God teaches you lessons in the art and science of humility in weirdest of ways! Just when you are under an ego-driven notion of being “self-sufficient” and “self-reliant”; the mischief maker in God, it seems, jumps out of nowhere and pulls the carpet of ego from under your feet to trip you off-balance! I am certain that the events that transpired this Monday were played out by destiny to hammer the message in my Bong brains that I could also be at the receiving end in the world of favours! Hold on! Please do not presume that I will narrate a series of heavy and gory incidences and events straight out of a tragic novel in which I am the egomaniacal villain Gabbar Singh who is humbled by the handicapped Thakur! Calm down! God is not so cruel to me after all! God, it seems, uses the sword of humour to stab the Bong ego 🙁
Well, now let me tell you what really happened on this crazy Monday!
Not that I expected Monday morning to be particularly exciting; yet I did not anticipate Monday to be so maddening while going off to sleep on Sunday night! When I woke up on Monday morning, I did not anticipate that I was about to take a roller coaster ride into the world of my little tragedies and consequent favours. This is how it all started! As usual, despite putting my best foot forward in waking up on time; despite going off to sleep at 10:00pm on Sunday, despite setting up an alarm of 5:30am that snoozed after every 10 minutes, I woke up at 8:30am consequently ensuring that I would be super late for work! Being highly superstitious about starting my day on a positive note, I repeatedly indulged in the self-talk to calm my-self down, that I could still reach office on time, if only I manage to get ready and get going in 30 minutes! Hell no! That was not meant to be! I just grabbed my cell phone to check the FB/Twitter/Mail updates, (A morning activity which itself ensures that I while half an hour at least), I got a call from my maid that she would not come on account of heavy rains! I peered out of the window and told her in an accusing tone “But it isn’t raining here in Andheri West, please do not lie”, to which she immediately retorted, “But it is raining heavily in Andheri East, come and check…” and disconnected the call! I was flabbergasted! What the heck! How could she be so cruel!
Ask any working women how she fees in case her maid does not turn up on a MONDAY morning! YES! MONDAY MORNING! It is the tragedy of the highest proportion for any woman in general and a working woman in particular! Any man who wants to settle scores with his wife should ask his housemaid to take a leave on Monday morning! All that the aggrieved man needs to do is to look at his wife’s face when she figures out that the maid won’t turn up! The expression on his wife’s face would be God’s answer to all the tortures that he may have suffered at his wife’s behest! To my aggrieved mind, it appeared that my husband would have asked the maid not to come! But that poor creature was still sleeping and not staring at my aggrieved face! I knew that my imagination had got into the driver’s seat and was about to speed off in full glory!
Holding the reins of my imagination, I woke up my husband who was sleeping like a baby and asked him to help me with cleaning the house! My husband, having made a pact with mess, informed me in sleepy voice that the world would not come to an end in case we allow the house to remain messy on Monday! I was stricken when the realization dawned on me that my husband fully forgot my love for cleanness in semi-conscious state! In my esteemed opinion, this was adultery! Forgetting your wife’s likes and dislikes is far worse than cheating on her! I lost my temper and yelled at the poor creature who had no intention to get out of bed! He woke up with a start and started staring at me like a frightened puppy! Looking at his frightened face, I regained my composure and requested him to pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee help me with cleaning the house! I never imagined that I would be compelled to start my day by using the word “please” and end my day by thanking every one that I would come across in the course of the day! I supervised at regular intervals when my husband was mopping the floor while I was cleaning the utensils! He glared at me a couple of times while mopping the floor. I glared back and continued cleaning the utensils hastily. After I was done with, I inspected the rooms to ensure that my husband had cleaned the rooms to my satisfaction. After having grudgingly conceded to myself that he indeed was good at mopping, I thanked him profusely to which he gruffly replied “Hmm” and went off to sleep again! I thereafter got ready in a state of daze as I was already running late by 1.5 hours for my work. Not that it was something new, but on this particular day, I atleast had the chance to affix blame on circumstances and not on my habit of whiling time early in the morning by reading novels and self-help books 🙂
