kokoroZendo

In- Out Hamza was quite a famous character in our village / town, the hero or villain of many a legends. In Kerala, it is really difficult to distinguish where a small town ends and where a village starts. As with legends, it is also difficult to distinguish rice from the chaff. One thing I am quite sure. Every time I heard it, the story line got better. The most authentic one, I guess was how he got that moniker. It was said, that he got so fascinated by the In – Out board he saw in front of the Medical college’s professor’s private clinic, he got one for himself even before his caretaker could buy medicines as per prescription. Soon he had started using it 100 %. Even he used to step out his home to the front yard, the legend goes, he used to change the board, to denote the status.

At work every time I used to get an Out of office reply I used to remember about In-Out Hamza story. Probably that made me  spend a bit more time than really necessary, in reading and analyzing  those out of office replies. In my view, it does tell a lot about the persons behind those innocuous automated replies.

There are folks who put in very discreet messages as they are in life. And then there are people who share their Itinerary, especially when their official work takes them to fancy places. (Las Vegas, Davos etc.). Some sound very apologetic being away from work even while they are on their holidays. And some are in good need of a Wren & Martin.

I did collect a few good ones. I know there are people who collect stamps, watches etc. I collect out of office replies. A friend of mine, who knew about this, did send me a note from web which had a lot of funny ones. Here below I am sharing a few of them.

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
3. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99 for the first 10 words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
4. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.
(The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over.)
5.. Hi, I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.
6. I’ve run away to join a different circus.
7. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Loretta’ instead of ‘Bob’

But still I think the best ones are, I was fortunate to get in my own email id.

Sample this.

“If you asked, WATIS it that makes you not reply back immediately?

I’d only say, ‘Yes!’ I am at the WATIS forum on 16/17/18th. 🙂 “

Another…

“I am like a caterpillar today afternoon. On leave!

Like a backward moving caterpillar. In a retreat! Back on Monday. “

And the best one in my humble view

“The full form of KUMBH is – Kurrently Unavailable (My Big Holiday).

Gone to check out the full form of kumbh. Back on Monday. KUMBkHt XYZ :)”..

By the way, he is one of the fascinating, brilliant and creative character I happened to meet in a otherwise “white lagon” world of IT industry. A True fusion of Head, Heart and Hands.

And since he seems to be in mood to attend Spiritual retreats, my list of Out of office replies may get many more good additions.