The Office

Office. I consulted the dictionary, to look up the meaning. I boasted: A place of business where professional or clerical duties are performed. Such a humble definition. I like these Oxford people. they take everything in the straight sense and put it that way. However, in the real world scenario, the definitions broaden a bit. And over a period of time, they evolve. Just as Deprecate (To disapprove of strongly) evolved from the Latin deprecari (to avert by prayer). Nevermind that.

I joined office in August last year. The real office work began in April, per se. Thanks to the training programme we were engrossed industriously in the Year Long Executive Training with arduous perseverance in our efforts. The boss, a Sardarji incidentally, mused over my appointment under him. When I produced my appointment letter, he welcomed me lackadaisically. I, of course, waived off the thing without hesitation, assuming his last night hangover.

I was assigned a back breaker task. It took me a whole week to culminate the task successfully. Everyday, I used to bend my back, right from the start of the day to the end, to meet the deadline. Honestly, it was a treasurable experience. I had made a PowerPoint Presentation on VPNs.

Next, I was summoned. Boss patted. I elated. Agog of my achievement, I partied.

Meanwhile, I spied on the activities of the upper echelons of my department. The person sitting to the left in my neighbourhood was a Smarty. Dressed up well - officer like - and sported a shiny leather briefcase. His profile was equally dashing. He was doing research. The topic was, Solar Energy. With his proven track record on the test tracks of the company, he was entrusted with an ancillary research too. This one was on Ash Utilization. I was impressed. You see, doing research is itself a abstruse task. Doing two - in parallel - is herculean. Moreover, look at the diversity exuded by the man. One area touches the sky the other, lies beneath the ground. The former is another name for clean, perpetual and futuristic energy resource. The laggard latter symbolises murky, unsolicited, primitive and archaic thing, every Power Utility is struggling hard to get rid of. Hats off.

To the right of my seat, there was another fine fellow. I came to grasp - and following that, gasp - albiet later, that he too was a researcher. He was researching on a issue, very common to the Power Engineers. Unfortunately, he found me scratching my head when he announced it. It was Carbon Sequestration. For next half an hour or so, he narrated me about the subject assuming me as a cognoscenti. Withstanding my training, I fooled my conscious and mutated my expressions, to defy the feelings of incomprehension lying just skin deep. Or either, he fooled me that he has understood my ineptitude. This way or that, we parted off with a hearty smiles on either faces.

On fine day, boss demanded me. I promptly appeared. He asked for a briefing. First I thought he was addressing to his invisible but ingenious secretary. Later, I discovered, it was intended to me. I would come to know later that the moron secretary had eloped, without giving notice. With a sudden feeling of cold, I stared at boss. He sported the perennial smile beneath his bushy moustache. I sweated. Then managed to smile back and began. I began with the two phenomenal researchers, I had rendezvous with. Then I told him about the department. While I was about to move to the yet another imaginative script, boss raised his hand with his huge Punjabi palm wide open and facing me. Even though we were three feets apart, I felt as if he banged it on my nose. Finally he spoke. "See me next week", he said. As I turned - with a sigh of relief (and a unsuppressable feeling of being dehydrated of energy)- he added, "be better informed of your own job, by then". I nodded, instinctively.

While I walked through the corridor, I struggled with my memory, frenetically scratching my head to recall when he assigned me a job.