Not Quite Ideal

Chemistry taught me that ideal gas doesn't exist. Life taught me that ideal doesn't exist. And at times I tend to forget this and hope for, fight for and get all upset if I don't get the ideal. During rare moments of clarity, my subconsience reminds me that ideal is born from an idea of perfection and is never achievable. But that doesn't mean that we stop trying to achieve it.

Take for instance the big debate the country is engrossed in these days: Delhi elections. I support the Aam Aadmi Party and every other day I am engaged in passionate arguments on why they deserve a chance. My shrill statements are often met with reasonable and sensible counter points that they are too young politically, they have set the expectations of the people too high, Arvind Kejriwal might be a good person but the same cannot be touted for his entire party. So on and so forth. I agree they are not perfect. But then, who is? Their aim of making Delhi an ideal state and India an ideal country struck a chord with me. Their ideas maybe a little too idealistic but I, like so many more voters, got hooked on their fiery passion and sincerity. They are far from perfect and have heaps to learn and I want to give them a chance to reach closer to perfection and learn more. How much worse can it get than the current situation?

Another instance. Professionally, I am no where close to my idea of where I should have been at the age of 25. I am almost 9 months away from that milestone and I don't see myself getting where I wanted to be. It is not the company's fault, it is not my fault. I do not regret any decision I made. But I am pacified because I put in sincere efforts to reach where I wanted to be. I might be somewhere midway but I am proud that I reached here on my own. I could have done more. There is always scope. And I am still making efforts. Even if I reach there a couple of years later, it won't be ideal, because ideal doesn't exist. But it will be close :)

More close to home, my marriage is far from my ideal of marriage. Bobby is not the ideal that I had imagined. He has never taken me to a surprise candle light dinner, infact the poor guy can't stomach any surprise. We don't watch How I Met Your Mother together. He probably won't even know what it means. He won't play scrabble with me. He doesn't do the man's job around house.

But we go to street side parantha places in the middle of the night. We laugh till our stomach hurt watching old Sunny Deol movies and dubbed Tollywood movies after work. I wrestle him up every morning and he makes me run around the house giggling and screaming as soon as he gets back home from work. He might leave the man's jobs to me, but he sure gets the vegetables and milk and does the laundry. (*sigh* I love him like a lovestruck teenager)

Point being, ideal may not always be the best. At times, the journey is far more interesting, engaging, eye opening and satisfying than the end point. More important than the end point are the efforts you make to reach there and the rewards those efforts reap.

I have reaped many of them and some are still in the pipeline. I know they might not be ideal. But then, I don't think I'll care much about that till the time I am happy! :)

Where's the fun in that?

Office sucks. If yours doesn't, then you are probably demented, or the boss (which is essentially the same thing). But even though your job is underpaid, you are over - timing everyday and the boss thinks you are under - utilised, paychecks don't come on time, it is ensured that you are made to work on weekends, you get work mail at odd hours.. umm... where was I before I went on my ranting spree? Yes, even though offices sucks, if you are even remotely the kind of person it takes to have fun, office spaces become playgrounds which offer oodles of masti (there is no word in the language of firangs which does justice to the cool sentiments of this desi word). How you may ask? Even if you don't, I'm gonna spill the beans anyway because you would have figured out by now what the blog post is about.

This is my second job so far and at each place I have had and am still having a wonderful wonderful time! And being the reserved person that I can be if I choose to be, that is saying something. And trust me, you don't even have to be cool like me to have fun at your office. Are you questioning where's the fun there? Well, then, it is right here:

1. Gossip: It just had to be the number 1 fun activity. And if you are a woman, then it steals the top 10 spots. The 'subject of discussion' can range from shoes to shoulder bags, from clutchers to clothes, from attitude to behaviour to style of speaking to not speaking to you name it! Where there is a will, there is an issue to gossip about! Every organisation has characters which deserve dedicated gossip sessions. And if there are more than one, then the lunch hour is bound to be a long one.

2. Lunch: While we are on the subject of lunch hour, I'll like to confess that my working hours are neatly divided into 3 slots: Before lunch, lunch and after lunch. And no prizes for guessing which of them is the most awaited and loved. If cultivated affectionately and with dedication, lunch hour can spice up, quite literally, your time at the office. Ooh, the fight over the kadhai paneer, and drooling over kadhi rice, and the amazing chana masala with tiffin full of halwa and poori in navaratra's and keeping an eye on that rare sweet in someone's lunch box's hidden corner... I'm salivating already! If you have a lunch group, then its a plus! Then there are days when you go out to eat. Fighting over where to go, yelling at people to wrap up their work, deciding what to eat and all of this in just the lunch hour! And I haven't even started talking of eating yet! Oh, its 1 PM! Sorry, time for my lunch break. Punctuality is a must! :P

3. Lookin' good!: Just imagine for once that you do not have any office to go to. What would your day be like? You obviously can't go shopping everyday (remember, no office = no salary = no extra cash to splurge), you can't meet your friends (they'll be at work) and there is nothing besides household work to do. I'm sure no one will be a big fan of that. So you just stay home and don't even bother to get out of your pyjamas.On the other hand, you pick a random outfit to wear at the office, and because you woke up earlier than usual, you match your accessories with it. And when you reach office, unexpectedly, your colleagues compliment you. If even a couple of compliments on a regular day can lift up your spirits, then just imagine that if you put a little bit of effort to look smarter, how good it will make you feel. And not just because of the compliments. Because dressing well is known to make moods better. There are studies on the net to prove it. Office gives you an opportunity to wear all those clothes and stuff you shopped for! Otherwise, who'll bother if you are all decked up at home with your kids (who'll end up dirtying you anyway) or in - laws/ parents (for whom you won't bother to dress up anyway).



4. B*tching: I could have clubbed it with 'Gossip' but I did not because it deserves its own space. Wherever there is a group of more than 2 people at a workplace, there is bound to be some bitching. But if done moderately, it is not a bad thing. It, I have discovered, can act as a stress reliever. When stuck in a project, just discuss how XYZ girl was acting all 'girly' in from of ABC guy to get his attention, and voila! You feel rejuvenated! And, its benefits are not just limited to that. It also helps people bond which is a great team building exercise! Especially when you together 'talk' about the boss. Letting go of all that pent up frustration is blissful! I just hope my boss doesn't read it. :P Well, the point is, that bitching at work about work, colleagues, boss, even the office boys, canteen operator or the courier guy is fun. And I bet you knew that anyway.


5. Friends: If you are lucky like I have been, and you make wonderful wonderful friends at work, then your workplace can be a playground if you want! I have shared not just work ideas but clothes; not just suggestions on projects, but life and love, not just brainstormed aggressively on new pitches but also on the next party plan. There are bound to be times when you feel low or frustrated or plain bored. And having friends at work is blissful at this time. They help you vent. And motivate you and when they realise that you don't need motivation and just need to b*tch, they'll totally pitch in too.

There are tens of other things which make office suck a lot less. But I'll leave you to find them out by yourself. And when you do, you'll maybe feel a tad bit better about the place where you spend most of your waking hours. Happy working! :)