Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Cought with pants down(the climax)

So this is how I got my leave approved. Taking such leaves has its own disadvantages. You can't risk being seen outside. Its like a house arrest. I had heard about it from seniors, now it was the time to experience it. My days only began after 8.45 am. Time at which all the Maruti employees are inside, or late. Before that I couldn't even risk being seen in the balcony. Not that I am a camera shy superstar but one little glitch could ruin it all. I had a good reputation in the company you know, to live up to.

On the first day it seemed like I had zillions of days ahead of me to prepare for the dreaded exam called CAT. I decided to do something I always wanted to do but couldn't because of lack of enthusiasm and initiation. I took up some book, I think it was the Alchemist, or was it the brief history of time? I don't remember. Because I didn't finish the book. I read a lot of newspapers. I realized how long 24 hours can be. Lunch and dinner was supplied by my food caterer (dabba wallah) at time, so I didn't even have to walk out of the house for any thing at all. This is something I was very particular about. I didn't even open the door when someone rang our bell. Reason being, most of the time it was for my land lords downstairs, apart from that I didn't want to come out and sign any courier receipts which will leave a sign of my presence at the scene of crime. So this is how I passed 4 days, locked up inside the flat.

I think it was Wednesday night when my cousin-sister called me up and said she needed to hunt for flats in Gurgaon. That meant I will have to accompany her. That's fine, but I was on Agyat vaas. But what the hell. I was safe to move out of the house as long as it was between 8.45 am and 5.30 pm. All the people I worked with were too busy to come out of office during these times.

So Thursday noon it was the first time I ventured out of my flat after Saturday. I and didi went to n number of property brokers and saw n^m number of flats. It was horrible. Some places were actually not worth living. And the good ones were out of budget, whatever. Soon it was past 3. Even though my deadline of getting back into my shell was quite away I started feeling like a nocturnal vampire before sunrise. We wrapped up for the day. We were in the middle of the busiest market in that area then (sector 14). I was walking, and what did I see? Actually, who did I see? 2 of my dept seniors walking towards me with hands full of packets from Omjee sweets. One of them lived upstairs and knew my little secret. The other one was even more senior and I mostly worked under his guidance. Both of them smiled at me, as I was at them. One of them had the expression saying, "Ab tera kya hoga kaliyaaa, huhaha". The second one was just ."achchha, to ye baat hai!!!". Anyway we stopped and greeted each other. The first thing he asked me was, "aa gaye?"I told them we were looking for a flat for my sister and even asked the second senior who had just married about options to look from. In a minute I came to know the reason they were here. It was about a dept mates farewell party. They were having it today in tea time. And they had come to collect the food. Of all the days they had to have it THIS day. And of all the days I had to come out here THIS day. And of all the hours I had to come to THIS place at THIS hour, THIS minute. What are the odds?

After they left all i could think of the worst repercussions of this which went to the extent of me having to resign before I had planned to, owing to strained relationship with my department. After seeing off didi, I was soon at my room when I got a call from a colleague in Maruti. This is exactly how the conversation went. "Hello", Hello, Rohit?" "Hi, Naveen! :( " "Kya kar raha hai?" "Kuchh nahi, time pass" "Kahaa hai?". I knew by this time his intention behind the question, still I said,"Ghar pe" and he said, "Kaun se ghar? HAHAHA". He was an addition to the number of people who knew my secret. And now I had no control on the population of the species! In my imaginations I could see it growing at a wild pace.

The next 3 days were spent by me in terror. I was too scared to even try finding out the damage that had been done. I just kept mum and imagined the worst possibilities. That's almost all I did at home and soon I was in my office on Monday morning. To give credibility to my well thought of, faultless conspiracy I was carrying some Prasad which didi had brought from Muzaffarpur. I was greeted with smiles. I reciprocated. In some time i realized that only three people knew about this episode, the number had not grown. I was relieved, but also realized probably I had taken a huge risk. And the whole week I didn't even study, out or boredom and fright. Basically on returns for the risk. And using the theories of financial management a risk which wasn't worth taking.