10:00 am : While I am in the middle of sending frantic emails, getting done some pending work order estimates, munching on my half eaten sandwich and passive trotting on a phone conversation (yes I DO need a clone) the block fire alarm goes blaring out loud!
10:01 am : Oh please.. I don’t have time for a drill! Some
other time fellas (no interruption in my work)
10:03 am : OK! This is no drill.. RUN.. WAIT.. grab your
wallet.. and your car keys.. and your laptop (some disorders that come when you
have been working too long.. ur love for your office essentials!!)
10:05 am : Outside the building with two huge fire wagons and
handsome fire fighters (don’t know if it was the dull morning or just me) doing
what they do the best.. Display COURAGE, CONFIDENCE and Fight fire with fire.
(Though I still hadn’t figured where the fire was!!!)
"I'm usually a quiet type, but I talk way too much when
I get nervous." A fine gentleman wearing crisp white shirt, may be in late
30’s, holding a tumbler and a tablet speaks from behind me. From the first look
I knew he was non-Siemens.. all men in my building feel pride in wearing shirt
with Siemens embroidered on it!
~Finding uncanny~ looking
back with a partial smile, acknowledge.
20 minutes and Few more un-important conversations later..
“What?? (Me all stumbled) ”
“I haven’t been to any restaurant in last 1-2yrs.. I always do
take out”
(It’s a huge deal for an American)
“Yes, I can’t afford being out in a crowded area.” “There is
no way I can take the risk of carrying any infections back home”
Crowd disperses.. appears that a short circuit had taken us globetrotting ..
I still shocked of
what I had heard.. and a bit shaken, dragged myself back.. I also saw this
gentlemen entering my office.. I was wrong.. he did work in the same branch.
The person who gave me a unsettling impression at first had suddenly
transformed protagonist!
As I deliberately passed his cubicle with intention to
get another glimpse of brave heart I met.. a note outside his cubicle
read :
We all have loved ones in our life.. some we adore.. some we
take for granted. This made me ponder on situations life can put one in and how
bravely one can handle them, just as those fire fighters I saw this
morning. Courage is not absence of fear, but the judgment that something else
is more important than fear!
Life is short.. They DID raise the bar for me..
I feel like I’m on autopilot every day. I get up, cook, do motherly
chores, go to work, go home, run some errands, and go to sleep. And that’s a
scary place to be. Cause I’ve got dreams.