One of my brothers- A1, a Mechanical Engineer, has joined the Robotics Department of a reputed firm, as a fresher.
He is instrumental in triggering all my cousins to make fun of me (Though he is the one who would be on my side against rest of the world.)
I remember how I slogged as a fresher-stayed late, worked on weekends and how my cousins would intentionally call me up on Saturdays and Sundays just to catch me working in office on weekends:-) On the occasions when I had to miss some important family functions and reunions for some “high priority” releases (which today I feel as least important & useless crap), how they made me feel guilty and sad for not being a part of all the fun and celebrations. They still call me “World’s first Engineer” or at times “ONLY Engineer” verrrry sarcastically (The fact is we are a family of Engineers- my father and both K1 & K2).
I wish I could explain how they had made me a standing joke!!!
Funnily, today A1 is in the same situation as I was in, a few years ago. Boomerang!
He was posted out of his base branch for 2 months and now it has been more than double the period & he is still hopeful that “this” week is the last week, the release will happen for “sure” and then he would pack his bag and move back to Bangalore.
A1 along with his team is working in shifts to meet the deadlines and make the robots perform at their optimal capacities. He is dying to finish off the project and go back from the client site.
Now, whenever I call him up he talks ONLY about robots-that they have 6 robots in the assembly line, some very obedient-who follow all the instructions religiously, some naughty-who move to right when asked to go left, some dumb-who do not budge even if you break your head, some over enthusiastic…
Many a times I jokingly say, “If a robot stops functioning, they might keep you in its place, coz now you know what to do and what not to. Be careful. I don’t think your employer has good motives 
”
Yesterday I talked to him after quite some days and we had some silly talks that made me laugh crazily so much so that I thought of writing this post.
Some talks and then -
I: Take some time off and look after your health and eat and sleep well. Go out with friends.
A1: We do have some parties…some cocktail parties…
I: ummm brother…
A1: No Di, I don’t drink.
I: Well, ROBOTS don’t drink;)
A1: They do. They drink BLOOD.
Hahahahaha.
Some more blabber. Then a context-based quote-
I: “There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.”
A1: Hey please don’t talk about that binary, I’m mad working with it so much so that when my Manager called me up and asked me about the production numbers, I gave him a biiiiiiiiiig one-all 1s and 0s. He asked me, “Is it really this big?” And I said, “Enjoy the conversion. Why should only I suffer? : P
A1: I think I’ve got dark circles
I: (Hey you stole my line!!!!) Mebe that’s just the colour of your skin eeelll:P
Or maybe when you were fast asleep at your workplace your robot gave you a good punch (Dil Chahta hai – Akaash style remember?).
A1: Hey can we please keep those robots out?
I: (Yuhhhhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuu mission successful)
Useless that is what I’m trying to tell you, instead of asking how I am, or telling how you are, you have told me all about them, huh!
Jokes apart I wondered, here there are people who try to give humane characteristics to robots, there are others who expect humans to be robots. In the office setup, we are expected to be professionals, but are we not human beings to the core??? Or working in front of the PCs, maddened by the passion of money making and emerging as success stories in the “survival-of-the-fittest world”, have we lost the human touch and transformed into emotionless robots? Imagine. Just imagine a world full of such machines. Sounds scary, right? Taming the lifeless robots could still be an achievable task but think of the new species of robots in making.
