My Frens At Work Place

The first day I joined my Job I was under the impression as anyone else that finding close frens at workplace would be like dreaming of having a cup of coffee with the CEO of the company(although I guess Karan Johar would be a better substitute!).On the first day of my training I realised tht I was the only one from my college who has been assigned to my training batch….Gawd! I thought there were seven hundred of them from my college who were recruited along with me in the same organization and here I am left alone with these strangers…and whosoever said that the world was a small place must be complete nuts!!So, I started my training with a feeling that I have been completely stranded in a marooned island with lots of aliens around!!
Forty days of training passed by in a ziffy and at the end of it I had got to know just abt a handful of people.We went around together to places which I had just heard of and never discovered although, I claimed to be from the same city considering that my parents had shifted there sometime back.We had a good time pulling each other’s legs and discussing abt our college days and going senti over them….and the 40 days of training got over and I discovered that all those people whom I had got to know or rather was beginning to know have been posted at a different place altogether.So the usual parting happened with promises made to keep in touch through mails (i.e fwded mails included !!) and the goodbyes and take cares and all.And now I was back among a new set of people (aliens is a better word I guess)!!
I was put into a project along with three of my training batchmates whose names I took sometime to figure out….now ofcourse I cudn’t have said “Hi there!I don’t remember ur name…wht’s ur name” considering the fact that we had spent 40 days of training together and I was expected to know all of their names unless I was in a state of amnesia or something of that kind.But, probably that’s the biggest short-coming in me..I just can’t map people’s names to their faces unless I really get to interact with them for quite some time say a week or so.I don’t know but God seems to have bestowed me with the least memory ever possible…..probably when he was distributing memory to everyone I was standing at the very end of the queue and the stock got over just when my turn came.
The initial days just went with hellos in the morn and byes in the evening….and we were being ultra formal with each other.I just used to sit back and remember my days of fun in college and wished I had never passed out …just flunked in all those courses and stayed with my frens!Days converted into months and then into years and then it dawned upon me one day when one of my training batchmate came up to me and announced abt his long term Onsite assignment.I then realised that I did make frens in the workplace afterall…frens who had started off formally but had come quite a long way since then.…although just a handful of them but they were nevertheless there to laugh and giggle with, to play pranks on each other like we made one of them have gobi Manchuria convincing him that it was Shanghai diced Chicken,to share funny things abt urself like one of them is scared of ghosts and messaged at 3 A.M in the night when he was alone in his apartment to say that he can hear lots of strange noises around and is not able to sleep and the other had a problem in having the flow and remembering the right words while speaking and is doubtful if he will ever be able to remember the words “help me” and speak them out at one go if he’s being robbed.We even know each other’s bank balances(just short of knowing the credit card details), we pestered and bugged the one who’s bank balance is negative to treat all of us and took pride in making it more negative,we take motivation from each other for things like giving up preparation for CAT or for applying for a loan and purchasing a bike and joining in the negative balance avhiever’s list,we fight for that one single chocolate which one of them would have managed to secure from someone who had come from abroad in the account and get down to breaking them into equal pieces such that u can only imagine and be happy that u had a share although the taste buds failed to register the minute piece’s taste,we get a warm invitation to the house only to find that u had to wake up the half dressed hosts by bangs on the door and end up having a huge argument as to why it is necessary to take bath on holidays also,we are very sweetly served with daal , rice and egg bhujia(which on usual circumstances at home needed a lot of coaxing and spanking from ur mother to eat them….but was relished on that day like they were some awesome dishes served in some seven star hotel) by those who had never stepped into the kitchen before and who never had the knowledge as to which side the regulator knob of the gas needs to be turned for lighting the stove,filled up each other’s appraisal without even having a clue as to what the other person had worked on,advice each other on where we need to invest money to make savings and get tax exemption without having the faintest ideas abt the schemes and tax policies,watch movies like “krish” together and teased one of them for becoming over-excited when Hrithik was seen giving his heroic stunts to save a circus of fire, imitate each other’s accent and laugh over other’s stupidity and concocted stories till u have stomach ache,momentarily burst of anger and irritation when people are having fun at ur expense,took secret videos when two of them are having a heated argument and making them listen later to their insanity,going crazy over newly bough electronic gadgets and making a display of the madness at any given moment,gossip over each other’s supervisor and discuss on politics at work place and even make secret plans to bombard the organization after shooting all ur module leads,managers and account leads,while away time by cursing every single person at ur work-place over tea breaks,talk insanely abt muddled up plans for ur future,give corn treats to each other not to talk of the dairy milk,samosa,good day and hazar other treats which when looked at might seem insignificant but hold more value than a treat in Taj.And not to forget the whole lot of fwded mails that we keep sending to each other calling each other monkeys and substituting names for characters in the sardar jokes.
Like everyone else I too had a notion that frens end with college days and the word just stays in ur dictionary as a sweet remembrance of the days u spent with them in college.But I have been proved wrong, u can have frens at work place too…frens who seem to be on the surface but are equivalent to ur close frens any day.Frens whose acts u remember and laugh at in ur leisure time…and make people think u need to be admitted in a mental hospital soon.Frens who can be as close to as ur own siblings.And the most ironical thing is it is these frens infront of whom u keep narrating those unending episodes abt ur close frens of school and college and when u go back home the only people you talk abt in ur house is them.The only difference that is there now is that the probability of that sweet or sad partition is high with ur frens that u make at ur work place.U get up one fine day go with all smiles to office and hear that one of them is leaving the organization or that one of them has got an assignment abroad etc and u just have to be happy for them and for the opportunities they have managed to get.U are kind of prepared for the inevitable and u know that they might not even keep in touch later because there would be more responsibilities as time progresses and thousands of priorities in life to deal with.Although with college frens u knew that u had to part one day but u also knew that u all would be leaving and going on different ways simultaneously. So probably that made the pain of parting a lot easier.
Frens at ur work place are like a part of ur everyday life…u live ur professional life with them keeping them miles away from ur personal life but just like how u don’t realise when ur personal life has transformed into ur professional life in the same way u never realise when these professional frens of urs have ventured into ur personal life and become a part of it.U feel sad when u have to part from them but u have to tell urself that this had to happen one day anyways and u just got to move on and probably as time passes more and more such professional frens cum close frens will keep adding on to the list and ur memories too.Looks like God needs to bless me with a little more of memory otherwise it would be difficult for me.Now, most of my good frens are leaving for their onsite assignment….may they be successful .And hope all my other frens also find good opportunities by and by and make announcements abt their farewell treats(prime interest!).And if at all our paths ever cross again(i.e if the person who bragged abt world being a small place is not nuts afterall) hope that my memory just clicks and when I give a find on my memory its able to match the right name to the right face!!

