Every profession has a way of impacting one’s personal life. Those who work on mill houses become hard of hearing and welders end up with bum eyes in the long run.
More subtle but long lasting are the changes brought about by the so-called white collar jobs. The effect is not merely physical but gets ingrained into our psyche.
Take the case of doctors… we look at Namitha and worry about our blood pressure… a doctor looks at her and worries about her blood pressure!
Being a medical transcriptionist completely changes the way you read. I used to read Sherlock Holmes and dream about sleepy English villages before. Now, I am more concerned about the proofreading errors and punctuations!
Speaking of punctuations, the below incident left me enlightened about the power of a comma, and a reputation I do not care to boast of!!
I often chat with our vendors in Philippines on Skype. One of them (let us call him Jude) became pretty friendly with me.
Last week, Jude popped me to convey that he had been offered the post of country manager for a retail chain and has accepted. As a result, he would be stepping out of medical transcription for the time being.
This man is a firm believer in both God and man and has been taken on a ride by both on more than one occasion. So, I quoted an old Arab proverb “Have faith in Allah, but tie up your camel.”
We both had agreed on how appropriate this proverb is and as we were preparing to say our goodbyes, I conveyed my wishes to his family.
He in turn wished me and my family well and “wanted to convey his wishes to my 14 daughters…..”
I nearly fell out of my chair and inquired whether he had been drinking early in the morning… he replied in the negative and said in a surly voice that all he wanted to do was greet them and not marry them!!
I was thoroughly confused by now and wanted to know where he got this crazy idea from… he pointedly said “from you man … you told me you have 14 daughters.”
I checked myself to see if I was drunk and not being so, proceeded to question his sanity.
He told me in a most emphatic way that I had told him I had 14 daughters and in fact typed it out. So I went back to my Skype history and went through the saved transcripts.
Suddenly… there it was…. I was hit by a thunderbolt!
The conversation in question went like this…
Jude: I have one daughter who is 7.
Me: (I never waste words) Daughter 14.
The comma was missing!! I meant daughter, 14 but missed the comma.
I was thoroughly humiliated and clarified the error to Jude. Immediately, his mood improved and in fact, he laughed out quite wildly for a couple of minutes.
When I got around to seeing the funny side, I laughed too, and we both agreed that it would have been a unique achievement if this had been indeed true.
Jude told me he often wondered before he fell asleep about how I had managed the feat. 14 Children by themselves are unique but 14 daughters in a row? Mind blowing!!
I remarked that I would have been a very tired man if this had happened and he wholeheartedly agreed. We both entered into a discussion about how TV affects the marital life and how Tamil Nadu has a high TV obsession and the government had doled out free TVs to the poor and lowest birth rate. He inquired if the same free TV model could be tried out in a couple of areas of Philippines and I promised to refer him to the concerned authorities.
Feigning disinterest, I inquired whether he had informed anyone else about my faux pas and he said only about 40 people so far…. I cursed him in my mind and remarked that that was half the population of his town … and he quipped back saying that Filipinos and Indians being alike when it comes to gossip… the other half would know by nightfall and by daybreak, the entire Philippines would have a rough idea.
I added a few sarcastic remarks about his ancestry and legality of his birth but he was in too good a mood to reply and kept laughing.
I know defeat when it stares me in my face and kicks me in the family jewels so I said my goodbye and quit.
That, my friend, is how I became father of 14 by the power of a comma.
More subtle but long lasting are the changes brought about by the so-called white collar jobs. The effect is not merely physical but gets ingrained into our psyche.
Take the case of doctors… we look at Namitha and worry about our blood pressure… a doctor looks at her and worries about her blood pressure!
Being a medical transcriptionist completely changes the way you read. I used to read Sherlock Holmes and dream about sleepy English villages before. Now, I am more concerned about the proofreading errors and punctuations!
Speaking of punctuations, the below incident left me enlightened about the power of a comma, and a reputation I do not care to boast of!!
I often chat with our vendors in Philippines on Skype. One of them (let us call him Jude) became pretty friendly with me.
Last week, Jude popped me to convey that he had been offered the post of country manager for a retail chain and has accepted. As a result, he would be stepping out of medical transcription for the time being.
This man is a firm believer in both God and man and has been taken on a ride by both on more than one occasion. So, I quoted an old Arab proverb “Have faith in Allah, but tie up your camel.”
We both had agreed on how appropriate this proverb is and as we were preparing to say our goodbyes, I conveyed my wishes to his family.
He in turn wished me and my family well and “wanted to convey his wishes to my 14 daughters…..”
I nearly fell out of my chair and inquired whether he had been drinking early in the morning… he replied in the negative and said in a surly voice that all he wanted to do was greet them and not marry them!!
I was thoroughly confused by now and wanted to know where he got this crazy idea from… he pointedly said “from you man … you told me you have 14 daughters.”
I checked myself to see if I was drunk and not being so, proceeded to question his sanity.
He told me in a most emphatic way that I had told him I had 14 daughters and in fact typed it out. So I went back to my Skype history and went through the saved transcripts.
Suddenly… there it was…. I was hit by a thunderbolt!
The conversation in question went like this…
Jude: I have one daughter who is 7.
Me: (I never waste words) Daughter 14.
The comma was missing!! I meant daughter, 14 but missed the comma.
I was thoroughly humiliated and clarified the error to Jude. Immediately, his mood improved and in fact, he laughed out quite wildly for a couple of minutes.
When I got around to seeing the funny side, I laughed too, and we both agreed that it would have been a unique achievement if this had been indeed true.
Jude told me he often wondered before he fell asleep about how I had managed the feat. 14 Children by themselves are unique but 14 daughters in a row? Mind blowing!!
I remarked that I would have been a very tired man if this had happened and he wholeheartedly agreed. We both entered into a discussion about how TV affects the marital life and how Tamil Nadu has a high TV obsession and the government had doled out free TVs to the poor and lowest birth rate. He inquired if the same free TV model could be tried out in a couple of areas of Philippines and I promised to refer him to the concerned authorities.
Feigning disinterest, I inquired whether he had informed anyone else about my faux pas and he said only about 40 people so far…. I cursed him in my mind and remarked that that was half the population of his town … and he quipped back saying that Filipinos and Indians being alike when it comes to gossip… the other half would know by nightfall and by daybreak, the entire Philippines would have a rough idea.
I added a few sarcastic remarks about his ancestry and legality of his birth but he was in too good a mood to reply and kept laughing.
I know defeat when it stares me in my face and kicks me in the family jewels so I said my goodbye and quit.
That, my friend, is how I became father of 14 by the power of a comma.
2 comments:
I like your blog, I will read it often!
I like your blog, I will read it often!
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