Work Whispers- Entry 3- The incomprehensible colleague

 It has now been more than a month at work. I was no newer, but the situation around me dint seem any better. I was still a nobody. I was too dynamic and zestful to find myself trying to fit in between an unfriendly crowd on a slow moving bullock cart with an old lumbering ox trying to lead me to an uncertain destination. The thought of others enjoying their roller-coaster journey had made myself feel diminutive and made me repent on my choices that led to this fate. Though sometimes it made me think, perhaps they were in a bullock cart ride too, though they seemed to enjoy doing nothing and slow phased lethargic life. Maybe with better amiable associates in the voyage seemed to be appreciable from their end. They seemed contented with the luck they were bestowed upon, while for me, my journey seemed too melancholic a disposition to be more than tedious. My luncheons were deserted like nothing before, my lunch mates were moved on to other office building some meters away and those who stayed had the luxury of having lunch with their team mates, occasionally I would join them if they hallooed and our timings matched. The prospect of taking a room and staying away from my family had made me feel isolated so much. Though I had constantly been in touch with my family in a regular ritual of a video call every night.

 I had my friend Rama who was not just any other friend, but also my hostel mate, my office mate and previously my college mate. We had just been acquaintance before we joined the same company. She was from my college but in a different location and branch. My college had branches over 4-5 places. We had met and were introduced only during our interview. She and I had been the only females to have been selected for final round of the interview out of 15 boys of who were selected. We both were offered the job and our association grew too. We have bonded well in the timespan and had managed to stay on the same roof. The only pleasurable social moments I had were during our breakfast- dinner time chats and video calling with my family. Had there not been my family (through video call) and her, I was totally cut off from human involvement in my life and would have eventually forgotten the art of speech. We grew close to each other more with the morning walks to our office. We chuntered while we walked to office. Our conversation ranged from current affairs, architectural ideas, to personal private information. I couldn’t accompany her for luncheon as her office building was at a distant. I had cultivated the habit of reading eBook novels or what’sapp my mother during my luncheons to engage myself so that I wouldn’t feel the void of a companion. I now was assigned a mentor from my team by Saravanan, though our verbal exchanges were strictly formal and orbited around technical ideas. I now grew to know my team. It only had me feel more isolated. I was now able to recognise them having lunch together. They seemed very much self-contented to halloo me to join them. If by chance, I encountered any of them, some would nod with a restrained smile and went on to join others, while others would break our eye contact readily and swiftly moved on. I was not offered to join them though I had to pass them and have a seat during lunch. I glanced at their joyous lunch and continued my lunch in solidarity with my novels and virtual chat on whatsapp with my family. I also spotted Saravanan with his own set of companions matching his cadre. Days passed as years, I started despising my monotonous life especially lunch breaks.

One fine day, while I was speculating about my fate in my head, heard a voice interrogating about me “Are you a new comer? Nice to meet you. What’s your name?” The sudden interrogation by a colleague took me by surprise. After my introduction she happened to introduce herself as ‘Suhidharwara something’. I did not register her last name, not that I did not pay heed to her, but the first name by itself had its touch of complexity to be remembered and was brief enough to be remembered. She appeared to look old for her age, when I later discovered her to be in her 30’s.  While a day later, I Sindhu joined me for lunch, while Suhidharwara approached us and asked Sindhu “Why oo dint cal me for lench? “. It was only then I took a notice of her incomprehensible English accent. Tough she appeared to have a unique accent which included many other languages in a conversation, she seemed to be sweet. Her conversation was very tough to comprehend, so I had to pardon myself for each line and decrypt its meaning to understand. Her talks seemed as complex as her name sounded, sometimes much more. I felt like old dumb creature staring at her explanation for the second time lip-reading her sentences to comprehend its meaning. The second repetition proved no advantage and was a squander. I was vexed at my inability to perceive anything and turned my eyes towards Sindhu and co to see how she bore these attacks. Sindhu seem equally startled and vague. To not seem silly, I interrogated Suhi about her not having her lunch with other team mates. She answered desynchronising “ OO! U no remembur me? I that day you met and traduced. I do work in same company in ur floor“. I repeated the question until she understood with the help of sign language and asked her about her usual lunch schedule. She said “ Is tharah se… you should know… I have eato  with tom…my tom is no good. Tey like that.. you know……(searching for words to fill in) …..i alone… no go to eat… u eat? I love this Indian dish … it good. I prepare them… you kno I no bring lunch from home… too busy for me….so take it here… sometimes tom… u what tom? All good? My tom was.. jaise no ….log…. blah…. Blah… blah”.  I know you wouldn’t have understood anything too… I never could digest the fact why and from where Tom came into picture until I found that she meant “Team” by saying “Tom”. She seemed to grow affinity towards us.

After certain point I couldn’t keep up to her blabber stopped asking her to explain it the second time as she would repeat her same babble line by line once again without taking any pain to make it more understandable. I could not bear to endure such blabber anymore and hence nodded to her obscure expressions and acted as if I understood.  Soon Sindhu escaped from Suhi’s loquacious tenacity by constantly changing her lunch time. Now Suhi stuck with me like leach. I tried the same trick Sindhu had, but it was an utter failure as Suhi would keep a close watch on me as we were in the same floor and wait for me to have lunch. She had her seat on vantage point near the exit door, so that she would catch hold of me if I tried to sneak out. Though it was tough to put on an act of understanding, her company had filled the void of my deserted luncheons. I liked to lunch with her though I understood nothing. Sometimes I get headache when she talked too much and during initial days her blabbering sometimes was heard even in my dreams trying to decode its meaning even during sleep. I feared I would lose my hold on language and start conversing like her. My headache would only decrease if put on two aspirins and I had to read a novel or English movie to get back my English right. Other than her talks, I liked the prospect of having someone as my lunch company. She would sometimes come up with the topic about someone whom I wouldn’t have any hint about, talk about them, and would ask me to keep it as a secret as if I understood. She sometimes remembered me late night and called me to tell “ you..kna.. I told u..about that person.. jaise… you don’t tall him anyting” as if I had no other business in the world than to find out a random person whom I don’t have any idea about and tell him about it. Though if I managed to find that random person what would you expect me to tell him? “You know Suhi talked about you something. I couldn’t understand a word what did u do?” Even if I recorded Suhi’s complaints about that and played on to him or her do you think they would elicit something from that? My lunch has now transformed from a void deserted but peaceful to now being accompanied by a foreign radio station playing an incoherent song to which I nodded rhythmically.