Monkeys On Crack

Corporate workshops are an interesting place to meet new friends and catch-up with old ones. Sometimes, they also provide interesting insights into human behaviour.  Usually, these sorts of workshops are conducted in huge meeting rooms with dim lighting and most of the times they are climate controlled so that those who feel like it, can have their time away from the stressful work environs. No wonder, people come out refreshed from these workshops most of the times…unless, you have been unlucky enough to have arrived late and have to take the seats in the front row. Almost as if by rule, the last rows fill out first.

You can usually categorize the folks who come to these workshops into three categories: Regulars, Nodders and Newbies. The regulars have been in the business for a while and know what to expect from a workshop and they always arrive 5 minutes before the workshop starts and occupy the seats in the last row. Once the lights are dimmed, they doze off. The nodders come in a little early and usually occupy the middle rows, they are usually seen chatting on their laptops, playing on their mobiles. But, they are always nodding to whatever the trainer says. Newbies are full of enthusiasm, probably attending their 5^th or 6^th workshop, in the hopes of garnering some knowledge from the wizened trainer.

Everything/Everyone is neatly categorizable in these things and calmness of the waters is not disturbed, usually. I sit somewhere close to the end and doze off if, the workshop is boring   In one of the recent workshops, I found a disturbance in the force. There were a couple of attention hoggers, who were always against any point made by anyone. Suddenly, the regulars were murmuring. The nodders stopped and were looking to find the cause of the commotion and the newbie’s had no clue what to do. It was at first, interesting then it became irritating and finally they became irrational like Monkeys on crack. My cerebrum was agitated, as it could not find a fitting category for these new primates. It was reeling under a volley of irrational responses from these obvious twits who would not listen to reason. God often works in mysterious ways, we had a tea break. I could not muster the courage of stepping back into the workshop after the break. I could now realize the pleasure of sitting in the reception lobby listening to FM radio, 94.3 no song baar baar