THE MYSTERYOF THE MONTHLY BLACK-OUT!

Any conscientious youngster who just set foot into the work world and started earning would like to think for a moment on what happened to the ‘hard-earned’ salary, 30 days after its receipt. The girl in our story let’s say Ms.R (for you see the girl is very shy to disclose her name) had similar intentions when she saw her salary account almost empty at the end of the month. Let’s just say this particular musing failed to make its mark upon her mind. In the next few days her mother called her up. The conversation went this way:

Mother: Hey I was wondering if you could book tickets for our train journey to Visakhapatnam.

Ms.R: (uh oh!) Uh? Train Tickets?... Um.. How much would that cost?

Mother: WHAT?! You exhausted all the money in the account??

Ms.R: (How on earth is she so quick on the uptake?) Not all the money.. Not yet!

Needless to say, what happened in the next hour over the telephone conversation was strong enough to make Ms.R sit in one place and focus. What happened last month? Why did she have to bear that excruciating conversation with her mother on her poor thriftiness with money? Among million other miserable thoughts she had at the moment, she was wondering whether she will ever grow up in her parents eyes. Will there be a day when they will think she can handle things in a responsible manner?! The thought scared her for some reason she could not comprehend. So she decided that this month she will monitor all the ‘money flow’ very strictly. Before she sprung into action, she tried to think of what happened to all the money last month. The whole month was blacked out in her memory. She could remember a lot of money in her purse being given away. The receivers’ face seemed to be a blur. She could not remember no matter how hard she tried to. This retrospection however, soon lost its intensity and she was back to her life. However, she carried a promise that she would be observant this time about money.

On another Monday evening when she came back home, she felt a void within her that seemed to sap all her energy. Her eyes refused to see, ears refused to hear, nose refused to breathe. She could feel an invisible hand holding her rib. She was surrounded by a sense of urgency. She had to do something soon. She had to live. She searched her house for something that might help her. She saw a lot of greens, reds and browns in the vegetable tray. COOK NOW?! ARE YOU KIDDING? IT’LL TAKE FOREVER!!

She threw open her doors and ran as fast as she could with all the life within her getting drained. She ran and ran finally found the place where her nose finally agreed to breathe. Then she found something in the air that made her glide as though there were no force that would offer her more happiness than that in the whole wide world. She found herself mouthing the words: “One… One…. One…. One Pani Puri!”

Ten minutes later after the void stopped troubling her, she groaned because now she could remember the receivers. There were atleast ten such pani puri walahs, sometimes the snacks seller in the movie theatres, sometimes this void would accept only strong chocolate truffle or only pizzas or pastas and nothing else for its abatement.

She crumbled down with the realisation of what she had become.

An insufferable FAST FOOD-AHOLIC!!

She remembered with a slow pain taking over her head, all the instances where her hand willingly gave away money to these vendors without even thinking how much it was giving away. She hit herself on the head. How can the hand think?! She should have thought carefully before giving away.

She thought helplessly as to how she was going to stop this the following month. The mind seemed to go round and round, like a dog trying to catch its tail but seemed to find no solution. She wasn’t sure whether she could imagine a life without pani puris, chocolate truffles, rich icecreams, pizzas and pastas. After this blunt realisation, her mind went back on its normal routine.

The next day, it was 4 30 PM. She was back from the plant and a familiar hand caught hold of her rib and her trembling hands caught hold of her purse. She groaned..... This was going to be a tough month...

Since the author has unfound experience in this addiction, she recommends ‘Mother-cooked-food’ as medicine. To others who have a spouse close by, spouse-cooked-food is also a close medicine though it may not be as reliable as the former medicine.

RESPONSIBILITY!

I know! I am a pathetic blogger. Blogs are supposed to be short and sweet and frequent. More than a one year gap in each blog posts does not qualify as even decent. I hope to blog more frequently from now on. However, since blogging is a way of expression shortening it down is not my cup of tea as of now. :)

This chain of thoughts started on my 3rd day of work at my company. As of then, I never had even the faintest notion that I could be responsible in anyway. But then, a gallup online strengths finder test said my first strength was RESPONSIBILITY! Seriously, I didn't think any questionnaire however detailed it maybe could predict a human being so well. Sure enough, here I am 3 months after joining in the company, no sense of responsibility professionally and personally. :P

However, kudos to my company, I have learnt so much about how irresponsible people can be. The corporate picture of the company was rosy and still continues to be rosy. Clean floors, excellent interior designing, excellent cafeteria practices, dustbins everywhere, neat washrooms, the list goes on... Then I came to the Plant where the manufacturing goes on, the atmosphere is as un-international as possible. I agree the plant is in the process of construction of a good interior design but the looks of it is not what I am going to talk about.

When I was a kid no matter what I learnt well, I learnt one thing. If a place is not my house, then it is somebody else's and it should be maintained with the same dignity. It was a painful lesson that I learnt when I was scratching with pencil on the house walls and my mother taught me the lesson with all the thrashing :D In our house, if we drink cofffee in a paper cup then we walk till the dustbina nd throw it there. In our house if mother gives us something to eat in paper plate we crush it nicely and throw it in the dustbin. In our house, we replace the doormat if it is too contaminated with outside dirt. However, in the plant apparently no one has an in-house attitude. Nobody has a sense of responsibility even towards the mess they created.

Every morning I come to the learning center to find the chairs kept astray. Not arranged in the positions they were kept. The paper plates with food and half filled coffee cups lying around. Thanks but I don't eat or drink leftovers!!
Even in college and even here, when I see such insensitive acts, I feel like going and littering the homes of the concerned parties. How much time does it take to walk till the dustbin and put it in there?!
Then once when it was raining outside, I wiped my leg in the doormat and walked in and my colleague walked in without doing so. I left more footprint trails than she did. So much for being concerned about keeping the hall clean!! I assume doormats also come in the foray of projects and viable payback periods!!
I am not highlighting these as a defect in my company. I heard from my friends that the situation is the same in most plants. My question is why do these companies go for an outwardly portrayal of responsibility in the corporate world while it is actually not so in the plants. Either make that dirty or make this neat.
Ultimately, I may not be the one who is putting those paper plates in the dustbin ( though I do it sometimes!). It will be one of those workers. Why should they clean the mess we created? Imagine how much sensible work they could do when they were not arranging our chairs or throwing food residues in the dustbins!

In all my years of academics, I was never an excellent student. I was bordering on average. It was a thing that always pained me. But when I came to college and here at work when I see some superiors who must have proven themselves well in academics, behaving so irresponsibly it really gives me some sense of relief! I did miss on academic intricacies, but I learnt much more crucial lessons in life that are apparently difficult to learn.

My question to everyone who do not put mess in the dustbin is just this:
"How the hell did you pass UKG?? Did you copy??"