Running around government offices, networking with people, traveling during midday hours in the month of May and trying to steal some me time for a few minutes every day. This, in short, has been my routine for the past 20 days. And the more I look back and recollect the things I was involved with, the more I am convinced that these past 20 days have been the busiest 20 days in a while. In the process, I could have inadvertently silenced many of my critics a.k.a. people who know me well enough. That's because people who know me well enough keep telling me that I'm not a guy who likes hard work and so hardly works. According to them, I'm the guy who likes to take it easy and delegates stuff to minions like that guy from the movie 'Despicable Me'. I politely beg to disagree. When push comes to a shove, I act. So if they had seen me running around the way I did these past few days, they'd be amazed beyond words. Truth be told, I was amazed beyond words myself.
To start with, my friends should have seen the persistence I showed at government offices. As a result of this persistence, I was able to get most of my work done at a breakneck pace of a tiny snail crossing a six-lane highway. That in itself would cause them to shake their heads in utter disbelief. Again, truth be told, I myself am in a state of utter disbelief about how I could request, push, coax, be rude enough and still manage to get a move on things and get the job done in days which otherwise would have taken a few weeks (or probably months) to even get initiated. Now I know what it means when they say, 'Truth, sometimes. is stranger than fiction.'
Speaking of which, getting things done in a government office also means working with people. Make that working with a lot of people. And the right people at that. My critics have also complained quite often that I am not a people person. Hah! The guy on facebook with a gazillion friends could not have held a candle to me. Internet social networking might be a skill, but trying to get things done on the same day using proper face-to-face networking at a government office? Now that is a black art. And I can safely say that I am now unofficially a sorcerer's apprentice in this black art. There is still some time before I can be promoted as a sorcerer though.
For all those people, who even after reading all this, still remain unconvinced about my work related skills, I just have one word. Or rather ten. The challenge of traveling by road in the month of May. May is a month of true Indian summer in a true Indian context. Temperatures can soar beyond 43 degrees Celsius (that's 109 in Fahrenheit scale). May is also a month of vacation for schools. Which means it is vacation time for people with children. Which essentially means vacation time for most of the families out there. Vacation time for families means vacation travel. Result: Overbooked trains, planes and buses. Which leaves one with only one form of land transport. One's personal vehicle. But driving a few hundreds of kilometers on a hot summer afternoon of May with the sun blazing down on you through the non-tinted windows is something not many people look forward to. Least of all, me. But then I did drive a few hundreds of kilometers on a hot summer afternoon of May with the sun blazing down upon me through the non-tinted windows. Non-stop. Twice. On two successive days. Not something I'd want to do everyday but immensely satisfying nevertheless. Especially when you know that your destination is coming closer by the minute and there is a nice authentic syrupy sugary liquid called chai awaiting you there like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Well, not to digress from the main topic, it was a journey not many people who know me would believe I'd take up. Ever. But I did.
On second thoughts, it is better that I do not advertise such huge achievements. My critics would never believe me. And even if they did, they would expect me to do more of such stuff every day. I don't think I can handle such great expectations. So for now, for all that effort and man hours I put in for these not-so-insignificant chores, I will have to give myself a quiet pat on the back and silently congratulate myself for a job well done. And recline comfortably on my couch to watch TV. After all, the IPL 6 match fixing saga is turning out to be more exciting than the IPL 6 itself.
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