ACT I : THE BEGINNING OF THE END

There are dates like 4th July 1776, 6th August 1942, 15th August 1947, 20th December 1984(my B’day J)...and then there is 18th August 2006 – The beginning of the end. The end of sanity that is . . . IBM made the mistake of putting us 17 ”exhibits” together in one department- the hottest cutting edge technology LOTUS NOTES aka Groupware. Cutting edge because the only thing its cutting thru is IBM profits by keeping such a large group of talented people on bench or as they call in not deployed and paying them to party. But after 6 months and 100 parties later the boredom starts setting in so what does one do? Start a Common Blog. And what will the blog be about? A place where sophisticated, highly qualified engineers share their knowledge and views on Lotus and upcoming technologies… Yeah Right

So just like every play one reads there is an introduction of characters. In our case let’s introduce the samples of Groupware.

Anuja Kulkarni alias Anuja : She played the heroine’s friend in the play which was part of our soft skills training. One of the sweetest girl you would ever meet. Always there to help everyone and never seen her speak harshly to anyone. Now since I can’t find anything bad to write bout her lets move on to other people. A great singer (no sarcasm this time) and also can be called the chatting queen. She has got great score in CAT even without studying. She has always helped me in my so called quest to get into Jamnalal Bajaj by giving me mock CET papers. (I hope this much is enough to get the next mock paper)

Sapna Agarwal alias Paheli : Ya that’s what she is a big paheli to all of us. Can be described as the most reserved in groupware but yes very observant. Playing heroine’s mother (at her own will ) in the play, just went on to strengthen our ( or lets say just mine) view about her, of she being a typical traditional marwari girl whos “only going to wear sarees after marriage.”
And for some reasons unknown likes to give titanic poses and sit on horses with GIRLS only. But ya - she‘s already engaged to as we like to call him “Mirchi seth”

Pankaj Kapoor alias - - - - - : The “most handsome guy of groupware”- a proper Punjabi munda stealing the hearts of many girls - girls here refers to only groupware girls and of course as the blog suggests demented (Pankaj don’t mind). The biggest shock according to Anu (which has mentioned atleast 17 times) is his love for animated movies and his devotion towards cartoon network and pogo - Ask Sanket his mate I mean his roommate who after long wait got Tata sky few days ago but ends up seeing pokemon .
Pankaj whos always in for absolutely anything (except stuff which involves physical activity) has by now realized that planning in groupware ends in a cancelled plan and says ”mujhe tumpe bharosa nahi” and so has decided to tread un-trodden paths in solitude.

Anup Holey alias - - - - - : This guys first claim to fame was “Patils cant talk to unmarried women” … Poor guy but it did definitely benefit his other male friends like me who did a swell job of being the official messenger between him and all the unmarried girls in this world. But slowly came out of his shell and has reached such great heights that Abhijit has to bodyguard him especially after the traumatic “physical assault”, but jokes apart in my view undoubtedly the nicest guy (sorry Achin) in groupware. Anup is also to be credited for bringing meaningful poetry by which I mean his “meaningful, multi-layered, thought provoking (yes one of the thoughts was to push him in the well)” shayaris. Now in Hyderabad he is enjoying his physical assaults.

Abhijit Galgalikar alias - - - -: Someone who was always there with us in most of our outings and was always great fun to be with. A very simple guy but very special. He has got a good sense of humor, when he decides something he can really go after that (except Gym) One of his greatest love is (no, no not Prachi ) is Marathi literature. He is fond of all kind of music, and is very intelligent (100% in 610 and 97% in 611). To know more about Abhijit refer to Anup’s description… both have really similar nature but Abhijit is yet to face assault...He too is in Hyderabad and is hooked on to most of the hindi shows especially KBC.

Sanket Khandkar alias Maazzz : This guy could have had easily win the most aloof guy award in Groupware if the poll was to be conducted in November, But then PL started and he had all the time in the world. It was in these two months that we realized that he was one of the funniest guys of groupware. His wise ass comments always cracks us up. But his most famous creation “tu Shivaji” gives away this guys attitude towards life and others. Of course when we talk about Sanket we cannot not talk bout his great dancing skills and his trademark “toh kya” expression. An Oscar is still due for his memorable performance in “aaj kal tere mere….” And of course I should also mention Pankaj (are you’ll happy now).

Sachin Kagalkar alias - - - - : Before anything else let me tell you this guy “only laughs on serious jokes.” He was one of the very few people in groupware who was always ready to go out and have a good time… but I guess he enjoyed most when Sneha - (no no don’t get weird ideas) all she was doing was OA(over acting) while playing dumb charades. The person who used to come first to office and go home last – yeah he did work a lot, his orkut scraps being the proof. He is also famous for terrorizing children by which I mean Supriya and me. Now in Banglore is enjoying his life in tranquility away from the great Groupware Tamasha.

Prachi Bhadekar alias Priyanka : and why Priyanka just ask Sourabh. The greatest quality which I admire and share with her (apart from our size that is) is her self esteem and self confidence. The last 5 months most of the times one can find her doing word lists for GRE. Don’t really know why she needs to study so much with the kind of memory she has. She loves to dance (must I add is really good at it) but something which is much greater is her courage to dance even with a broken foot. Also a lot of people want to go home from office with her(especially those who don’t have mobiles with radio) because of her singing which starts as soon as you turn the ignition of your vehicle and stops as soon as u turn your vehicle off.

Well this is less than half the total number of people in the group(ware) . Today’s work(this post) is more than the amount of work I have done in 6 months. The rest of it tomorrow and by tomorrow I mean next working day.