Kid back in family
At office these people poured in as I sat editing in the cafeteria, only in McGraw hill office is there this family like feeling, people don’t leave once they join, (true for the last generation, not the present one) and McGraw-Hill exploits the fact, they do not give due promotions/ raise...people stay anyway. these oldies came and met, it was left unto me to treat them as elders or friends, I chose the latter. This Kashmiri guy came (very good looking, somewhere around 50), and I got up from my seat to shake hands and said our Kashmir ka hero is here J…considering the conventional environment in McGraw-hill that was an impossible statement and since it was so very impossible everybody laughed.
Since the meeting with the unapproachable manager was still a few minutes away I invested that time in going up to those very familiar people engrossed in papers/ comp screen and looked in to their faces - scared them…loved the scared-shocked expressions as they cognized my stupid face after so long, suddenly. Never had so many people scared of me in single day ; )
The meeting with the unapproachable guy was interesting, he asked me what I was doing these days to start with, as a formality…I told him about the next five years of my life in 5 minutes. I had mentioned algebra and computing in my talk…coincidentally the books to be edited pertained to the things I had mentioned (lucky chap). I told him that everybody thinks it is a pain to see him promoted, and he said he knows it “I am the bastard…pain in the neck” I said no…it is just the pain they feel, in abstract, since you got so many promotions. Also told him that he had softened down a bit since the last time I saw him…he asked me if it is good or bad …(!!) I said it was just spiritual to be soft, Gandhi’s ahimsa may not be a positive quality at all times but yeah it will be a spiritual quality at all times…is this your handwriting I asked…yeah, very bad eh? ...I just smiled.
Unapproachable guy had taken a print out of a whole chapter and asked me to edit the first chapter and dispatch it to him after a day or two, and then they will give the manuscript if they approve of it. “I would just sit here in a corner and come back before the day- end I asked, he gave me the look that said ‘people do what I say’…with my speed I can do it right away, no need to take it home, me went on. OK don’t loiter around he said eyeing me as if I was a nasty kid…umph ok I will sit in the cafeteria…'u can sit here'…I will sit in the cafeteria I said without listening or comprehending his offer to sit in his grand cabin, sit with Shubha he said pointing to the desk outside the office…I will sit in the cafeteria again I said without listening or comprehending…ok he said (I give up) as if he could not trust to let me out in the open, I will talk with everyone, he knew it…everyone came to have coffee in the cafeteria one by one and dropped over to my desk (tough to edit the pages with so much distraction, but I did it man), canteen boys said 'Pooja mam' talking amongst themselves … guys you remember me, Cheers! I shouted from my desk-indecent, they would have thrown me out of the place for doing that had I been a regular employee, but they are my client now, am the freelancer. edited the first few pages, brought out the generic mistakes in the text…as we discussed the syntax and semantics there was mutual appreciation for each others intelligence, though each of us thought oneself smarter…he liked it and I got the manuscript to edit” Unapproachable guy …happy guy, he’s got a new haircut…switched to very short hair, I noticed and c=vocalized at the same time as he sat looking at the script I had edited…too much nuisance to take notice of he must have thought and just smiled helplessly
At office these people poured in as I sat editing in the cafeteria, only in McGraw hill office is there this family like feeling, people don’t leave once they join, (true for the last generation, not the present one) and McGraw-Hill exploits the fact, they do not give due promotions/ raise...people stay anyway. these oldies came and met, it was left unto me to treat them as elders or friends, I chose the latter. This Kashmiri guy came (very good looking, somewhere around 50), and I got up from my seat to shake hands and said our Kashmir ka hero is here J…considering the conventional environment in McGraw-hill that was an impossible statement and since it was so very impossible everybody laughed.
Since the meeting with the unapproachable manager was still a few minutes away I invested that time in going up to those very familiar people engrossed in papers/ comp screen and looked in to their faces - scared them…loved the scared-shocked expressions as they cognized my stupid face after so long, suddenly. Never had so many people scared of me in single day ; )
The meeting with the unapproachable guy was interesting, he asked me what I was doing these days to start with, as a formality…I told him about the next five years of my life in 5 minutes. I had mentioned algebra and computing in my talk…coincidentally the books to be edited pertained to the things I had mentioned (lucky chap). I told him that everybody thinks it is a pain to see him promoted, and he said he knows it “I am the bastard…pain in the neck” I said no…it is just the pain they feel, in abstract, since you got so many promotions. Also told him that he had softened down a bit since the last time I saw him…he asked me if it is good or bad …(!!) I said it was just spiritual to be soft, Gandhi’s ahimsa may not be a positive quality at all times but yeah it will be a spiritual quality at all times…is this your handwriting I asked…yeah, very bad eh? ...I just smiled.
Unapproachable guy had taken a print out of a whole chapter and asked me to edit the first chapter and dispatch it to him after a day or two, and then they will give the manuscript if they approve of it. “I would just sit here in a corner and come back before the day- end I asked, he gave me the look that said ‘people do what I say’…with my speed I can do it right away, no need to take it home, me went on. OK don’t loiter around he said eyeing me as if I was a nasty kid…umph ok I will sit in the cafeteria…'u can sit here'…I will sit in the cafeteria I said without listening or comprehending his offer to sit in his grand cabin, sit with Shubha he said pointing to the desk outside the office…I will sit in the cafeteria again I said without listening or comprehending…ok he said (I give up) as if he could not trust to let me out in the open, I will talk with everyone, he knew it…everyone came to have coffee in the cafeteria one by one and dropped over to my desk (tough to edit the pages with so much distraction, but I did it man), canteen boys said 'Pooja mam' talking amongst themselves … guys you remember me, Cheers! I shouted from my desk-indecent, they would have thrown me out of the place for doing that had I been a regular employee, but they are my client now, am the freelancer. edited the first few pages, brought out the generic mistakes in the text…as we discussed the syntax and semantics there was mutual appreciation for each others intelligence, though each of us thought oneself smarter…he liked it and I got the manuscript to edit” Unapproachable guy …happy guy, he’s got a new haircut…switched to very short hair, I noticed and c=vocalized at the same time as he sat looking at the script I had edited…too much nuisance to take notice of he must have thought and just smiled helplessly
posted by Pj at 7:22 AM
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