Pilot Project

I tried to search the web to understand the meaning of Pilot Project. I could not a satisfactory answer. But somehow this term has found its entry into the dictionary of our office as something which is being tried by a person for the first time. To elaborate, it is something which you are trying your hands on for the first time and it is not your forte till now, but you would like it to be. For ex. A software engineer who has been into testing and wants to move into development would consider his / her first development project as a Pilot Project which would launch him / her into the world of Development.

Not sure who is responsible for generating the term, but it has consumed a major portion of our lunch time discussions and has been the centre of lots of our office humour.

Kehat vaibhav suno bhai entrepreneur
Pilot Project ki leela se bacho dear

It is very funny!

We had gone to see Bhool Bhulaiya yesterday. As we had some time left for the show, we started doing some shopping and bought a T-Shirt for me. We took it along with us to the cinema hall. We were greeted at the cinema hall entrance by an employee of the hall who refused to allow us entry as we were carrying a poly with the T-Shirt in it. He requested us to go to the Basement and come back as we still had time for the movie (He had not looked at our tickets till now and yet he knew we had time left for the movie to start. I must admit he was a smart guy - all pun intended). We were in no mood to go 4 floors down to the basement just to put a T-Shirt at a counter and come back. I took the T-Shirt out, put it on and we moved inside. All this happened in front of the guy and he managed a small smile on his face. Seems funny and it is - however the purpose is all lost and suddenly the decision to not allow people to carry polythenes inside theatre seems absurd. They should put up some machinery to check that out. It is not that tough, I believe ................

What certain time means to someone?

I happened to call an Indiabulls representative at 3:25 in the afternoon. Following is an excerpt from the conversation:

Me: Hi Dheeraj, I am Vaibhav calling from Mayur Vihar.
Dheeraj: Hello Sir. (Thinks about a few seconds and then remembers)
Me: I was thinking about opening an account.
Dheeraj: Sir, Can I callback you in 5 minutes. Markets are closing

3:30 in the afternoon is the time when markets in India stop trading, so 3:30 has a special significance in Dheerajs life.

Similarly, in the good old golden days when we used to go to the school, 1:30 in the afternoon was something we waited for. After all, it was the time school closed. This time changed to 2:15 in the winters when the school started late.

People who used to work in the mills waited eagerly for the BELLS to sound at 6 in the evening. You could see bicycles in plenty coming out of the big doors which never seemed to be big enough.

Times of day at a multiple of 3 used to be of significance to movie goers in the past. Shows used to start in theatres at 12, 3, 6 and 9 before multiplexes came in.

After I turned into a Software Engineer, these times have lost their significance. There are not BELLS ringing for me to go home, no time for market to close :)