It is always said that laughter is a good medicine. When we laugh, every organ in our body is positively impacted. Since our breathing quickens, exercise is given to the diaphragm, neck, stomach, face and shoulders. Laughter enhances the Oxygen content in the blood, thereby improving blood circulation. Another positive thing is that when people laugh, they go red in the face: the reason is blood vessels close to the surface of the skin are expanded. By laughter, you can improve your appetite by burning up calories. Heart rate is lowered and arteries are dilated.
Our offices are big sources of humour, tempting us to laugh. Over the years of service, we come across several instances that make us laugh aloud. It was in the early eighties when the IMF loan was a subject of hot discussion in our country that an employee, having exhausted all other loans, was seeking an application form for an IMF loan from the concerned Department.
Another employee, having exhausted all other kinds of leave applied for Quarantine leave in another instance. In another example employee working outside the home state receives a telegram, quite often, ’your grandmother expired.’ and he proceeds on leave thereafter. This prodded the officer concerned to check, in all, how many grandmothers he had! In just another case, an employee telephones the office and informs he is suffering from a fever to the extreme of 103 degrees Celsius, and the officer is kept wondering whether the employee would be evaporated. And so on and so on.
I still remember a condolence meeting held in the office premises to condole the demise of an employee and pass a condolence resolution. In the condolence resolution, the name was read as ‘Sunderraman’, whereas the person who died was ‘Sankarraman’. Immediately upon hearing the resolution, Sunderraman, who was very much alive and kicking, raised his hands proclaiming that he was alive. Then only the officer concerned realized the mistake and took corrective action. But he tried to outsmart the audience by saying, “One clarification. People in the back would have wrongly heard the name ‘Sunderraman’ instead of ‘ Sankarraman’.Please clarify.
Perhaps in the stationery, the proof was being checked for a particular form for printing. The person was reading out, “The individual will be jointly and severally responsible “.
On hearing it I had a genuine doubt. I raised the issue.” Sir, is it not jointly and severally responsible? That means jointly and individually responsible”.
Then only they checked the original form and revised the matter. Such errors and omissions used to occur at times in the past.
Once a colleague of mine was bitten by a snake while walking through a dark passage on the way home. Immediately he could thrash it with his footwear, and it died. And after walking for a few more minutes, he felt dizzy. Whether the venom has entered his body? He rushed to a doctor nearby and had consultations. Doctor, while examining him, said in a soliloquy ‘If I could know about the family of the snake ‘.
The employee wondered the snake could have a family also.!
“Doctor, the snake family?”
“Yes, I wish to know what variety of snake it was.”
Immediately the employee said, “Doctor, I have brought the dead snake!”. Saying that he brought out a cover from his bag, and opened it to let out the dead snake.
“Oh, it is from the family of Viper! “ he exclaimed and prescribed the remedies.
The moral of the story is that he cannot be defeated even by a snake.
Occasionally, meetings provide some comic relief. In a marketing conference, a manager was assigned to welcome the gathering. But he was always using the expression, ‘ proposing a vote of thanks’. When he had finished, the president of the meeting quipped,
“I think he is more fit for a vote of thanks!”
In a marketing meeting, a sales manager was speaking in English, and it was a laborious speech. Then one of the attendees just quipped. Sir, why can’t you speak in Malayalam? He replied, My Malayalam is still worse.
A motivational meeting for agents was being held. The meeting was about to come to a close. Then the branch manager made an important announcement.
“Yes, we are going to the most interesting item on the agenda”.
Everybody wondered. So many thoughts crossed their minds, and they were whispering among themselves.
“Yes, we are moving on to the most important part.We are going to have lunch”. Quipped the manager, allaying their doubts.
Before concluding, it would be worthwhile to narrate an election story. The Election authorities promptly demand the services of PSU employees, whenever elections are announced. And those who go for election duty narrate interesting stories as well. One employee narrated an incident. In the polling booth, a blind man came to cast his vote, accompanied by a helper. When the Presiding officer was doing some paperwork, a pin fell from his hand and slid to the floor. Since even pins were accounted for, he frantically searched for the missing pin. But he could not locate it. It was then the blind man spotted the pin, “Sir, it is lying just near your right foot.” In another election story, a presiding officer was confronted by his team member’s polling officer. Sir, I always have sound sleep. The presiding officer could not understand the meaning of sound sleep until the person went off to sleep.
And the instances of humour are voluminous, but the constraint of space makes me refrain.
Abraham Kottisseril