This is an article I wrote for the Monthly News Letter of our business group at Cadence.
Some puns/cracks might be lost on non-Cadence folks
The editors of the news letter are called Detonators - as the newsletter is called Ignite. I was the detonator of the month, so pretty much took the liberty to write anything I wanted … Here goes. ..
We all know M.M.C Teria is the most popular and loved employee of Cadence India. We meet her every day, yet all of us know so little about her.
Which is why this time around, the detonators decided to interview her. Here are some excerpts from the great conversation we had with M.M.C Teria - known as the Mirch Masala Café Teria, or just “Cafeteria”
Detonator (D): Teria, thanks for talking to us. Tell us something about your family
Teria: You know them all very well. My husband, Kit Chen, works 24×7, for CDSI. His work is mission critical for Implementation Group employees because it is his team who ensures that the meals they get is rightly balanced in terms of Dutrition. My daughter - Kofi Mc Chines works all over the CDSI campus, and has constantly received appreciation from all Managers for keeping their teams awake. My elder son, Sam Wichkiosky, works with me all day and basically earns bread for the family. My youngest son, Count Erlyve has just joined the Cadence community, is already being liked by everybody. Our family owes its salt to CDSI, and vice versa.
D: That is some family dedication. I must appreciate it. But I have a question - You just mentioned that your husband is responsible for Dutrition. I have never heard that word, what does that mean?
Teria: I can understand, especially you - who has the ability to make Microsoft Word crash by just running the spelling checker on your documents. Dutrition is defined as amount of nutrients in your food which impact your ability to perform your duty. For example, more tasty food would be eaten more. More food is eaten, more lethargy sets in. More the lethargy - less the productivity. Hence it is imperative to ensure that the food is never delicious, but always edible. It is a tough task.
D: You have been around for a long time; tell us more about your career progress here.
Teria: Well, I joined Cadence when I was very young, and could serve only 15 tables at a time. I and my husband both had a leisurely life then. However, with time new buildings and new engineers were made, and the tables turned. I was given the role of Mirch Masala and now had to do much more than just work as a Cafeteria. My job responsibilities now additionally included comms meetings, parties, celebrations and table tennis. With time, table tennis and large scale parties have gone. But my work is as hectic.
But I really enjoy this work.
D: So what is the best part about your work?
Teria: The best thing about working as Mirch Masala is the technical contribution to issues of national and scientific importance. For example my husband’s research on Dutrition is being used by many companies world over. Also the Indian Army had borrowed the Rotis made by our family for creating edible bullet proof vests for the war zone. My daughter Kofi’s work has been cited as the standard for studying true randomness by many universities the world over. You see, you can never predict how strong or light or milky the next cup of coffee would be.
The other enjoyable thing is the daily gossip I get to hear. Even though it is the most non-enclosed area in CDSI, the implementation group employees think of the place as the talking point - the best being something called lunch one on ones. These are one on one meeting of an employee and his or her busy manager. I say busy, because the poor guy has not other time left in his calendar than the lunch time.
However, the employee attitude in these one on ones is deplorable. The first issue they come up with in these meetings is the quality of the food. Why beat around the bush? Ask for your promotion or salary hike straight away, I see no value in dragging my family into this.
D: So this irks you the most in Cadence?
Teria: No, that one is not a core issue. The core issue is the FM channel they play all day all night. The worst of DJs and RJs and “Ouell Frands” kind of announcers get on my nerves. And nobody even listens to them. The other problem is a certain section of Implementation group employees, who find something very funny with the lunch. I hear loud laughter interspersed with two minute long giggles. These are annoying as well as personal attacks on the contribution of my family to this organization. Also I want to tell all Implementation Group employees and their friends in other groups - the cafeteria food is not bad - it is designed that way to keep your productivity up. You should thank me and my family for all the promotions you get due to good work.
D: You are getting all built up, lets relax and ask you some quick fire questions -
Teria: Okay shoot, but do it quickly (the lunch time is about to start)
Your three favorite movies: Mirch Masala, Roti and very recently Garam Masala
Your three Favorite books: “The Chicken Soup Series”, “Who moved my Cheese” and “Radio Crackling, Radio Gone”
And finally, your favorite sport: Table Tennis, what else?