My father always said, " I invested all your dowry money on your Media Studies, you'd better get a decent job after this." He wanted me to study the course and I managed everything within five in the morning and seven in the evening. You know we are from a very traditional family, and no one in the family went against any parental decisions.
My grandfather was a hardcore vegetarian , when he caught my father eating boiled eggs with his friends he made my old man sleep in the courtyard for three nights and made him bathe three times a day. Till to this day my father brings up the incident every night to ensure we preserve our traditional values.
Some say we all are pickled in a cookie jar ,soaked in dos and don'ts, timed and when time has come for marriage, after having searched, found and negotiated, we will be pulled out from the jar. But this is my life, who are they to comment.
Now I have a job which I got through an uncle who happens to be the friend of some director. When he rang my father up to say, " The girl's resume has been considered, and make her know that she should indulge in no mischief, nor she should make me lose my face."
All was said to my father and I sat beside him with anxiety, with ears all strained to get, at least, a few words. My father suppressed his happiness and said what my uncle said to him on the phone. My uncle did have a reason for being too cautious and stern with his warning; after all I was going to be at the country's biggest Co.
It matters a lot, even cleaners boast about the place among their peers. What we exactly do hardly matters in an age when people only ask you, " Where do you work?" rather than " What do you exactly do?" Any way leave those mind-wrecking things, all that I cared was to make a name in the workplace.
Every morning I read all the national newspapers which report on every movement of every big man and hot lady, from they brushing their teeth to pulling over the blankets over their faces.
In one particular story I was absorbed just like reading Chetan Baghat's mind-boggling books, " Today the PM of our nation appeared in front of a media team and addressed them. It appeared he was happy and in good term with almost everyone. It can be recalled that the PM's colleagues were in bad term with some of the editors. So, today's jolly interaction explained that things are not that bad as they were reported. After firm handshakes in a vocal tone he announced, " We stand here for a change and that change is on the way!!!" just like Barack Obama."
I was enthralled by this line and always look for changes. This is much more relevant with the India people like me believe in; I mean , how could we change the country when no one is thinking about changes? So changes to me are as important as changes in what we eat.
When I started my work at the biggest place I always warned myself to me over cautious as well as to be grateful to the seniors. And I was, you know. The first thing I did in the first week, when I got the chance , was to stand at the door of the boss just like a trembling school girl to announce myself with, " may I come in, sir?" You may say, the man is not a knight, but this is India and that's how we live our lives. The burly man in an armchair, which looked old and dirty as my male servant, was on his God-knows-what-phone talking, I knew he was "executing important decisions" with his " let's elaborate on that later over a slice of pizza."
He knew who I was but he didn't know why I was at his door,I didn't delay. I said, " Sir, I'm here to intimate my sincere loyalty to you and to this organization." The big burly man looked at me with a smile and said, " You will shine here, I know. What's your name?"
In that place I wasn't the only person who had sworn like me. But what was unfortunate was the fact that our " loyalty" to the man and the place was misconstrued as "servility" by few lousy guys. They are those who believe in nothing, but their selves. So you can figure out for yourself what kind of losers they are. And they really are: after having spent a year they don't even know that used paper cups should be disposed in larger bins on corners , instead of the smaller ones below the desks. When you try to point that out they give you this sarcastic reply, " A bin is a bin, despite the difference in sizes."
Then ,they would huddle to murmur the names of "poof" like Plato. My father always said I shouldn't read that man's works. He must be right, after all he is my father.
They left and later on became more controversial, saying things that never came to my mind. If I were to point finger at a reason why our country lagging behind it would be those people, always saying what they want to say and always doing what they want to.
Who cares after all. I still believe in changes and changes, for me, keep unfolding.I can say I've been blessed and loved and promotions have come my way. What else can a person ask for from God? There are more to be done though , fattening up my savings for dowry, loan for a hatchback car, then a two-bedroom flat. I want to see myself beside my chosen-man with beautiful kids running about. And when my kids are grown up I will tell them of what I did in my heydays.
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