Cube

Her cubicle is in a private cozy corner of the department. It has a wide window on one side that lets in abundant sunlight during the day. Her PC is a combination of a sleek looking, Pentium 4, 1GB RAM box, a regular keyboard and a flickering monitor. The mouse is not wireless but the effort to create an illusion of such, by reducing the wire length drastically is worth a mention- never mind the restricted mobility. Her desk is pretty much empty of any docs or books as she prefers to keep them with her all the time. It is sometimes important to know that you have the freedom to read everything possible on earth even though you really never will.

There is a bottle of VASA mineral water on her table that is filled with water from the cooler every day. Since the water is too cold for her, she microwaves some of it and mixes it back with the remaining in the bottle to make it drink-worthy. The AC vent right above her head is the only hitch in her pleasant work life. She is still an Indian thermodynamically and even the five cold winters in the US has not made her any more immune to cold. Her most comfortable room temperature is from 75-85F. Anything below that makes her shiver. An old sweater resting on the back of her chair provides the comfort she needs.

Not all of them come to office everyday, it is more or less a quiet workplace. Other than the familiar hum of typing keys, occasional footsteps and phone rings, the coffee maker at the desk of her near neighbor from middle east is the only music she hears all day. This one in particular while brewing coffee sounds much like someone smoking a Hookah (tobacco pipe). While she was still new at this office, this sound had intrigued her for sometime. Until one day she decided to take a good scan of the workplaces of her colleagues to unearth the mystery.

Life is good with intermittent lunch-time and otherwise unplanned- some finite and other infinite chats with colleagues. Chinese Orange flavored White tea in hot water and sugar cubes add to the zing.

School bus

Everyday, I drive to the university parking lot and catch a school bus from there to my department. Mostly I am carrying a school bag with all my notebooks etc, my cellphone, my wallet and my keys(a single bunch for all possible doors - yes, a single point of failure, I know). Also, during the days it's really warm, I have a bottle of water with me.

As Murphy's law goes, the bus never turns up on time. Either I have just missed it or it is late. Btw I am a punctual person and have a zero-fail track record of being at places at the right time. Same for this one. To make things efficient I even have a log on my cellphone to record the timings of the bus arrival every single day. The subsequent data analysis has been in vain with the following conclusion- The bus arrives at any time despite the scheduled timings. So in my case, the worst case delay possible if I just missed the bus is 20 minutes, and even more if I missed the previous bus and the next one is late. But I have made my peace with it.

This incident is from around a few days back. I was waiting at the bus stop. I had already parked my car. There were others too waiting at the stop for the same bus (nice supportive feeling). Things seemed right. As I reached out to grab my phone from my pocket I suddenly realized that I had left it in the car. I have a habit of keeping my phone plugged in to the charger whenever I am driving. I made a quick reluctant dash to my car hoping and praying that the bus be delayed. But in a hurry I left my bag at the stop. Luckily my car wasn't parked too far and within a minute I had my cellphone in my hand. Starting to run back as I turned my head around now I realized it was time to be Muhammad Ali -I saw the bus speeding into the parking area. I ran waving my hands hard, trying to make all possible gestures to catch the driver's attention. The bus came, stopped and then started moving. I kept making gestures while frantically running towards the bus. Finally the driver saw me and although the bus had moved past the designated stop, it slowed down to a halt. I felt so happy and lucky and ran towards it.

It was then that I remembered that my bag was still at the stop, which was now behind the bus. So here's the funniest scene of the century- I am hurrying towards the bus with my hand-waving and all, the driver patiently waiting for me, and then I run past the bus! There is utter confusion on the driver's face and the bus starts moving again. And there I am grabbing my bag and running after the bus again hysterically yelling to stop. The bus finally stops again. The door opens. I board the bus catching my breath while trying to give out a beaming smile. The driver gets it and is laughing. I say "Thank you" with a lot of gratitude on my face and he smiles back, nodding his head in acknowledgment and then finally comments, "I am sorry, I had NO idea what the heck you were trying to do!"