5.40 PM.... 5.41... the clock doesn’t exactly tick on the desktop. It just alters the digits on the least significant corner of the screen indefinitely oblivious of the presence of others, smoothly, without any hurry and discreetly.
Probably you can remove the last adverb, discreetly, since I have been watching its each movement for the last 40 minutes, without the blink of an eye, not even leaving it for a second, wishing sincerely it to move fast so that I could be out of this air conditioned cubicle to enjoy the hot, humid , breezy summer evening outside as fast as possible.
But, it’s crawling in its own pace , perhaps taking more time than usual.
See, it is still there at 5.42. 18 minutes more to be out of this hell, I thought.
Bored of the hostile movement of the time , my glance quickly moved to the recent neighbour, date.
With the grand announcement of 17th April , the date ridiculed , “Dude , u have a lot more counting to do for me
,tomorrow, the next day and for around 50 more days too” .
I sighed, leaned back on my chair and tried to glance around. The second favourite place to monitor/count sightings at this big boring place just came right across the eye. The large cubicle right in front of my desk. Fully enclosed with the semi-transparent glass, the cabin didn’t have much space but enough to entertain people from the opposite party.
Confused about the opposite party , whom they might be ? Don’t stress your cerebrum in those directions much. I meant clients only, what else you have been thinking?
The room was dark , few chairs were scattered inside along with a small sofa. The large designation plate in front of the door wasn’t clearly visible in the darkness. Most of the people outside the cabin had already left, except few who were still making enough noise on the keyboards to disturb this serene office-scape.
Leaned back comfortably on this uncomfortable chair, I tried to scan the glass room carefully. Lights off, monitor blank, Water jug half empty.
Great, I thought, “He won’t be back, today.”
I was just about to finish the observation of the room; the sight of an object almost choked my heart. Right beside the dumb landline which was still radiating red spectra amidst the serene darkness, there lied another black beauty, but in this moment, the ghost.
The laptop, in its sleeping mode was still out there with its mouth wide open. For some moments, the lids seemed like the mouth of the ghost who can grasp me at once, if I don’t send the regular daily prey, in this case, the daily report.
Oh , the report . How the hell could I forgot to make one today ?
With its(laptop) presence felt, the declaration of threat came in no time “He would be back!!!”
Like proper Hindi movies, although I am not a big fan of them, the last line kept echoing back in the background.
Suddenly , a terrible sensation hit the back, is it a heart stroke? But, strokes are not experienced at the back, my common sense in those uncommon seconds suggested. Terrified enough with the sightings at the front, I couldn’t muster any more courage to look at my back. Paralyzed.. no... The sensation felt again... this time a milder one, I turned back. Oh, it’s my group mate, who is back from his hourly naps. The formalities like why he was beating me and then his subsequently complaining of ‘I’m not beating, just asking’ seemed worthless and irrelevant at this moment.
“Are you done with your daily report?” I asked.
“Dude, Are you kidding, just around couple of minutes left and you are asking about the job of the day. I had already mailed that before my last nap. By the way, have you forgotten today also? ”
Time, day, laptop, and now this entity called ‘Group-mate’; after being ridiculed from all possible corners; I decided to focus upon my computer screen, and this time not on the time/day part.
Preparing the daily report became the need of the hour. He’ll surely be back and would check the mailbox. And after such a lousy day, I don’t have any patience to read the short yet sharp mail from the big fella who unfortunately happens to be not only my project guide, but also the boss around here.
Wish I could really report what I did the whole day !!!
Reached 10 minutes late , went for lunch for around two hours (that wasn’t exactly my fault , the restaurant guys made us wait for an hour and my lazy test buds took the rest lavishing upon an expensive diet) , played a major part in emptying the coffee machine just in three hours along with my group mate , surveyed /glared /ogled /(any other sophisticated words you can put to help you) the mostly decorated desks and their lovely owners , hummed the ‘Pani Da’ song indefinite times, and also , at some point of time used my headphone to save my ears from dying out of unbearable silence . Of course I researched with the help of the web, and made some really foolproof strategies also, how to plan the next weekend in Mumbai and after the summers. But, as usual, the research couldn’t be complete because of the lack of social networking tools. As you know, professional and personal networks come handy while doing a research. And the research wouldn’t have been completed without those stakeholders. Yes, I’ll be completing them tonight, when I’ll reach my room.
See, how dedicated I am to my job, taking that extra mile to serve my purpose.
Anyways, the job needs to be finished. And the clock declared 5.53. The new tab of microsoft outlook opened with the target of scribbling around 1000 words in 7 minutes. I should be ashamed if I can't do it after countless boring seconds spent in WAC classes learning nothing.
I don’t want to be late, I won’t be, and those lovely sights on the Pune malls and roads are waiting for me. I can’t let them down, I won’t. With the thoughts, I ventured to finish the day's work with the tab of google with "synonyms of strategy, innovate, conceptualise and “it depends” " written on it.
Wish me luck .
BM.
