An ordinary day of an Overseas Executive at Hyderabad

An ordinary day of an Overseas Executive at Hyderabad

By Udayan Bakshi

Making all efforts to measure the tension level of the springs of the newly purchased sofa  from ‘Home Town’, scrolling the eyes through the Headlines of the newspaper  held in one hand and the other hand helped  the nose to take a dip of aroma in the ‘tea gardens of Assam’. Suddenly with raised brows I started cursing India – the politics, the people, the system, bla-bla-bla.

My heart and the smell-sense pores of my nose were on the flow, relishing the “crime and disorder” in the city and the “tea gardens of Assam” respectively- my horse sense knocked me again. I stood aback in front of the clock. Sh.......! Again late!!...for office. Month of November –means winter season –means ‘Dry Wash’ is ok. With all my efforts I ran the Hurdle race from my home, after providing the bare minimum maintenance to the temple called body, to office with a forceful plastic smile to hide my tensions.

Yak! ...the same thing again! The same people the same work. The same schedule.  Maintaining the same thing for the last 10 years. Ya, got a few promotions, but with increments needs  are also increasing. So overall in the last 10 long years proportionately everything is the same. Trying to find out happiness in Discotheque and Theatres, but its again like a crystal of ice in the desert. May be this is life. All do the same thing as I do.

Again I need to meet a delegate from Japan. Good at least my company will sponsor lunch at ‘Taj Banjara’. A new tie-up, a new university. All right, above of all its a chance to see some charming faces in that 5-star rated hotel.

At 2 o’clock I went to the hotel. As there was lots of documentation process I was called in the wonderful suit booked for the delegate from Japan.

While I approached I saw a bright face welcoming me at the door of the suit booked. The person looked too young to be the one I was looking for. I went inside. There was no one but the aesthetic beauty unexplainable.  To my surprise I discovered  the concerned person was the same young exceptionally bright handsome.

As usual the deal was closed. But there was something beyond the deal,  the exotic lunch and the 5-star rated hotel. As the flowing water in a river is always fresh, the twinkle in his eyes and face is always fresh. I thought he had applied cosmetics as I did. But even after four hours of conversation he was  still the same but my ‘fair and lovely – for men’ betrayed me and dark circles around my eyes slowly started appearing.

He was a flow of energy. After having done with the lunch I felt like staying back and listen some more of him, as he was different. Almost of my age but not even a wrinkle touched his face!

Soon we were good friends and I opened up. I talked about my busy life, about the scarcity of time, the same boring schedule and charmless life.

Although his silence , the twinkle in eyes  and smile was bit embarrassing but it was mesmerizing. For the first time I heard ‘Silence- speaking more than words’.

He stood up without exchanging a word and went to the corner where a slice of bread was kept, might  be it was lying there  since the last evening. The moment I entered the room five hours back I noticed that piece of bread kept open since then.  But, but...how could he offer me that to eat!

The moment he offered me something happened in my stomach and brain, may be in his country they eat rotten bread, but how dare he....

I tried to be polite as he was important, and said (acting patiently with a smile)....’but you see the bread isn’t  so fresh’.

He again smiled at me. ‘Aaaaaaa, had he been a stranger in the local auto-rickshaw in the lanes of Hyderbad, I would have made his nose more flat, so flat that Michael Jackson would have envied’

‘Friend, I offered you a not-so-fresh bread, you refused and for the last several years you have been offering your Not-So-Fresh ideas, outlook, thoughts to the society and each one you meet in life. And the result- frustration, irritation, anger, disappointment and so on. For every act in life you get an equivalent exchange of what you give. Its not the other way round. Its inside out and not outside in.’

‘Do you give second rated efforts in the upbringing of your child? Do you compromise with the quality of love and commitment towards your offspring.’ 

‘No. Can’t think of that.”

‘Why?’

‘Because, a,a..its MY-MY CHILD! (Searching for more words)’

‘India and My Country –Japan, more or less started at the same time-1945. You got a brand new future and we got uranium affected land and environment. Everything was devastated. We started from the scratch. We sacrificed everything. As you regard your child, we regard our motherland.’

‘A worker, an employee at Japan says- if I am late at work by one hour, my country will be late by one hour.

‘Success knows only two things – A Sense of URGENCY,  and A Sense of OWNERSHIP. Without that nothing can move you.  And the Sense of Urgency comes from the Sense of Ownership. So when you don’t own something from heart, you can’t and won’t give cent percent to that. And when you don’t give, expected results won’t come. And in a long run you sit and curse situations, others and ultimately the country.  Were you late in your first date with your beloved, your first job interview, or at the first birthday of your child or catching an international flight. If not then please ask yourself –Why?’

‘Most of the Japanese culture is a gift from India- Buddhism is among one of them. We often overlook small things in life. But small things over a long span of time become big. It eats up our morale and at last –life!

The evening ended up  with a little flow of fresh water in my life, otherwise which was stagnant for decades breeding reptiles of guilt, frustration and an ever complaining mind.

The feeling of ownership is everything...and ownership is not ‘claiming rights’ its ‘accepting responsibilities’. Lately but finally I understood.