NiKhiL's ToPsY tUrVy DaY!

This post is written at the request of my better half, Mr. Nikhil Thakur. He had a lousy day and felt everything was messed up and wanted to write about it but found he could not, so he asked me to write it out for him. Posting it here was my idea. If he had a blog, he would have posted it himself!

I think I got up from the wrong side of the bed this morning. I was late for work. My shift was tiring...6:30 Pm to 3:30 Am. Usually I get free around 4:ooAm and am sitting in a cab home by 4:15Am and am home and in bed by 5:45Am, mostly because of the lack of traffic at that ungodly hour. Just BPO employees and other companies working in collaboration with the U.S.A...Indians are not quite human see, if we had more money, a better infrastructure and “power” than the US, it would be the American’s who would be staying awake as per IST [Indian standard time]. Then again, Indian’s can solve their own computer [and other] related issues themselves thank you very much. Itna dimaag bachche bachche ke paas hain yahaan...paisa nahi toh kya?

Anyway, this particular day was scary. I’ve joined this new company 5 months ago and we are still on probation. Our training period was nearly over, just 4 days to go before we officially go “on the floor” as Associate Network Engineers. Boy were we excited! That is until our trainer came in today and informed us that not all 20 of us would be going on the floor...only those whose “performance graphs” had gone from the down to up direction, or those whose graphs were up and down and up and down...would be allowed to proceed further. Those whose graphs went downward in a steady way would probably be, well, fired.

A few minutes later, he said, well no actually, we’ve spent a lot of time and money training you so I guess no one will be fired actually, maybe transferred into another training program...no no, probably not fired.

Now I’m a hard worker and right from the beginning I worked really hard because this was and is my dream job and my big break. I was, for the first time ever, at the top of my class...which is why my girlfriend said, there was nowhere left to go but down! While I did not plummet down, others came up, and I was sometimes up, sometimes down...but I thought I was doing fairly well...that is until Mr. trainer kept looking at me and saying this stuff...then again, I was sitting right in his line of vision...and he did say that just because he was looking at me while saying this stuff didn’t mean he was talking about me.

Talk about confusion!

And tension.

Due to the petrol/diesel strike, the company was trying to save money on the fuel and so our cab was delayed by 2.5hours while we just sat there, exhausted, sleepy, tense and cold.

Because we just happened to be present at the office, huddled inside in an attempt to get warm, our boss came over and asked us to pick up extra cases for no extra money! What a treat!! Makes one appreciate the value of overtime eh? Dream job or not, ones mind does tire.

At 6:30Am we finally set off, traffic had begun and then, Voila! The clutch started acting up, behaving badly and in general refusing to work as it should! The gears were not changing...once we stopped the jeep was not able to restart in first gear.

I was tired. It seemed everything was going wrong.

Then there was the whole India –Pakistan- terrorist- blame- shifting- game going on. Not that I’m a diehard patriot...but I do worry about, this mess...these blasts, these deaths...People’s lives are at stake and no place is safe because of some other people’s misguided ideas of right and wrong. Why weren’t we doing anything? Why were we just passing the baton? What are the rulers of these two countries “talking” about since TIME IMMEMORIAL!? How is it that AFTER ALL THIS TIME NO SOLUTION HAS BEEN REACHED?? When it has been confirmed that the captured “terrorist” is indeed from Pakistan, why is nothing still being done? Where are the fellow’s parents? One day they’re on TV giving bytes to the World, the next day they’re hidden from human sight? Why should India create a huge noise about a Hotel blown up in another country? It’s that country that should DO something, investigate, find out a solution...we are responsible for what is ours. How can we kick up a fuss about something related to you when you yourself are not bothered?

What was going on with the world? Diesel strikes, terrorism, inflation, a faulty clutch...

Oh we’re off again, clutch working now! Can’t wait to get home!

Plus some of the guys at work were talk about Nostradamus and they said that Doomsday is rapidly approaching!

Just what this world needs!

As told to Sweta Singh.