Thursday, November 18, 2010

Interesting Times

May You Live in Interesting Times. This is a Chinese curse. It means “may you experience much hardship and trouble in your life”. (Uninteresting time is calm, quiet, and peaceful.) Chinese curses are very interesting.

Having said that, I would like to wish “interesting times” to the following:

Managers for not treating all subordinates equally.

Doctors who order unnecessary tests.

Politicians who do not serve the people.

Doctors who refuse to treat poor patients in an emergency.

Restaurant owners who make employees work even when they are sick. (I don’t care that much about them. I am worried about their transmitting their sickness to the customers.)

Airline pilots who violate the 8 hour rule between drinking and flying. (FAA regulation is 8 hours. Some airlines enforce 12 hour rule.)

Shop keepers who demand a minimum purchase to accept credit cards.

Customers who abuse the liberal "no questions asked” return policy.

Teachers who go out of the way to give lower grades.

Airline stewards and stewardesses who go out of the way to give worst service.

Insurance companies who refuse insurance to those who need it most.

Banks who charge a fee for keeping a checking account.

Credit card companies who change the interest rates and the revolving credit limits at their will.

People who deliberately want to bring down Apple’s stock price. (I guarantee they won’t succeed.) (Little bit of Joe Namath here.)

People who are unhappy because I am happy.

If you want to add some more people to this list, please be my guest.

23 comments:

  1. those sales calls when you are in a meeting and registered with DND services! only one I can think of right now!

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  2. Pretty interesting.

    You like Apple a lot huh.. You might like this statement - An Apple a day keeps Windows away :-P

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  3. Please don't get me started.

    People who do not have please and thank you in their vocabularly.

    Those who have had a total sense of humour by-pass.

    People who become so smug and judgemental just because they have managed to give up drinking/smoking/eating chocolate etc.

    I could go on but won't.

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  4. people who insist on being mean to everyone

    call centres that insist on putting the customer on hold for 20 minutes with "You are important to us" when they actually dont care.

    Oh, i could go on and on..

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  5. Thanks for your comments Neha. That is a good one.

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  6. Thanks for your comments Insignia. And, thanks for mentioning "an Apple a day keeps Windows away". It is true so far. In future it is going to be "an Apple a day keeps Google away".

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  7. Thanks for your comments Tracy. You are absolute right about the reformed sinners (people who gave up drinking/smoking/eating chocolates).

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  8. Thanks for your comments Bedazzled. Will add these 2 to the list.

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  9. Doctors who order unnecessary tests.
    very well written
    i agree

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  10. Thanks for your comments SM. I am glad you liked this post.

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  11. Nice list and interesting to read.

    Sales promotion calls addressing me as 'saar' in a mechanical tone and parroting the words without meaning them.

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  12. Thanks for your comments Sandhya. Sales promotion people read from a prepared text without ever thinking what they are saying.

    I have a story to tell you. One day I got a call saying their company has cheapest international calling rate to India and they can lower my phone bill. I said my phone bills (including my personal international calls) are paid by my company. The guy said: We can beat that. I asked: How? Are you going to pay me every time I call India?

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  13. SG,

    Very good.

    I last one...People who are unhappy because others are happy. It is sad but true. All others are true also but can be rationalized. This one I could never understand why....what bothers people to be unhappy when they see others happy.

    Also I noticed some people are happy when they see others in trouble...they may not say it but I can guess. Sometimes when I am in trouble people call me asking if they can help but they are calling to find out how worst is my situation so that they get great pleasure out of it. Sick. Sick.

    Add-> CEO/CFO/COO work to lower the number of employees (and of course reduce the work output) to increase stock price artificially. I can go on man so I will stop here.

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  14. Thanks for your comments A. I agree with you 100%. There are a lot of people who gloat in other people's misery.

    I always tell my wife if someone thinks that he/she also wants to be as happy as you are, then that is understandable. But them becoming unhappy because you are happy is just nonsense.

    If I buy a BMW and you also want to buy a BMW because I bought one, then it is perfectly alright. But if you have sleepless nights because I bought a BMW, then it is utter nonsence.

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  15. hii SG

    nice post! jealous lots are called 'haasid' and such pple can never be happy in their lives, hasad (jealousy) destroys every positive emotion.

    and I HATE teachers who favor their own relatives and go out of way to make such stupid creeps class toppers.. i have experienced such a thing and it still hurts...nice post as always :)

    and yes the birdies are a family and i love those 2 little ones.. will write a post abt them very shortly :)

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  16. Nice post from u SG. :)
    add people telling u really personal advice without u asking for it!! arghhh!

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  17. Thanks for your comments AS. I synmpathize with you. Will wish these teachers live in interesting times.

    I am so happy that the birdies are coming along fine. I am looking forward to reading your post on this.

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  18. Thanks for your comments Shruthi. We will add these people also to the list. I never give unsolicited advice unless they are my very close family.

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  19. I think you've got a pretty comprehensive list going on here. I would add to it service people who deliberately don't give you a straight answer when you've been on hold for half an hour to talk to them!

    Thanks for your lovely comment the other day, by the way.

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  20. Thanks for your comments Emily. I certainly agree with you. It is irritating.

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  21. I think you have covered most of them. True, life would be so much better without that kind, or do we appreciate others because of them?

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  22. Students who don't want to study, want to be pampered by the teacher, try to get the best grades without studying and write a negative review for the teacher who worked hard for the course.

    Thanks for including my blogs on your roll. Please click on my name for another blog of mine.

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  23. Awesome list SG! Enjoyed reading the post. Interesting times indeed!

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