A Working Day

Bip bip... Bip bip… Sounded my alarm as I, most reluctantly, woke up to begin yet another day of my life. It was a dull cloudy morning. Very humid and too sweaty to continue lying on the already sweat soaked bed sheets. So I dragged myself out of my bed to get ready for my office.

As I strolled towards the bus stop, I found a group of my coworkers already assembled there with the same gloom on their face as on mine, greyer than this humid morning sky. It felt good to find more of my kind and that I aint the only one gloomy around.

My office is indeed a wonderful place. Very well organized, thereby providing wonderful ambience for working. I emphasize this more since I’m in charge of housekeeping as an additional responsibility on me, and I’m proud to say I did a good job. Anyways, I just started my regular morning networking at orkut, facebook etc for the initial half an hour. Then came in my favorite breakfast walla. He asked with his very modest and irritating tone, “sir, you want some tiffin?” I answered in affirmative and there he laid on my desk an old steel plate full of lentils, four Puris and two rasgullas rolling around like two balls on a snooker table. I took a mouthful only to realize yet again that it tastes like shit. But considering my huge appetite and unavailability of any nearby breakfast provision, I just ate it. And thus began my day at work.

The man threw my previous days report on my face. There, in ten words, you have a complete character sketch of my boss. A wonderful human being, with this extraordinary skill of making any living soul, in front of him, tremble in terror. I daresay there are people in this world, men of blood and iron, whom he wouldn’t intimidate with his stern monstrous looks. But if you are a chap like me, fond of a quiet and simple life, you’d simply curl like a woolen ball when you see or hear him coming anywhere near. But, as you know is the law of nature, even a chap like me got seasoned to face the live version of his nightmares every working day.

I asked him “what’s wrong with the report sir?”

He said “it’s too precise. Add details you idiot.”

I just remembered his statement to me the day before when he said “reports should be precise man, to the point. Please avoid such extra details”. Considering this as just a method of causing disturbance to his subordinates, I gave myself some self appreciation and said to him “as you wish sir, I’ll make the report more descriptive”.

He left my cabin with a pseudo gloomy expression on his face and a jubilant walk back to his own cabin. He achieved what he wanted to.

So, subsequently I started elaborating my report. Precisely I had only to copy and paste from the earlier draft of the same which was rejected because it had “extra details”. Only problem was it took me too much time to judiciously prepare the new version including the reordering of points to eliminate unwanted suspicion of my boss.

As I finished, I was happy finally. Looking at my watch I found its half passed 2pm. Lunch break already was over and I missed my lunch. A very bad habit from school days to finish what I’ve started without any interruption. The habit has often landed me into troubles but as said “old habits die hard”.

So, as an engineer who’s finished his job, I went empty bellied into my boss’s room for submitting my report for his final review. He was reading something and hence peered at me with his fierce red eyes from the narrow sleet between his reading glasses and eyebrows. With eye gesture he signaled me to take seat. This wass a bad sign I knew. He’s in a mood to give corrections, and so he did. Soon my black ink printed reported turned into a blue hand written sheet with the preexisting printed letters hardly visible from within.

It took me more time to do the corrections than might have been required by P.G.Wodehouse to complete his Jeeve’s Omnibus. Having made the amendments given, I re-strolled the thorny path to my master’s cabin. This time he was in great mood, I don’t know why. I suppose because he successfully made my day fruitless, me being unable to deliver any output all day long. Finally he cross signed the report and asked me to take it to our HOD.

Our HOD, most politely, took the report from me and said “I’ll see it, come tomorrow”. That’s it. Another futile working day ended for me and it was already 20:45 hours in the evening. My working hours ended at 17:00 hours, so I decided to stay 15 more minutes to claim overstay of 4 hours from the company. It’s a great company indeed at least from this perspective.

On my way back to our refinery township, I got down at the market. I was angry and burning in anger from top of my head to tip of my toe. Then I encountered so many people I knew from office who too were just returning from office. Indeed life has become so miserable but yet we all, so submissively, adjusted to it. Surprising indeed.

I then bought some petty household stuffs for my use and headed to my room. On the way I met a beggar kid asking me for some money. I felt real pity for him and gave him a chocolate I had in my bag. He was very happy and ate it greedily. That one moment of joy imparted made me feel real great.

I went to my mess to have my dinner. Finally went to my room. It was already half passed ten in the night. I decided to fall fast asleep. Several thoughts kept cropping on my mind during this time.

The kid has done no crime. What were his faults then, having born in a slum and being forced to beg for alms all his precious childhood? Why am I so privileged to have been born of such great parents, get good education, friends and a handsomely paying job? Was it my great deeds or was it just luck that landed me here? It took me less than a fraction of a second to rule out the first possibility. It was indeed just luck, and nothing more. God owes me nothing for none of my deeds. It’s us who should be grateful to him for giving us such a great life and means of earning. Bad work culture and harsh treatment are just a few bottlenecks which need to be overcome and overtaken. They are not worth ruining this precious life for. Indeed life is the most precious than anything else in the world. There are people way more deprived than me and so I must be thankful for what god has given me. It made me feel life is not so bad, not bad at all.

I don’t know when I felt asleep.