I have never reached Custom house so fast. Yesterday the roads were deserted and the shops were closed as the state was mourning the demise of Dr Kalaignar. No holiday for Central Govt Offices. I was getting ready for office and my son enquired “On whose death will you be given leave ?”
I started as usual and rode on my bike to Office. The situation was very tense with variety of problems and I was thinking where would I get my lunch ! When I entered the custom house gate, the sepoy stopped me and told “Sir Rajaji hall that side!”. I told him “Yar I am working here and have come to office”. He saw me like a lunatic and opened the gate. I too thought of taking leave. But my sixth sense scolded me “No one would be present in the office including your boss (!) and Why should you take leave?” So I packed my ipad, hindu paper, one novel and came to work. As my house was also mourning, I was thrown out without lunch. If I had asked for lunch, I would as well have been placed in Rajaji bhavan or Marina beach.
I entered proudly as I was the first one to enter custom House and found the biometric itself was mourning and refused to work. It often happened in our tech-savvy Central Govt office where the arrangements are foolproof like aadhar card security! In some days we had to stand in queue for 15 minutes and still the machine wouldn’t recognise me like my wife during TV serial time. I ran helter-skelter to imprint my finger prints to all floors including nearby collector office. I could finally mark my attendance at 9.40 am. Feeling relieved, I sank in my chair and found my colleagues arguing about the possibility of holiday in whatsapp group !! I prayed to every God that NO holiday should be given at any cost.
The office was like “booth bungalow”. So I loitered in the corridors like a Gurkha blowing my whistle to find someone to talk. Three skinny people were coming and I asked them “Who are you?” One replied “Skeleton staff sir. Today all commissionerates are working with skeleton staff only”. I went ahead and saw two large/ fat persons coming. I assumed that they must be dinosaur skeletons! All men were in Canteen. Like “work from home” this was “Work from Canteen” culture.
In the normal days itself, getting lunch from the canteen used to be like getting freedom from British. Queue used to be there like Tirupati Balaji darshan. You could get a plate of rice after lathi-charge and teargas was resorted to. Today no one had brought lunch and no shops outside. So lunch coupon was given on MP’s letter only. Canteen staff told that they had sold more lunches today than any other day. I was really happy that my colleagues’ wives also didn’t provide lunch. Normally school going children’s left overs are thrown in our lunch box. But my eyes were tearful when I saw one of my colleagues had the courage to get the lunch made from his wife. I approached him respectfully and enquired. He replied that he regularly came to office after cooking food for the whole day and used to pack his lunch. He had the habit of feeding his first roti to crows. As no crow came that day he had brought that and gave it to me.
Staffs trickled in but all were gents. It turned out to be “Men’s Day” as no madam was present. It clearly showed how much gents are dedicated and value their work and office. They risked their lives to come to office kept the nation ahead of themselves is a thought to ponder. Hope the society recognise this someday and provides lunch at least.An