School Daze

It is something which I cannot clearly recall,
The moments are unchained as they sprawl,
I remember moments since I was four,
And this is the story I have at its core,

In kindergarten there was no book,
Just chalk and slate was all it took,
While solving sums my speed was good,
Took lesser time than what others would,

But I used to usually very laconic,
My logical ability never became iconic,
The teacher bawled asking why I was idle with a cane,
Silently I would efface the slate and pretend do it again,

I did well when I wasn't thinking how I was ranked,
But after scoring good results I found myself flanked,
People making foregone conclusion were the real pain,
Content with terrain I felt there was no ground to gain,

'Study hard for a job', I asked if that was all?
The studies were now having a feeling of gall,
I didn't exactly know what was written in the texts,
Gobbled everything with hunger reserved for fests,

By the end I felt fallen to the headmaster's ploy,
All work and no play had warped up a dull boy,
I wish I could relive the uniform with blase,
To script a better legacy of my school daze.

                                                            - Rajmohan Yadav

Engineer Ka Viva

Time pass pe nahi lag payi lagaam,
FIFA ka khel khelte nikal gayi shaam,
5 Megapixel ke camera se photo liye tha,
Bhul gaya ki dost ne aisa koi mail kiya tha,

External ke saamne hoga hamara pehla batch,
Uski penalty, uska goal lekin hamara catch,
Shuru ke roll number abhi bahar aaye hain,
Unke aas-pas log reporter ban ke chaye hain,

Jitna bhari hato hai external ka lunch,
Utna bhari baad ke bacho pe padta hai punch,
Ladkiyon ne file mein chehra dal rakha hai,
Ladko ne masoom sa chehra paal rakha hai,

Hamne toh kabhi nahi kholi thi file,
Experiment ka alag hi tha yeh style,
Usne sabke assignment le liye,
Phir pucha tune kitne hain kiye,

5th program mein kitne packet hue through,
Hum sab dekhte rah gaya ek dusre ka muh,
Sare padhe answer ho jate hain gumnam,
Techmax refer karnewalo ka yehi hai anjam,

External bola ki beta tera concept nahi hai clear,
Arre sir.....isi ko toh kehte hain asli engineer,
KT ki dhamki dekar hamari itni bhi mat maro,
Light waise bhi nahi hai....ek aur bill mat fadho.

                                                   - Rajmohan Yadav

The Researcher

Quietly toiling away in the bleak lab,
For his find, he is unwilling to blab,
His apron, for years he has worn,
Its lurid and some parts of it is torn,

He seeks a break, one which can be through,
Follows his principles, to whom he is true,
A chemist, whose doesn't react well,
His working hours, you can always tell,

Has no holidays, not because he is secular,
Even on weekends, his presence is regular,
He thinks success is never too far,
For his efforts are often above par,

He mixes and matches all the solutions,
Sometimes inspired by mere illusions,
He pours from Beaker A to Beaker B,
For that elusive colour change to see,

He wants his thesis to be complete,
Another attempt adds to another bleat,
He goes back to see the theory,
Now he is beginning to get weary,

He puts a lid on his daily chores,
Shuts the lab and goes outdoors,
Nascent nature in its scenic elation,
His sedate mind finds an inspiration.

                                      - Rajmohan Yadav

Taste Of Hunger

Milling about the ever serene county,
Obliged to accept anyone's bounty,
It was a rather long day at work,
Now following a rather new quirk,

Working for the clean collar,
He had spent his latest dollar,
Now the situation is a bit intricate,
He has only enough left for a ticket,

In the morning he wasn't on his guard,
And forgot to slot in his banking card,
Its what he didn't know while younger,
Now he sees what is the real hunger,

That loaf of bread now seems more worthy,
Pondering about what would make him sturdy,
He sees the shop porch where the folks lie,
Feels like one in the queue for the hoi polloi,

Water without a packaged label will do,
Whatever that gets your hunger through,
He usually liked potatoes incarnated as frie,
Now he was willing to get a raw one to try, 

Never mind the piazza with supplement cheese,
Walking up to home with almost on his knees,
He felt what many feel while they are younger,
He hand the experience of the taste of hunger.

                                                   - Rajmohan Yadav

A fallacy within overtime

            It is that moment that you show how you earn your corn. Following is a singular view, rather I would call it an observation, on whether there are too many cases of overtime, more than the scenario would warrant. This of course, is more about the attitude of the people behind the desks and also the same about people behind smaller desks. So, we have all done overtime some way or the other, once I asked myself the holy grail of all logical statements, 'Why?'. The answer to this question lies not with the amount of work being done, but the mannerism in which the work is being done, rather 'not done'. This of course has its roots in the attitude and also the hallmark of what a so called 'hard working' employee is suppose to be.
            Now, picture this, you are in your cafeteria, having a quite little repast. Plus, without any entourage all you do is observe the folks in the cafeteria and the adjoining 'recreation room'. I often saw the same people again and again, and why not? their accompanying folks did a fairly good job at holding onto the crucial gains around the table tennis board and the cafeteria seating as well. Playing board games for protracted periods of time, waiting for the order to arrive and then of course waiting for the delivered order to simmer down. All this doesn't always take a wee bit of time, but the time tends to go unnoticed if you are around with your cronies. If you were to take a cumulative of such periods of time, you notice that it not only forms a large chunk of the apportioned office time but also the overtime taken as well. In fact, the more 'loner' employees who do their work more often, as they don't really have an entourage, tend to avoid overtime on more occasions than not. Because?, well their work is done!, the time they save from the extra curricular activities might make them look grumpy but they are usually the ones to do their work on time. An abridged summary is that because you are letting your time down the drain , you are sitting those supplementary hours in the office when everyone is gone.
              Where is the fallacy here? Let me latch onto that as well. Now, who do you think is the hard working employee?, a swift, but myopic, answer is the one who sits in the office when everyone is gone, more or less the overtime fellow or fellows. It may sound inconclusive, but the manager is usually not that observant of the employee regime especially the one behind his back, rather his wall. The manager or the team lead who tends to be more or less busy in meetings for a good part of the day, tend to view the overtime employees as obedient and hence good for 'company plans'. Even though in terms of working hours their throughput is not at all more than the employee who has a diligent attitude towards the office work timings. The height of all this is that the overtime folk get underscored as 'hard working'. This is what gives birth to the fallacy in the working world. The scenario here is that folks who dawdle around for good part of the day and then take the extra shift only to finish the work which could/would/should have been done in the regular hours are now 'hard working'. All by the virtue of being in the office for overtime. This falls perfectly with the conventional view of a hard working employee. The one who waits and finishes the work, not the one who works without waiting.