Angels in Disguise!!

I remember the day when I was in 3rd standard and had that lesson on best pals in my English Gulmohar Textbook.That was the day I was taught the literal meaning of “Best Friend”.I still remember how me and my fren , who happened to stay in the same building as mine, signed up a bond for being the best ever frens….bcos that’s what we had thot it meant .We thot we need to sign a declaration stating that we henceforth are to be deemed as best frens.And it all begun with this day…the days of innumerable pranks,stealing money from house for candies,exploring surroundings and especially the neighbourhood for delicacies,discovering how the building’s water tank looks from inside,building doll houses,playing on the window parapet on the 7th floor of the building and being chased by the watchman,climbing trees to get that one guava which seems more precious than diamond also,making secret plans to runaway from home,fighting crazily over Barbie dolls,days when games like lock and key and colour colour were a question of life and death when it boiled down to who should keep the den,exchanging lunch boxes in the school,breaking that one single piece of chocolate into thousands of minute equal pieces such that even an inch here and there will be considered as Pakistan encroaching into India’s border…..and lots and lots of those innocent moments of laughter and only laughter,those tension free days of school, which whenever thot of will always seem like a heavenly dream!!All those moments to which you would like to go back and pause life there…..
Then came days of college where there was a slight transition in the concept of frenship.Frenship now seemed a huge possession….u now own ur fren….someone who is completely ur prized possession.Someone who understands u in and out.Friends at whose door you can knock at 2 A.M in the night and say that u are starving and need food to survive and see next day’s sunrise, friends at whose face u can close the door out of irritation and next day u would hear a knock on the door earnestly trying to wake u up in the morning so that u don’t miss ur morning classes,friends with whom you just break up and don’t talk to for one whole semester and then get back and just say a hi and u would be welcomed back as if it was just one day that had passed without speaking to each other,frens whom you can msg at 3 in the night that you are lost and are just not able to do the coding for the assignment that you need to submit the next day and you would have ur assign ready in ur account the next day waiting for submission,frens who mail you being there in the same campus just bcos u complained that ur inbox was empty,frens infront of whom u can admit that u have butterflies in ur stomach bcos u need to give a presentation tomm and practice saying “gudmorning, I am so and so” infront of the crowd,frens with whom u can laugh over the dumbest movies possible on earth and when every die hard emotional scene turns into a comedy,frens who know in which courses u have flunked and managed to achieve a zero,frens who share with u their secret crushes,frens who have actually seen u with ur hair open ,overflowing toothpaste and in ur night dress right out of bed and would be happy to crown u with miss Chudaeil,who secretly send u roses on valentine’s day and frenship’s day just to see ur curiosity,frens with whom u put night outs for all those gossips and enlightening talks which were considered more informative than the BBC news also,frens with whom u hardly spoke on campus and became ur good pals only after passing out by exchanging mails,frens to whom u send all those fwded mails that really touched you and u know that it will touch them the same way........frens with whom u have laughed , cried, fought , enjoyed and shared all ur moments and celebrated life with.Frens who even now keep giving missed calls at the oddest hrs possible just to make u realise u r remembered,frens who call u back if they feel tht something is wrong at ur end……
Probably even if u feel ur world is complete with a very understanding family…..loving parents and mischievous siblings u still need these little angels to complete ur world.Those angels whom you can call all kinds of weird names ,who are as stupid as you are and who would grow along with you facing all those pitfalls , highs and lows and sail all along with you in the same boat.So, when you are down and dejected and you feel there’s just no one around in the harsh world to comfort you all that you need to do is just look around and there you will find your special world of angels surrounding you and they are always there to make you feel special and cared for.My friends – my world of angels, those special people who I know are always there and all I wish for them is wherever they are just hope they keep smiling and may all the happiness in the world be theirs.