The clock showed 8 pm.Doing my summer internship during MBA; I was sitting at my cubicle, trying to rework some concepts. I had worked hard to come up with four innovative concepts, and waited two days to get an appointment with the Vice President to show my work. I had run the concepts through many other managers and all of them seemed impressed. However, the meeting with the VP in the morning hadn’t gone as expected. He seemed to be dissatisfied with, and disagreed with a lot of my work. We had some interesting discussions but I was told to rework a lot of stuff. Had been at at all day and felt extremely tired and fidgety now.
The phone rings. On normal days, it wouldn’t have elicited such a reaction but with the mood I was in, I daresay my heart skipped a beat when I looked at the number. A nice conversation would do a world of good to me now.
It was an ex calling.
A multitude of sweet memories came flooding into my mind. Some people say only the pain stays with you in the end. But I beg to differ. I cherish all the nice times together. There are some relationships where you really feel trusted and valued. This was one of those. In the end it was a pretty cordial breakup with both parties pretty okay with it. Okay, I agree, I was the one who walked away slightly better off. It was an experience which taught me a lot of things, gave me an all new perspective as different episodes in life tend to.
“Hello, Hari, busy to nahi hai?”
“No, No” (Who would’ve said he’s busy, It had always been nice being with you)
The voice sounded a little tense. Memories of dozens of tense days solving some real tough issues together flashed across my mind. Those days were fun. Much more fun were days spent unravelling mysteries and discovering new things. The novelty never seemed to wane. After all this time, I have to agree I feel nostalgic. I loved those days. I sometimes compare those days to the situation these days.
“Well, I’m in a bit of a tight situation. An unlikely situation. I need your help”
(trying to cheer up and sounding helpful)
“Hey come on..Yes..tell me. Nice to talk to you... I’ll do what I can”
“Umm... remember that monumental rendezvous we once had? And we ended up scribbling some words on that sheet of paper?
My project mentor comes in at the most inopportune moment to ask me about the progress. I disconnected abruptly and said I’ll call later and talked to my boss. I hope it isn’t misconstrued as rudeness.
So I call up again. “Hello, yes, now tell me..What about that paper?”
“I can’t seem to find it, and I want it…”
(I couldn’t start imagining why that paper was required now. How is it relevant now? Or wait, is it? Can it be relevant all over again?)
“Do you have any scanned copy of that stashed somewhere on your computer? I need those Minutes of Meeting urgently right now; we’re having a high level final review meeting of the project you were working on.”
My Ex-boss (at my previous organization) sometimes tends to misplace important documents, but I sometimes miss those days.
