Sunday Snippets
By Venkatesh Raghavan
This occurred ages back when I was playing the supportive role of lead editor for ensuring conformity and adherence to a style guide meant to cater to the question bank of Microsoft Assessment Certification Exams, in a Mumbai-based multinational.
The exams project gradually became a hit with the Microsoft team after we managed to get repeated positive responses for our endeavours in editing and usage of lucid style. I and my co-editor George Oomen were asked to first obtain our passports and file for a US Visa to visit Microsoft’s Seattle office for supervising the revisions that were made to the text by their Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).
The climax started building when I and George waited outside the US Consulate in Mumbai for endorsement of our Visa applications. I was warned that before I enter the premises I am expected to throw out cigarettes and my lighter as such items were frowned upon by the security personnel. After we entered, I was made to wait a good twenty minutes for my turn to be interviewed by the US team to scan and process my application.
The lady who interviewed me did not seem enamoured by my dress sense. In a matter-of-fact manner she queried why on earth should I visit Seattle for carrying out copy edits. I informed her that Microsoft had a rigorous style guide, namely MSTP (Manual of Style for Technical Publications). All technical content that got penned for Microsoft had to adhere to this rigorous style guide and I had to be present at the Seattle office to ensure that the writers of the content made changes from a technical point of view that got immediately tweaked to become MSTP compliant.
Her next question was why don’t you apply for an H1 Visa? It had me stumped. I was clueless as to what an H1 Visa was intended for. I put on a volte-face and said, “I have no plans to stay on in this company for long. Consequently, my visit or presence would not exceed a fortnight or so. I don’t need an H1 visa for this purpose.” I was just firing in the dark, hoping that what I said made sense to the lady. She immediately handed over the papers to me. After I exited the Consulate and went to purchase my fags, I got to see that I had succeeded in securing a six-month visa.
On reaching home, our neighbour Agrim who was running a travel agency updated me on what winter garments would be required to survive a winter in Seattle. There were also calls from relatives who had settled abroad to give me tips on my proposed first visit to the United States. Just as our next project on (ACE) exams was about to begin, our team along with our project manager got invited to the Microsoft office in the outskirts of Hyderabad.
We were subject to unseasonal showers before our private vehicle entered the Microsoft grounds. On reaching inside, the Hyderabad Microsoft team welcomed us with a barrage of questions that were intended to test our credentials as their vendor company. It went off well after the initial phase with our Content Development Manager (CDM) giving a detailed response that elaborated on our achievements and also the accolades that Seattle had showered on us.
However, the bomb fell just before we left the Hyderabad site. I and George learnt from our Project Director that Seattle was comfortable with copy edits being carried out at our Mumbai office and felt there was no need for copy editors to travel all the way to their shores. This was a classic instance of being penalized for performing well within Indian shores.
*Senior Journalist
