Foot & Mouth Disease

Foot-and-mouth disease(FMD) is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic animals such as cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs.

In humans though FMD takes the form of a verbal disease.(Foot-in-mouth disease)
The FMD in humans may not be fatal but can leave you red/pink/blue or black faced for a really long time.
It is not a seasonal disease but can occur anywhere.. anytime.
People prone to frequent bouts of verbal dysentery are prone more to this than others.

Though i belong to the later category i was taken into the grip of this dreaded disease many times over.

The most severe attack happened to me in office.

It was a pleasant Dec Monday morning in Mumbai and all of us had just settled into our work stations.I got a call from my colleague Sharad who had joined us 6 months ago.Sharad told me that he was quitting and didnt know how & when to inform Rajneesh our GM.I didnt know what to say hence told him that i would speak to him later.

The fact that Sharad was quitting wasnt that much of a surprise as the fact that he had lasted for 6 long months.
I say 6 long months not because the workplace was bad but because Sharad followed the semester system at workplace:moving to a new place after each semester was over.

"Putting in your papers" can be a very traumatic experience,i have done it myself once in my close to 3.5 yrs of work exp.Full of empathy i decided to call back Sharad...lo & behold i forgot his extension number.I was never good at numbers of any kind.I decided to look up the extn no. list pinned near my desk and call him up. Full of wisdom and empathy i dialled 645 and blurted out "Sharad our MD is coming from Delhi Tomorrow i think you should put in your papers today evening instead of tomorrow." I expected a decent Thank you from the other end but to my surprise the voice on the other end said "sale kya bakwaas kar raha hai?" I knew sumthing had gone terribly wrong but it took me a good 3 secs to realise that i had dialled 645instead of 654 which ideally i shud have.
Well 645 happened to be the extn of my GM, whom i had just jolted by informing( inadvertently)that one of his team members was quitting.

I swirled my chair backwards, now facing towards my GM and gestured that i would come and explain.Explain i did and my GM listened to it patiently.
No one thankfully had noticed as to what had happened.
In the meantime Sharad mustered up the courage to inform Rajneesh abt his noble intentions.
Rajneesh accepted it without much fuss...a deviation from what usually happens.

Sharad came out smiling and happy..during lunch when i narrated this to all my colleagues including Sharad, they just cudnt stop laughing.I had become the butt of the joke - that if anyone intends to put in his papers pl inform Shibu first to have a smooth exit.
By the way the Thank You from Sharad did come albeit a lil late for facilitating his smooth exit.

Last but not the least:The antidote to this disease - None: practically.