A Wanderer's Perspective & Random Ramblings

Important to note before you read: The stuff written is a perspective and not an actual reflection. The opinions expressed are personal and are not meant to have any impact on any person living or dead. 


Things have changed. I can no more lay around on my bed on weekdays from 7 in the morning to 8 in the evening.


I need to wake up so that I can leave home by 8:15 AM. The morning drive to the office is not as crazy as the evening drive sometimes becomes. I take the MG road and follow it till IIT turn, upto which life's chill. The moment you take that right turn the traffic starts to get slow and it gets really slow by the time you have taken the turn for Nehru Place and hit it. For no reason whatsoever, for a 3 lane road people start blocking the left lanes, which starts choking the right lanes as well. And the worst part is that on the right lane is a U-turn, which if you take by mistake, cripples you for a drive of good long 30 mins. From Nehru Place till the left turn for Okhla the traffic normally moves like a tortoise. You should call yourself lucky if you go to the 2nd or 3rd gear. The drive finally ends joyfully because once you enter the industrial area, its like butter and you get to take your car to the 5th gear. When I am lucky I hit the office at around 9:20 AM and when I am not I hit it around 9:45 AM.


The first thing you need to revive your energy levels is a cup of tea. You can have a machine tea/coffee and a smoke if you want. The time in the morning is typically very productive. There is less noise as people are either busy having tea or breakfast or just making plans for the day. Until midday its typically a silent environment in most firms.


There are two generic reasons that I think apply for coming late to office(observations - self and others):

• Firstly, mostly people are lazy by habit. I have known a lot of colleagues and seniors who just wait till the last moment to get things started. The problem is that as far as possible we want to enjoy it. The repercussion is that you end up spending more time at your workplace, which leads to leaving late, which further effects the time you sleep and finally the time you wake up.So till midday there are practically only those people who have made a habit of maintaining an early morning schedule arrive office. Majority of the people reach office in between 11 AM - 12 PM. I am not referring to a single firm here.  
• Secondly, psychology changes are bound to have an affect. Have you noticed how your job life is governed by the job life of others? Are the timings that you follow, the timings that your team or boss follows? Do you think it really has to be so? Haven't you thought - Why do I need to come early, when I anyways have to leave late?

Past midday these days I usually am very hungry and by that time I would have already finished a major portion of the work. The lunch sessions are the best sessions in any corporate. It's a sharing platform. You need to discuss something and you typically have food with someone you are comfortable with. When you are with such a person/person(s) you feel like just uploading/downloading all the available information. The greater interest lies in finding out all the so called confidential stuff. For instance who got how much? who is leaving? what happened in the meeting? etc. This is for those who are at the junior levels. The senior level people try to maintain a distance so that they are not caught up being asked questions which they typically don't want to answer. Alternately, they are too busy to have a comfortable lunch. And even here there are exceptions - a rare variety who actually understand the importance.


The lunch is either followed by a short walk/smoke or you end up rushing back to work realizing that there is a tonne of work remaining. Barely an hour or two goes by that you realize that you are feeling quite sleepy. There has to be a tea session in the afternoon, even for those who are cramped with work. It is more of a requirement than a luxury.


The actual fun begins post that. This is time when people actually start working. They realize that if it continues this way they wont be leaving before midnight. So you again have silence for a couple of hours. At the scheduled leaving time, few of those who come early pack up and leave. They face the scorn of those back at work. The problem is that mostly it is thought that the guy leaving early doesn't have work. The reality being, either he actually ain't have any work or he was smart enough to utilize the time and finish his job. Majority of this group includes women. Not that men don't fall under this category. But typically its a socio-psychological factor that women should leave early. The fact is typically that women also come on time and try to work as hard as possible to wrap up their work on time. Men typically have a gala time with them as far as possible and when they leave, they realize that the work needs attention. This is not specifically what happens though. What happens is that men are considered to have the ability to stretch and stick till the time required. They also don't shy from believing so. There are a couple of other factors also.


There are few men who come early and leave late. They are men (there are some women as well) who portray a sense of ownership and responsibility setting examples (can't really say good or bad) for others. There are few men who come on time and are sincere enough to wrap their work and leave on time. This is a particularly weak fraction of the entire population. Either they are damn smart to have the breaks and complete the job in the stipulated time or they are really hard working who manage their time without taking breaks to finish their work on time. More particularly, this is the section of people who are married and have a family.


I try to leave as early as possible. The reason being if I leave late I have face a heavy traffic, which is also the case for a number of people. Driving back home is a tedious affair. The problem in evening/night driving is that people are tired and much less patient as compared to in the morning. You need to make sure that you don't hit/get hit by the random biker/cyclist on the route. What stresses me is the lack of patience people have. If there is the tiniest possible gap, that has to be filled. There is a big jam and the guy at your back is honking for no reason whatsoever. There is a guy who has to take a right turn but he wouldn't be allowed to. The ridiculous part is that people don't realize the fact that they themselves are jamming the road. What will happen if you block the right lane of an open bi-way road? There are instances when its actually a maze. Cars in between cars from all directions and wild honking here and there. Anyways I manage a drive back in about 15 mins more than my morning drive. The best part is parking the car and getting back home and having that cup of tea. You are relaxed and when its Friday you have no pain to think about waking up the next day. It's fun and frolic till Sunday night :D