Friday, February 19, 2010

Fridge over the troubled minds

At my first work place in India , When I was called by my HR for my first overseas assignment, an ode to joy was hummin inside me in C major! and my first destination was to Lisbon.,Portugal

Europe's Western Coast !
Europe!
All I knew about  her was thru my Geography teacher and the weed looks of the European Tourists walkin' down the streets of Cochin. Well the excitement 'n my flight trip 'n the clouds streaks 'n Portuguese cobble stones, all will be blogged later.
This is somethin' else ... I still wonder …. how I wonder….

I was assigned to a small bank in Lisbon . I was workin' on a big hall with some 20 odd people. Everything was new to me. Working in an office full of whites, speaking a language completely Na’vi to me, Even I could smoke at my desk @ work!. So even smokin' was a kinda fun rather not remembering the neuro-science of 't.
Atleast forced not to ..

This bank was on the 12th floor or something and my view was facing the mighty Atlantic. Every day I used to enjoy the sunset.
Every sunset was nature's poetry and was different .
I could sit and watch the horizon until the pole star finally grins on me!

Back to the story,
During lunch hours ,we used to bump to the 3rd floor, the food floor, with different aromas of the Portuguese Cuisine to the kinky junk calories to the grilled Latin steaks …
I was like a kid at an amusement park. Eyes ravin all over, droolin over the menus, jugglin’ with the forks and knifes ;)

The bank people were very friendly to me. So sometimes over a coffee , at a corner of the room, we used to chat bits 'n bytes .Me braggin' about Vasco's en route over the cape of good hope and his burial at my home town, Cochin . (Vasco de gama is from Portugal --> for those who'd slept durin' their History classes;)

Now over to the character of this blog.
Sittin' at a  corner, there is this small fridge with some drinks, fruits , sandwich ..
and I'd seen my good Portuguese Colleagues , over the minutes, opening the fridge and takin' some juice or cola or some fruits. So I was thinkin, well I should also try some cola , (don't drink coffee always) , and ofcourse a bite on some cold sandwich or an apple.

Back In India , Where I worked, we had this fridge with bottled water, but no snacks or fruits at all.
So this was like Super Six star Luxury for me.
So when we Chat at the Coffee corner , I open the fridge , take the cola , sometimes the sandwich or a fruit. This was goin' for atleast 2-3 weeks, even sometimes I used to ask, anyone needs a cola or an apple.

And one day , Red day marked in my personal calendar, I realized the truth.
Those things inside the fridge were bought by my Portuguese collegues which they would like to grab a bite during their working hours ,instead of goin all the way down to the ground floor @ the supermarket. They just buy it during lunch hours or get it from home in the morning!!! ( How can I know these things then ?? Stuffin your own bites @the fridge!, back In India , I never stuff dosa or vada or gold spot at the office fridge!)

Now I understood, whenever I open the fridge and take the thing out, some one in the room will be thinking
" Oh my god! Oh my god! He is taking my sandwich or my apple or even he shares my bottle of coke with others!" and some others will be thinkin , wow! Today I am lucky!

To this day whenever I see 'the' small refrigrator in my office, I still have that urge to take out someone's food and get a curse silently!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Good one Noby! lol!!!!

Unknown said...

Old habits die hard..

Unknown said...

Very good , Noby.. chammal imagine cheyyam

Unknown said...

good one,soo sweet

Nick The Schemer said...

Good one...buurman!