Just another day at...

Second day of morning walk (with my dad) was energizing, no doubt. In fact I have noticed that whenever I start that early in the day, I can actually finish a lot of chores and read the newspaper in detail, (including the ET)…sitting on the pot!

Today Ma wanted me to take the Santro to office and leave the ‘white’ car behind as she had arranged for a driver, to take her shopping… since she is gearing up for Raja’s wedding... She hates me for my elusive attitude towards clothes (specially the ‘chamkila stuff’..). She’d rather have my sister accompany her for such shopping spree…. “Miss Chamko”, as she is rightly named by Mitil di :)

Surprisingly I am having a good day at work…either it is genuine behavior from the ‘opposition party’ or it is the after effects of my morning walk!

Mr. Tikader (a pre-maturely retired Indian Air Force officer, now our Statutory cum Legal consultant) made his weekly visit and showed us his new Blackberry (his Puja purchase)… specially now that he has bagged the PWC account too. We had that extra cup of tea at his cost and watched him talk…..phew!! He is a nice man but modesty just does not exist in his dictionary....guess that’s what makes him unique...

Well now I should ‘close-shop’, Saturday evening beckons me… “Hey Arup please play some cheerful music, not ‘Tanhaee’....had enough of that".

“Tora O ebar badi ja, boss..”, says Biplab, with a cloud of smoke popping out of his mouth…

One Saturday afternoon…

After a marathon phone call with him I just wanted to relax… was listening to some western classical music on my IBM Thinkpad, when he text me and our usual post-scrap messaging carried on for sometime… Life seemed under control... While the juices were working on the Lakshmi Puja ‘bhog', I meticulously updated the ‘Production report’ sheet...

And then, there was a “BANG”! I rushed to the exit door…as soon as I could swipe the card and push the main door open…

The front-bashed, navy blue Maruti 800 was thrown close to the boundary wall of the Tagore House and Manik da was looking dazed... We saw a ‘Tempo’ standing in the middle of the road ...a little ahead to the left hand side with three men in the front seat... The driver of the Maruti car had pulled himself out of his car, but he was limping...He started shouting vehemently at the ‘Tempo’ driver and asked him to get down from the vehicle.... First-aid was provided by our eager office boys...Suddenly a lot of people had gathered. The Maruti car driver called his insurance officer…and the drama began!

I was glad that my dear little WB-6163 was saved, since I park my car near Mr. Sen’s ( our neighbor) house... It was Sourish’s Indica that had a close shave. Apparently the ‘Tempo’ was driving at around 50 Kms / hr (which is too high a speed for Salt Lake roads), when it hit the Maruti at the crossing opposite our office. The rear wheels of the Maruti must have been raised to a height of about two feet, before the car got disoriented. The 'Tempo' had a minor bump near the right-hand door, due to which the driver seat got jammed... This could have been a serious accident...

Slowly the crowd disappeared...we got back to work as it was time for our evening 'tea-break'. Today ofcourse we had a 'hot-topic' to discuss over 'tea'!

Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind...

....i continued to listen to Bob Dylan and flashes of the 'Swastika' sign, (that I drew on the copper pot in the morning, for the Lakshmi Puja) kept going through my head...