There is a very thin line between just being nice, all the time, even to your boss, and sucking up to him. There is also a very thin line between being nice and simultaneously not letting anyone dis you and working ass off, with no personal line whatsoever, just to please boss. of course, workoholism is a gene that predominantly overexpresses in researchers, so having no social life per se is a given, pretty much.

I realize I just totally go the other extreme and freeze and lose all art of making even remotely coherent sentences if there is something I want, in case I end up coming across as a flatterer or just plain sucking up. So usually, it is very hard for me to ask for anything of anyone, much less a superior. I find even to ask for normally regular stuff is very difficult.

So I end up working and working away. And hardly end up talking, for the most.

No wonder I hardly have time to find my Prince Charming. I might have to end up settling for a Srinivasa or Raghavendra who would read the newspaper, not listen to a word I say while I yell rhetoric questions at the kids. Like why they didn't switch off the lights and turn off the taps...