I jumped into the first auto I saw on the road without bothering to check whether he was ready to ply me till my office! The Rickshwala gave me a stern look and asked me to get down. I returned the stern look and warned him that I had noted his number and that I woul lodge a complaint against him if he refusd to drive me to my office! Having left with no other option, he grudgingly turned on the ignition and started off! I thereafter started off my morning ritual of dialling my mother in order to have my early morning gossip session! So lost was I in my gossip session that the Rickshwala had to honk loudly when we neared our office. While gossiping with my mother at the time of getting off the rickshaw, I completely forgot that I was supposed to pay the fare! When I started walking towards my office while happily chatting with my mother, the Rickshwala jumped out of the Rickshaw and blocked my way and said, “At least have the decency to pay my fare. Look at women these days; they are out there to cheat us poor rickshwalas.” While he was ranting out loudly, my colleague who was passing overheard the ravings and ranting of the Rickshwala and gave me a cynical look of “Look at this cheap woman!” I went numb out of embarrassment and hastily started searching for my wallet! After having searched for my wallet, I realized that I forgot to keep my wallet in my handbag! I looked at the Rickshwala and then in my handbag. I again looked at him and then the handbag and yelped out of panic! The Rickshwala had his moment of glory now! He figured out now was the time to settle score for having forced him to drive me to my office. He said, “I knew, you never wanted to pay. Don’t make excuses. I will lodge police complaint against you. You are a cheat and fraud. You want to rob me off my money” My head started spinning! Cheat and Fraud! I never anticipated that somebody would levy allegations against me for a paltry sum of 70 Rs! I told him, “Hold on hold on, and please calm down. I will pay you your money with interest! Don’t worry! I immediately called the same colleague who gave me the “Cheap Woman” look and asked him to lend me 70 Rupees! My colleague came down and walked towards me with a swollen chest as if he was a king walking in a village where people were throwing fresh flowers to welcome him! It was my colleague’s moment of glory now! He looked at me and then smugly gave a 100 Rupees note in my hand and left after saying, “Keep the Change”! I felt like tearing off the 100 Rupees note but immediately realized that the Rickshwala would have lodged a complaint against me if I did not hand him the money! In the wretched and confused state, I immediately handed over the 100 rupees note to the Rickshwala and fled off after shouting at him, “Keep the change”
After entering office and after ignoring the teasing glances of all my colleagues who were by now aware of my spat with the Rickshwala thanks to the exaggerated narration, that, I must admit, was entirely true about the incident by my big mouthed colleague who loaned Rs. 100 to me; I walked upto my work station and settled myself. After having settled myself, I switched on my laptop and noticed the red light low battery status! I immediately started searching for my battery and the realisation dawned on me that I forgot the charger at home! I thought I would break down! I
Would the saga of seeking favours ever end today? It appeared highly unlikely! I feared what was in store for me today! I meekly asked my colleague to lend his charger to me for a while! He gave me an amused look and handed over the charger! I tried focusing on my work and just said a small prayer to ensure that the day would pass of smoothly! But God, having decided to inject small doses of humility in me, it seems, had other plan! I got a call from my cousin just when we were about to break for lunch. I went to the cafeteria while chatting with her and was simultaneously engrossed in the ritual of emptying my tiffin content in the microwave plate to warm my food and place it in the microwave. So lost was I in my conversation that I fully failed to notice the burning smell from the microwave. Suddenly, I notice 20 pair of eyes staring at me and then the microwave. I panicked as it stuck me that something was burning! I immediately opened the microwave and discovered that I had burnt the rotis! It turned black like charcoal and the smell of burnt ash wafted in the cafeteria! Some people started laughing under their breath. I felt like running away! What was happening! When I sat for lunch with the burnt rotis, all my colleagues took one roti each out of their tiffin and placed it in my plate. One more favour for the day!!! I hurriedly ate lunch and tried getting out of the cafeteria. In my haste, I twisted my toe and banged myself off the cafeteria door and fell down! This was freaky! I sprained my leg and was unable to get up! Two of my colleagues came running towards me and helped me get up and took me to my work station. Another favour in line! People were raining favours on me left, right and centre! Throughout the day, I sought my colleagues’ assistance in getting up and walking whenever I had the need to on account of sprained leg! Seeking favour while going up till the Xerox machine; seeking favour while walking up to the meeting room, seeking favour while coming back to the work station, and seeking favour while wanting to use the loo on account of needing someone’s support while walking!
While leaving for the day, like a fool, I failed to remember that I did not carry wallet and forgot to again ask my colleague to lend me money again! When I reached my house in the evening, it dawned on me that I had forgotten my wallet and even skipped taking money from my colleague. The watchman of my building saw my plight and came forward to pay the rickshwalas fare! So, I ensured that I took favour from the watchman of my building as well!
At the end of the day I realized that I needed favours from every single person I met on this particular day! Right from my husband, to the Rickshwala, to my colleagues, to my building watchman! The idea of being self-reliant and self-dependent fell off like a pack of cards L I was humbled! I realized that the God of humility was smiling at me. I guess he succeeded in driving home the point! The palace of ego crumbled on the grounds of humility! I permanently lay to rest, the fickle idea of being self-reliant and self-sufficient!
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