Time that was

My earlier post about vacation, Goa etc. lead my thoughts to the times when most of us were at Infosys. I remembered few stories which I thought are interesting enough to be a blog post.

I'm not sure how true they are but the anecdotes about the absent mindedness of Muralikrishna are stuff of legend.

I think Sudarshan had told me this one in which Murali went to the market on his mobike. After finishing his work he forgot that he came by bike and took the bus back home. After reaching home he remembered that the bike is still at the market. He then drove another two-wheeler to the market to fetch the bike. When he reached the market he realized that now there were two vehicles and only one driver (himself). A friend of his had to come and help out.

In another incident Murali (yes the same one), went to watch a movie but at the ticket window he pulled out a soapbox instead of a wallet from his pocket. If that was not enough he insisted that it was a wallet that he kept in his pocket when he left home and it must have turned to a soapbox en-route or something. The wallet was later found on his wash-basin in the bathroom which he must have used before leaving for the movie.

This one (and I'm an eyewitness to it) is about another colleague Praveen Shamain. This was the time when we had just joined Infosys and going thru the orientation and stuff. In one of those gatherings of about 200 people the speaker was explaining the life insurance benefit offered by the company. So the scene is something like:

Speaker: You will pay xxx amount as a premium per month for yyy years. In an unfortunate event of your death the beneficiary will be entitled to zzz amount. Something the latter will have to claim after the fact. Blah...Blah...Blah...

Pretty clear right? Well, to everybody except one. When the speaker asked if the audience had any questions, Praveen raised his hand and,

Praveen Shamain: That is all very nice but how many times can one claim this benefit?

Not every detail may be accurate and there are some embellishments to the stories so if you remember a better account, do post it.