First lessons from ‘Dork’

Before I start this, I must offer sincere thanks to Sidin Vadukut for his book ‘Dork’. Why is it so? Here goes. Although I stay in Bangalore, my company offered to put people up in this fairly nice hotel near the office, which is 13 kms from home. Initially, I thought it would be weird to stay at a hotel, but then it seemed a darn good place to make friends with the new folks who would be working with me. So here I am, at a hotel, near the office , in the town of Bangalore, where I have a home already.

Now, here is where the ‘Dork’ learning kick in. Unlike our protagonist, I do not assume that the company would pay for everything and go berserk and do things like order the lobster or send my clothes to express laundry. I am however still very tempted to raid the mini fridge in the room, but then I have the induction program at 8 AM and don’t want to show up with a hangover on day one. That is to be reserved for subsequent Monday mornings when I drag my feet out of bed and grumble to work. (HR personnel reading this, I kid a lot…so don’t put this in the evaluation). I shamelessly call up the HR and ask them as to what the company is paying for and what not. So, phew, I just saved myself from maxing out that credit card, and raiding the mini fridge. (They can pay for the booze at least…give us a daily stipend or something….will make suggestions to HR at induction tomorrow morning…PS: it’s 11:15 PM here and the free wi fi sucks….missing my upgraded 1 MBPS connection at home).

Besides coming off as a total cheapskate in front of HR, I am now a cheap bas***d in front of the hotel reception too. I asked them if they would charge me for using the wifi. Also, I asked them to bring up extra pillows as the ones in the room are terribly soft. You see, us hard working folks are not used to these finer things of life. In the coal mines, we sleep on rocks…. Anyway, I ask these chaps to bring up pillows which I ask, “are you going to charge me extra for this?”. The same questions followed when I asked for an extra towel.

Now, I’m not cheap… I do enjoy spending money…especially on myself, but then there are boundaries between what I am entitled to from the company, and what I need to pay for. The point of this whole ‘away from home’ exercise is not to spend money, but to know the team better. By the way, on a different note, this hotel room reminds me of the first few months of college when we were living out of suitcases. Sniff….nostalgia you scoundrel…making me all senti inside! Sniff!