive back..."

Anyway, it was a big step for me, I did not run over a dog, hit a wall or kill an old lady. Guess i am on the right path to become a great driver. :) :) :) :)

My messy cartoon character

Developing a cartoon character was one of my many- many unachieved dreams. But I never had the right amount of talent/creativity to do it. Above all I lacked the inspiration to create one. Throughout my school life, all I drew was the muscle man; but there was nothing new about him. He wouldn’t qualify as a cartoon character; there was nothing funny about him. College came and went with no source of inspiration whatsoever.

Corporate life is a great source of inspiration. We get to see lot of things that could be easily made into a cartoon. For the people who find everything funny, office is the best place to be. Finally I got an inspiration to develop my own cartoon character. Thanks to Dilbert et all.

I would like to introduce Mr. Nothinleft. He is a guy who dedicated his life for programming. He started out to be a normal guy in a software company. His dedication to his job threw him overboard. He cares about nothing else. The only relationship he has is with his computer. All he wants to do is achieve in his work. What would he do after achieving them?? Even he doesn’t know the answer. His dedication to work was so huge that, he surgically removed all his body part that he considered to be redundant. His body now just has the parts that are needed for software programming – Eyes, Hands and brain (he removed the part of the brain that is needed for socializing).

After losing all that is necessary, now he regrets. He craves for a normal life. He wants a life other than work. So, if I draw any more storyboards based on him; it would be based on his misadventures when he tries to get his life back.

Ya He is Dilbert meets Robocop. Mail me if you have a better name for him, or have any funny incident you could imagine with him in it. 

Will try to develop some storyboards with him soon...