The origin of Bob

As I get my feet firmly rooted to the ground, after that roving reporter Rovaan has drawn a parallelism to Roark, I embark my journey to coin a new word for your - our immediate manager who is affectionately termed as 'Bob', before I head for a week's break. The evolution and description of Bob, and how this character is etched will be presented later. Before getting into the details, I would like to say, there can be more than Bob in your office as you scale up the hierarchical ladder, say Bobs. I never claimed any copyrights for my blog, but for this character, I'd say, I need to be referred if you are using it. You are at liberty to use this word for non-commercial purposes but if you are trying to commercialize on this name, I'd expect you to put a reference to this link in your writing or usage. And last night, I woke up in the middle of the night due to running nose, only to start sketching this character.

My colleague (who sits next to me) and I, were discussing about bosses yesterday and he came up with the word Bob, his previous boss in his previous company, and the very name has rung bells in my cranium. This actual Bob used to sit in the 16th floor of a building and my colleague used to work somewhere in 8th floor of a building. And if anyone does a mistake in the work, and if he still pretended he was flawless in the delivered piece of job, Bob, used to come all the way to his cubicle, fold his hands, put a grim face and would ask you to test it right in front of him - the same section of code that you delivered and pretended flawless. And if you were caught and stranded like a ferry in an ocean, Bob would be giving a wry smile and a wink, and one out of your three lives is docked in the office.

I only had taken the name from that conversation and now am putting my definition to the same. The two B's in the front and the rear of the word B-O-B do resemble human ears to an extent and the big hollow O, through which your F-16 fighter crafts can carry a mock drill, is the head. So, if you blow air into one ear (B), it passes through the shallow hollow head (O) and safely reaches the other end (B), making a resonating noise. So to me, managers are meant to be dumb headed and yet, are portrayed as the omniscient lot of the corporate world. Fortunately I don't have anyone named Bob in my office and if I get one in my future, I might really be trying blowing air in one of his ears. No offense to the name, but one has to find a nick name to his Boss at some point of their time and this is it. I might be a Bob one day as well, so everyone has to get through that phase of life at some point of time.

Typical Bob's characters and deeds can be, you could be given a pink slip by Bob because he came to know that you were making out with Jenna Jameson, the Swedish porn star, in your dreams last night. He got furious with his wife the previous evening and he doesn't want to go home till 10 pm the next day and compels you to stay till late night, even if you are done with the work. Lazy Bob doesn't want to replace his second hand car's tyres with his winter tyres as winter sets in, and asks you to pick him up from his house citing reasons that his car was broken. He neatly tucks his belly and shirt in his trousers and tightens his mouth and lips when he tries to know, some unknown things from you and still giving you ample evidence that he is called BOB for no reason, by opening his mouth. Most of the times he receives credit for the good work you've done and he hardly gives a pat on your back. He is the first one to get rattled and petrified if his superior authority asks him to make modifications in the work, which eventually has to be carried by his team. 9 out of 10 times he supports the management and the only time he supports you is, allowing you to get married, as though he is funding the celebration. Thinks the whole day to grant you leave for half a day when he infact, drops saliva in front of his superiors to get his things done and wont be seen in his chair for most of the time, giving an impression that he is busy.

Cant stop raving about the fictitious, yet nattily dressed, omnipresent character, Bob.I have to put an end to this at some stage. So I am now. One can write volumes of books on Bob, like your Harry Potter series. Incredible Bob is a blob. Outright, I can see one Bob in here, how many do you have?