PS - I bullshitted a lot when I start praising what I praised.
August the 6th, 2007. I had just returned from a very rainy holiday from the serene beaches of Goa three days before. A beautiful day this day was, not for the fact that the sun suddenly smiled down on India’s carnatic land that day considering that it hadn’t presented itself consistently since June ended; but because it was a new day for me, a new experience – for I was to start my first full time job in an architectural office. Somehow, I didn’t feel the butterflies that one would normally associate with new experiences, though I did see a few of the beautiful creatures fly by my window. I remember I had told Architect XYZ that I would be able to show up to work on the first week of August, tentatively on the 6th; and this I had told him sometime in May. The thought that he might have forgotten crossed my mind, so, due to this reason (partly) and partly because I didn’t know what else to do, I called him, at 8 in the morning. I think I woke him from his sleep. Why he was still asleep is none of my business.
So I was expected to show up at the workplace at 9.30am. Unlike college, I DID show up on time. As a matter of fact, I actually arrived there 5 minutes early. Again, unlike college, there was no one and the door was locked. I waited a full half an hour before anyone else showed up, and it was my new colleague who led the way into the office (more like a residence, but anyway). I had seen the “office” before during my interview, but now the workspace seemed somewhat weird. Maybe because there were a lot more people then and the silent absence caused an eeriness in me. Then the day went on, with my other colleagues showing up (I knew them from college, they were my seniors), and later with the principal architect making his presence known by giving his first words in the office to me- telling me that that I should watch how work goes on in there for a day or two before I was assigned anything so that I was acclimatised to the situation.
The day went on and on and on and on till dusk arrived. And the next day came and went, so did the next, and the next, and after a LOOONNNG time it was two weeks. I was beginning to get more work, and I had “acclimatized” myself to the office. I went on my job duties as regularly as an architectural employee would, and then, with a warning time long enough for me to go to Alaska and back, it struck me. WORK WAS TERRIBLY BORING!!! I just couldn’t imagine how monotonous work could be before I joined there, especially because I always thought work would be my liberation from college. How wrong I was. It was not fun- it never was. The thought didn’t only strike me once, it struck me again and again till it began ringing in my head. Why was the feeling that all software employees get felt by me? This isn’t right, it couldn’t be. The reason I didn’t do engineering was because of this insane boredom of a desk job. I pondered on, and I just couldn’t imagine why I felt what I felt. Earlier, I had friends to block monotony from creeping into my life; now I had nothing, save my downloaded movies.
I speak for myself when I talk of this boredom. You’d think it this is a one off case. No comes the answer. Judging by what my friends told me, I can safely say that they went through the same phase with little or no difference. Some say they had fun, some didn’t – but then fun is a very loosely used term these days. Yes, sure, we don’t have ANY college work this semester, no design, no ACM, no submissions, no reviews, no internal tests, no exams and only one jury questioning us what we did at work. But still, the work just lacked that teeny weeny bit of character, that little unexplainable thing that could be compared to what makes you like a certain someone - romantically or otherwise - for no obvious reason at all. At college, one has the liberty to take off (read bunk) anytime they want. Not the case here. Maybe the grass is always greener on the other side. If that was the case though, my colleagues wouldn’t be telling me that college was always more fun than work. How could it have gotten so undesirable?
But then again, come to think of it, WORK was not ALL that bad. It was just a little uneventful – like I said, it lacked that oomph. Let me take for example – the amount of time freed up every evening because you don’t have to work on that first floor plan that will be reviewed the next day. Or like the sites you visit (trust me, in college you’ve learnt NOTHING). Or like the times you tell your working engineering friends you get to wear anything you want to work (they have to wear formal attire, for the most part). Or like how you can show off to everyone that you’re working on the airport/supermall/skyscraper/celebrity’s house. So, work at an architectural office is not bad at all, not as bad as it began to sound here at least. It just takes a little getting used to, after all the times you had with your friends. After all, everything good normally has a tiny evil side to it. J
Anyway, its just a matter of a few weeks before I quit work and live a happy holiday for two months (no exams remember?). It feels good and bad at the same time that I have to leave work, and eventually get back to college. Maybe in the future I will look back at this day and laugh at myself. Good (and bad) things always come to end , and pretty obviously, I will miss work and my new friends.
But like most amateur philosophers say – you have to move on. Cheers.
