Life in a Girly Cubicle

      As I sit now in my empty cubicle with a cup of cardamom tea, I remember the last one year in office. I can still hear the voices, "Oh! Ganguly is out on a single digit figure once again." What a wonderful year it has been for me. It gave me two of my best friends.

      The year started with me coming to the cubicle. I was a bit apprehensive and it seemed that everyone was senior to me. Soon, people around seemed friendly as I ventured into the corporate world. Swathi was very helpful in making me understand the project and getting on with it. I still remember that day when Prashanth came to us and introduced Chandni to us. Soon, we all were friends. We had a great time throughout the year. Sometimes, I missed being with guys but other times, I felt good when other guys would give me "lucky guy" glances. In fact, letting out a small secret, many-a-times I was asked to exchange my seat with others.

      Swathi was a real tomboy. A fan of Dravid, the only girl whom I know who did go-carting and followed cricket so intently. The cubicle erupted on match days when Tendulkar hit a six, or someone (you know who) got out on a duck. Chandni was though, not much interested was drawn usually drawn into the event by us.

      Chandni on the other had was as calm and cool as her name suggests, until you spell her name wrongly :). She was the latest entrant to the cubicle, thus Swathi and me liked to pamper her on various topics ranging from "How to do a BCC" to "How to save taxes". In all, you can describe Chandni as a good person.

      We had an unsaid rule in our cubicle. If someone brought sweets, that person would save at least one each for the other two people. Another queer thing was that initially, we were in the same project but later in the year, as we went to various different projects, we covered the whole bunch of PLM competencies, namely; Ematrix (all), Teamcenter (Swathi), Enovia (Rahul) and Windchill (Chandni). This prompted me to name our cubicle as SRC (source to the PLM group).

      The year went on smoothly with trips, parties, movies and all sorts of stuff. Sometimes though, I got annoyed with with girltalk like discussions on tv serials etc. On such occasions, I did what an average Indian guy would have done. Put on the earphones and pretend that he did not exist. Other times, I joined in the discussion and changed the topic (you know, I am very good at changing topics:)).

The year ended quite abruptly with both of them moving out of the cubicle within 10 days. And although I hate changes, as one of them said, "Change is the essence of life". If someday, I happen to write my autobiography, these two friends (or you may say girlfriends on a lighter note) of mine would go in as my two angels; two individuals who changed a lot in me. With them, I came to learn a lot about the feminine-psyche. How they think and how they approach any situation. If you are reading this blog, I wish you both best of luck in all your future endeavors.

And as my NEW cubicle-mate sneezes WITHOUT saying "Excuse me", I would like to end this blog of mine, as usual, with a few lines.

"Hum, rahe ya na rahe kal
pal, yaad aayenge yeh pal"