Late last year I returned from the US and was still
struggling to settle down in Bengaluru. Sometime in November, I saw an ad about
Library week in office. There were Dumb Charades and Antakshari competitions planned. ‘This is my kinda stuff’, I
thought.
I went to the Library on the specified date/time for the Antakshari competition as much excited
as a kid running to a newly opened Six Flags in its neighborhood. And as
expected, all other participants were freshers.
The guy, my partner who I had dragged along was a 2 year experienced who
cribbed, “I would be feeling terribly awkward to participate along with all
those freshers”
The competition began. There was a team of two girls who
were giggling all the time; they were eccentric, arrogant and over confident. In
one of the rounds, I sang Ram Leela’s ‘Anga laga de re'. These girls objected that I skipped one word, so I shouldn’t
be awarded any points. The judge snatched away our points for that. I got really annoyed
because I believed when you sing a song, there should be leeway for one or two
mistakes. Then whatever song those girls sang, I proved to the judge that all
those songs either had different beginning or they had missed one or the other
word. Then those furious girls walked off in the middle of the competition. May
be they wanted to kill me if it wasn’t office.
Then after that incident, whenever one of those girls, the
shorter one, saw me in Cafeteria, at Library or at parking lot, she gave a
nasty stare. I somehow liked that; the competitive spirit, the burning desire
to win, the pain of loss and the momentary hatred for your opponents. A much much younger person taking panga with me was so endearing. That's how it should be in corporate world, or rather everywhere. All should be equal; no hierarchies whatsoever. At least that's how it is in my utopian world in my mind.
About 6 weeks later or so, I saw that girl in my ODC.
Someone said she was one of the few freshers the HR had promised us to allocate
to my project. That evening I conducted an induction meeting to those new
joinees. After the meeting, this girl came to me sheepishly and said, “Sorry
sir. Sorry sir”
“Don’t be” I said smilingly.
“I’m sorry for my behavior sir”
“That’s fine. I like you. And please! Don’t call me ‘sir’”
“Ok sir”, she said gleefully. She continued, “how about we two
forming a team for the next year Library week competitions?”
“I would love to, but I know one thing for sure. After one
year, like everyone else you would grow serious, and you would say that you would be feeling terribly awkward to participate
with all the other freshers”, I said, this time with no smile.
