Thou shall bear the eccentric

At the work place, there can be people who add flavour to your day, or make you want to run away! DNA asked different professionals in Bangalore about their crazy co-workers and boy, did they have some stories!

Teaching by example
The IT industry in Bangalore is a big deal and quite presumably serious things plague their posh offices. Do not be fooled, though, as these serious folks like to have their fun in spite of their busy work schedules. Kumar Anand, an employee at a leading IT organisation shared his funny story about the quirks of a former colleague. “This co-worker had a way of expressing his views and sometimes to make a point, he would use his wicked sense of humour. We had a cultural day organised a couple of years ago and he was one of the organising committee members. He had a feeling that the women might not show up in their saris, which was the designated dress code. So, when we arrived at the office that day, he greeted us completely sari clad! He also distributed a bunch of leaflets which said ‘If I can, why can’t you?’ among women who weren’t wearing saris. It is one lesson nobody will forget. He’d taught us to take part in company events and respect our culture in his own style.”

Theatrical histrionics 
Theatre person Rubi Chakravarti remembers a particular crazy colleague who she calls, “a co-worker from hell!” because he would forget his lines all the time, even during a performance.

“There was one time he forgot his line and just looked at the audience. I had to help him and wound up improvising an entire passage. The man was still as a stone and didn’t do a thing. I yelled ‘say something! Don’t do this to me!’ in the middle of the drama and all he could do was exit stage,” she exclaims.
Head breaking lines

Manjari Hegde, who worked with a television news channel had a lot to deal with. She was in charge of posting the headlines every hour and the person who was supposed to be giving them in was never, ever on time. “How can someone afford to be even a minute late when you’re working in a news channel?” Manjari fumes, at the memory of her bad-timing co-worker. “In the end, I had to resort to recycle the previous hour’s headlines to meet deadlines. I don’t know if she’s learnt to be any quicker yet. All I can say is that I’m glad I got out before I lost sanity!” she says.

High (school) teacher
Educationist Sumithra HS can’t stop laughing as she shares her crazy co-worker story from her school staff room. “There’s a female colleague who has these wild mood-swings and sometimes, she’s really over the top! She won’t stop at anything, to keep us entertained. She’s eccentric and theatrical and it is difficult to imagine that from her fastidious way of working. One morning, she just broke into a wild jig that is going to stay in my memory for quite a while!” Sumithra giggles. Now here is someone who’s not in a bad mood even after dealing with a bunch of unruly teenagers.

Filmy fellow
Restaurateur Nirmala Balakrishnan talks about her male colleague who knows the knack of calming everyone down and making them see the lighter side of things. He garnishes his witty jokes with Salman style dancing and singing Bollywood songs. “He does this little performance every now and then and it has us all rolling on the floor,” Nirmala says. He does have a foible, though. He is a highly forgetful man, which has led the whole staff to rename him ‘Ghajni.’