I blame it on the day. It was unusually acerbic and nasty to me. Of course, it made up for that by allowing me to reach Andheri station by 7:00 and then get a bus to Sion the moment I reached the bus stop at Dadar. But, that acrid taste of what it had done to me at work refused to let me forgive it.
The day began like any other ordinary day: I was at work early and had begun to tie and sew the ends of documents I had left in a lurch on Saturday. Just as I – oh wait, I had also left the monthly report in a lurch as well. So, just as I thought about all this and was delighted by the fact that I could handle all of it, the Executive Director arrives and throws a spanner in my thinking by asking me to take a look at a document that his boss needed in an hour!
“End of morning,” he said.
“End of morning?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do about that,” I said.
“Okay.”
“Did you try to make him realize how difficult a task this is?”
“Yes,” he said and nodded like a bullock, “I did. But it’s hard to bargain with him.”
“Well, he’s being so unreasonable,” I explained, “and you are, too!” I added in my head.
“I know!” came out of his mouth yet again and he nodded his head – this time with his lips set firm as if to convince me that he wasn’t about to go back on his demand.
“Well,” I said, “this really isn’t happening. It’s a day’s job – probably more than a day’s job – and you expect that to be done in an hour?”
“The boss wants it,” and he made that stupid irritating gesture to indicate he had nothing in his hands.
“You realize this is the second time he has asked for this?” I asked, “Aren’t we supposed to tell him this will not do? I cannot keep encouraging this you know. The way my team member is working on it right now – it’ll lead to a burnout and that is not what we want to encourage here, surely!”
To this, he shifted in his chair and went all melodramatic.
“Oh no oh no!” he said, “the reason why she had to work that way is because she was the only one here at that time.”
“Well you realize, ” I began in a tone rather curt,”that even so it’s not an hour’s job but that of a day or more?”
“Yes, but he wants it by yesterday!”
“Really?” I snapped, “If that’s the case, why didn’t he do it himself? After all, it’s just an hour’s job, isn’t it?”
“Well,” he sighed, “he knows it’s not an hour’s job!”
“Then? How do you expect us to finish that in an hour?”
To this, his reply was just a stare – a stubborn, slightly helpless, but rather obstinate stare.
I gave up.
“Well,” I said, “I’ll see what I can do about it. Thank you.” And I did not even look back at him as I walked out.
So you see the day wasn’t good at all. By the time, I reached home, I was all tired and quite disgusted by the proceedings at work. And for the life of me, I could not make light of the matter at all. I was rather piqued that a Britisher of a man would be so easily be reined in by an ass of an Indian who – quite frankly – knows nothing about his job.
Anyway, I got home and began to unwind. I stood in front of the mirror for a while and realized my face looked rather oily. It had these patches of shine that for some reason made my face look like a rag. I knew I had to wash them off and bathe as well. But before I let myself do all of that, I slumped in front of my computer and played Snow Patrol’s You Could Be Happy.
It’s a nice song albeit sleepy and sad – but easy on the nerves. I let it play and as usual Mother Dearest had to remark: “Will you stop playing that? It’s so sleepy. It’s putting me to sleep.”
Before this, she had the cuckoo-caller ring tone and a song clip on her phone being played in a loop. So I told her she had her fill and now she should let me have mine.
And a little over a minute later, I remarked: “Mother, why is work such a drudgery! I feel so displeased doing it.”
She was silent for a while and then her pearls of wisdom fell on me: “Change your attitude, she said, only the lazy think this way. Remember the lazy shall go hungry…”
I switched off my ability and intention to hear her as she strode halfway into that sentence.
“Enough Mother,” I said, “I made a mistake talking work with you. I will never ever make it again. It’s a promise!”
I then played her favourite song and went off to bathe.
