Archive for the 'Humor' Category

And what is funny Phaedrus, and what is not funny — need we ask anyone to tell us these things?

An Office Survival Guide

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Pointers in surviving the corporate jungle. Newspaper column in Today on 14 June 2008.

[...] In the unforgiving, dog-eat-dog corporate jungle, you need to be sure of the welcome. More importantly, you need to prove yourself worthy of it. Fear not, I am here to help you through it. And I will gladly accept all credit for your survival, if you care to make it public. But I regret that we (this newspaper, me, our family members, dogs, lawyers and so on) cannot be held responsible for any untoward consequence of applying my suggestions. Come on, you should know better than to base your career on a newspaper column! [...]

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Sophistication

Monday, July 5th, 2010

How to market sophistication, a la francaise! Newspaper column in Today on 5 Jan 2008.

Sophistication is a French invention. The French are masters when it comes to nurturing, and more importantly, selling sophistication. Think of some expensive (and therefore classy) brands. Chances are that more than half of the ones that spring to mind would be French. And the other half would be distinctly French sounding wannabes. [...]

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Office Email Wars

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Newspaper column in Today on 1 Sept, 2007.

[...] A normally aggressive soul, on the other hand, may become an obnoxious sender of what are known as stinkers. Stinkers are emails that are meant to inflict humiliation. [...]

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Philosophy of Money – IV

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

This concluding part of the philosophy of money (to appear as a column in the May issue of the Wilmott Magazine) shares my private disappointment that whatever I wrote up may not have been as original as I expected it to be. But the concept of money has been around for a long time now, so I should not dwell on it too much.

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Philosophy of Money – III

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Having looked at the how of money in the last post, here is the why of money in this third post in the my mini-series. Why do we want it so bad?

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Philosophy of Money – II

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

This second post of the mini series based on my upcoming column in the Wilmott Magazine looks at how people make money in a scalable fashion. It was posted earlier in this blog.

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Philosophy of Money – I

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Here is another mini series of posts based on an upcoming column of mine in the Wilmott Magazine to appear in their May issue. I have posted similar ideas here before, but this series will put them together, hopefully as a cohesive whole. This first post of the series looks at the unphysical nature of money.

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If Time Died Now, I Would Be Happy

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

On my strange and funny dreams.

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Bonus Plans of Mice and Men – III

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

If hard work does not entitle us to fat bonuses, perhaps our “talent” does? This is the third in the series of posts based on an upcoming column of mine in the Wilmott Magazine.

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Stinker Emails — A Primer

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Another old gem from my newspaper columns collection, this post talks about email duels that all of us have gone through at some point in our career. Enjoy!

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Bushisms

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Bush has just left the building. Perhaps the world will be a kinder, gentler place now. But it will certainly be a less funny place. For life is stranger than fiction, and Bush was funnier than any stand-up comedian. Jon Stewart is going to miss him. So will I.

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Geeks

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

I have been doing a bit of geeky stuff lately — writing Wordpress plugins. That made me think… We all started off as geeks, didn’t we? What’s the use denying it? Remember how the teachers loved us, and the sexy cheerleaders, well, didn’t? During our moments of panic, we go back to our geeky roots. At least, I do.

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Meeting Bingo Game

Friday, September 19th, 2008

This one is a hilarious piece I found on the Web. If you really like it, you have to wonder — am I still doing too much techie stuff and too little management?

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Mensa Word Play

Friday, September 12th, 2008

Okay, they say this Mensa Invitational by the Washington Post is just as fictional as these words. But these words — man, are they funny!

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For Malayalees Only

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Only my fellow Malayalees can enjoy this hilarious email I got, unfortunately. If you cannot read Malayalam, please ignore this post.

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Trick Question

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Here’s an IQ question to help you decide how you should spend the rest of your day! [...]

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Moonwalkers

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Here is a Malayalee view on what really went on with the fake moon landing pictures!

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The Worldly Malayalees

Friday, August 29th, 2008

I wrote this piece on the World Malayalee Conference 2008 for a Singaporean newspaper. I was away in India during the conference (22-25 August, 2008) and did not see it in print. This post is about my home state of Kerala, its language Malayalam, and those who speak it – the Malayalees. If those words make no sense to you, you may not be interested in this post.

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God’s Blunder

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Is man one of God’s blunders? Or is God one of man’s blunders? Why would Nietzsche say a thing like that? Here are my thoughts.

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Sex and Physics — According to Feynman

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

Richard Feynman on physics and sex. My serious and not-so-serious thoughts on the words of the great man, aptly described as ‘No Ordinary Genius.’

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