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...

"In the end, everything will be alright. If it's not alright, it's not the end."