Most of the times that line is perceived as Cliché. Nevertheless, I am a fan of it. Not because it sounds nice, but because I feel that all the time.
For instance, I had to move away from my base work-location Mumbai. From my career point-of-view, it was nice to experience back there. However, it is not the memory of nice projects or assignments that makes me feel beatific. Of course, they were important. But, looking back at those three and a half years, it’s the memory of small little things that happened makes me feel lighthearted!
I would not like to sound too philosophical. But, I am kind of filled with the sense of gratitude! For the reason that, I have been fortunate enough to have met some ‘kool’ friends! It’s them who, knowingly or unknowingly, showed me the value of the ‘small little things matter’ idea!
Here, I am sharing some of such memories which keep floating across my mind every now and then. But, I am refraining from naming anyone! After all, what’s in a name?
To have genuine friends in the workplace is kind of necessity. And to have a mentor at the office is great. But, to have a mentor who treats you just as his good friend is nothing short of awesome!! I don’t think I am ever going to forget all his ‘free advises’ (don’t look at me, he used to self-proclaim it so!). I cannot repay him, however, I am determined to help someone else when it is my turn! Passing on good things, that’s a kind of payback too, don’t you think so?
One of the basic necessities of living beings is Food! How can I not think about that constant source of food who had her desk adjacent to mine? She was generous to offer orange-flavored wafers, dry fruits, ‘chivda’, and what not! However, nothing could beat that ‘sabudana vada’ and ‘bread pakora’!
Nevertheless, it’s not at all about the eatables, but the interesting attitude of her that made me respect her. Oh, beauty is just a bonus - good for her!!
And then, away from my cubicle, I had this philosopher and a dialogue king. I am not sure if he is a fan of Bollywood star Govinda, but people nick-named him so! I, at times, used to feel he spoke my mind. Now, that is called some frequency-match!
Talking about frequency match, what do you call a person with whom you had the most number of fights and arguments? An enemy, eh? But in my case, she has been my best friend! In one instance, we are having fun with photo-session during lunchtime, and a fight in another – apparently for no reason! Why? Don’t know, but that used to be our case. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, we valued and respected each other! Sometimes, she used to annoy me with her ‘you need to improve’ suggestions. But, I knew she had only been helping me to be a better person. Well, she deserved a cookie for that selflessness!
I always appreciated her patience in dealing with my irritating reactions to most of the things! Overall, it was an entertainment package of movies, weekend outings, shopping, Ganapati decoration, bhindi bhaji for lunch, never-ending arguments to choose a simple dish from the decade-old lunch menu at a canteen, and yes, the fights! That’s not it, I have one more reason to thank her! She introduced me to her doctor-friend!
Well, not exactly a doctor. A doctor-turned-engineer! An interesting character, with her own stream of thoughts (hey, don’t read it ‘weird’, that’s NOT what I mean there!). That calm and soft-spoken demeanor of her made me listen to her words with full attention. After all, she is the lot more experienced than me in dealing with real-life scenarios!
As Rocky said, “The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows”! You come across all kind of friends. On a serious note, she was the one who supported and helped me when some hypocrites used to troll my peace of mind. Cannot thank her enough for that! Later on, I helped myself to develop an apathetic behavior towards such people and regain my ‘happy times’.
I cannot forget the most hilarious of the lunch-time ‘sessions’ with her! As a typical married woman, with her real-life examples, dislodged my plans of thinking about marriage after 32! She convinced me that, finding a girl and getting married at the certain age is critical! My mother would be proud of her, huh.
I am already tired of typing, but I haven’t covered even half of what I thought of sharing. I would rather stop here, than making it an essay. Not because this blog has many readers. But because I do not want to scare away the handful readers that I have!
Anyways, the things I wanted to share but could not write here could be summarized as: The excitement of occasionally getting to meet and talk to my favorite girl, the gossips with breakfast-group, fun of quarterly team lunch, the mostly-expletive and boys-only banter with gym buddies (of course, when no girls are around!), colorful Fridays at campus (If you know what I mean), the sugar cane juice and that stranger girl, friendship of training batch-mate, Not so uncommon ‘sweets at my desk ##’ messages, Congratulation-pings from friends on release of value innovation tools (those pings weighed more than tools itself!), conversation in native language with “anna”s in cafeteria, Waterfall rappelling, photo sessions, ethnic days. Uff! Even summary looks like an article!
Being said that, I am NOT at all missing those good times and that awesome campus. Just because, I have developed a sense of gratitude that I was fortunate enough to be in the middle of such an exciting group of people. All I now do about that is to recollect, remember and relive those moments in my mind!
After all, they say, you can be as happy as you choose to be. These memories certainly help me to go for the right choice always!
