“Hope you filed your IT returns.” I got this blank mail last
week with this as the subject line. I could not help smiling and replied, “Nope.
Need help!!” Within few minutes I got a call from an international number with
a baritone voice on the other side. I don’t remember if he asked about my
well-being, the usual drill after picking up the call. All he said was, “send
me your details; I’ll file it in the weekend.” Oh yeah, after that we did try
to talk but as usual it ended up in an argument and calling names to each
other. I’ve been sharing this love-hate weirdness for the past 5 years now.
It all began when I joined my present workplace 5 years back
where I met this portly spectacled man who greeted me with a faint Bong accent
(he disagrees with me) and a smile that instantly changes the contours of his
face in a pleasant way. He along with other colleagues made me feel comfortable
within no time and today, I owe it to them for making so many good memories. Of
all the people, I enjoyed talking to him for his love for literature, art, books,
music, architecture and life in general. Trust me you don’t find many with such
varied interests among techies. Nothing makes me happier than an interesting
and thought provoking conversation. At one such conversation, he asked me what I
am doing in a software company. He still thinks I’m a misfit here and I can’t
agree with him more.
I was often asked by many at work that how could I get along
with him? Even I wondered. There’s nothing nice about him according to the
usual conventions. He is not soft-spoken, arrogant and has zero tolerance for
people with limited knowledge. Many times generic topics became personal, we
argued passionately and soon the cafeteria turned into a battle field pushing
others into uncomfortable silence or arbitrators at times. This led to many
weeks and months working in silence and behaving as if the other person didn’t
exist (our workstations were adjacent to each other). So, yeah I wondered why I
put up with someone who drives me up the wall.
He knows how to keep me grounded and doesn’t hesitate
calling me terrible sounding adjectives if he thought I made a mistake. He is
ruthlessly honest; though his comments hurt but it’s one of his qualities I
admire. Once I wanted his opinion on a sensitive mail. His feedback was, “humility
is definitely not your virtue and whoever is going to receive that mail will
not recover from the humiliation for a long time.” He was quite upset with me for writing such a
mail but it served my purpose. He moved
on 2 years back, got busy with his new job and since then we hardly met, spoke occasionally.
But he was the first one I called when I was getting the agreement done for my
house. He guided me to reach my lawyer’s destination while attending the
meeting in the car. He read and re-read the documents before he allowed me sign
on the dotted lines, he helped me buy electric fixtures for my house just hours before he was scheduled to fly to the US. He pushed one of his meetings
so that he can drop me home when I wasn’t well, he never allowed me take a cab
late in the night and dropped me home even though his house was on the opposite
side of the city.
Our interests are different; we enjoy completely different
kind of food, hardly socialize, and watch completely different genres of
movies. I can’t think of at least one similarity. It took a lot of time for us
to agree to disagree and stop proving a point.
I’m not sure when will we meet or talk again but, I’m sure
he’ll not ask any reason when I ask him to come over at an ungodly hour during an
emergency. I’ve been lucky to have some wonderful people who continue to be a
part of my life though I talk to them once in a blue moon. Man Friday is one of
them.
