Time: 10.15 AM
Place: crowded AC Volvo bus on the outer ring road
( I'm completely occupied with the 1000 problems that I'm currently forced to face. I'm time slicing and scheduling the processor(Brain) that too a little rusted, to find solutions to those problems)
It's Sarjapur stop. This girl comes and sits on the seat opposite to mine. I recognize her to be an Oracle employee and smile at her. She smiles back.
10.45 AM
I give a break to the though process and look around to find two things. One, we've reached only Bellandur, which is just 4 kilometres from Sarjapur. Two, this colleague of mine, was sleeping.
I continue with the process after the break.
11.10 AM
I get a call from someone introducing a new problem. I'm listening to him intently, to understand if it can be solved quickly. The bus reaches my stop. It is extremely crowded. I tell the caller on the phone to hold on for a few minutes. I hurriedly collect my laptop bag, hand bag and gym kit. I'm struggling to hold the phone in one hand and ID card in one hand and the rest in the other.
The conductor is losing patience, he thinks, "These IT girls, are so slow always and are good for just showing off".
I then realize this colleague is sleeping, when we've reached office already. I request the conductor to wait for couple of minutes and wake this girl up.
All the 214 eyes in the bus are watching me, this girl wakes up, I tell her, "get down soon, it's our office". She replies in a sleepy tone, "I quit Oracle sometime back, I'm now working for a company in ITPL (this place is half an hour from my office) ". I smile back sheepishly and wish her good luck and find my way to the door.
I'm so embarrassed, I hear a few laughs, see a few smiles. The conductor is fuming and shouting at me in Kannada. His last words were, "Please get down. Enough of your social service" :)
