THE FLASHBACK

Once upon a time, in the middle of the bustling city, there lived a middle-class IT employee👨‍💻. His day starts with the call from the cab guy begging him to get ready (Sirrrr, at least inaki yathu seekiram ready agunga please😒). With an empty mind and an empty stomach, he begins his journey to the office even before the sunrise. Over the years of this robotic life, he has acquired the skill to sleep with all the traffic noise on the uncomfortable seats of the cab. Finally, after long hours of journey, he reaches the office exhausted. To rub salt in the wound, endless meeting schedules and escalation emails pop up the moment he logs in. This 9-5 exercise leaves him hungry, angry, and depressed. At the end of every day, he returns home thinking why life is so messed up?

One such evening, while lost in the thoughts of his frustrating life, to his surprise, THE BIG NEWS ARRIVED🤩.

Due to the COVID-19 PANDEMIC, the office will remain closed. All the employees are expected to WORK FROM HOME.

From the CEO’s desk

A shiver ran up his spine when he read this. That night, excited and contented, he retired to the bed with great expectations.

THE PRESENT

Few days into the lockdown and work from home mode, his routine has completely changed. It is as if his life took a U-turn. His room became the office, his bed as the cubical, and the boxers as the WFH attire.

His day starts with a hot cup of coffee from his mom. What a good way to start right? He then logs in and reads all the mails while sipping down the coffee. Then comes the morning stand-up meeting.

While the bed pulls him back to sleep on one side, the manager’s questions pinch him from the other end. Despite all this, he decides to wait for amma’s call for the first meal of the day. And Yes!! Here comes the breakfast, which feels quite new to him. After eating the idlis/dosa with a week old sambar/chutney, he then decides to take a break by watching some videos which leads him to the Netflix webpage🍿🎬. The snacks and juice which his mom brings add fun and comfort.

When he hears amma’s second call for lunch, it dawns upon him that he has broken the promise he made to himself about the 1 EPISODE PER DAY☹️. AAAH..!! And that’s what you call a perfect lunch🤤. The yummy and love-infused lunch from his mom’s hand, which later paves the way to the noontime nap. But to his disappointment, there comes the unplanned meeting. With eyes full of sleep, half-heartedly he attends the call. However, this becomes more entertaining as the meeting consists of several people of different qualities.

• Family guy – The one with toddlers, who always makes a special appearance in the calls.
• Animal lover – The one with pets🐕🐈, which starts barking right from the moment the call starts.
• The guy whose mom grinds chutney in every meeting.
• Chatterbox – The one who always talks and never allows others to talk.
• The one who never talks – The one who always says (Pointuu varatum🤐).
• 🔇 guy – The one who lipsyncs and never gets off mute.
• Late responder – The one who says “Hi” at the end of the meeting.
• “In a call” guy – whose status is always busy and joins all the unwanted meetings.
• Late-comer – The one who always logs in late for the day and join last for the meeting.

In between all these quarrels and debates, our IT employee resumes his post-lunch nap since he is “The napper😴” in his team. Later, waking up to the post-storm calmness, he awkwardly realizes that he is the only person left in the conference call (which ended half an hour ago🙊). Nevertheless, hot chai and pakodas/bajjis smell from the kitchen seem irresistible. Hence, he logs off from the laptop, enjoys the evening with chai, and decides to spend the rest of the day with his family.

While comparing the current lockdown WFH with his regular schedule, he realised some good things happening in life. Now, with a happy heart and happy face, he goes to bed daily.

• A proper sleep – Yes!! he is sleeping 8 hours a day.
• No Dust, No Sweat – to be frank, he became fair.
• He is eating healthy love-infused meals on time.
• Saved money since he hasn’t gone out for movies or to dine out with friends
• He is becoming fat. Thanks to his mom’s healthy and yummy meals again.
• He is growing a beard now. Yes!! I’m serious.
• He is learning cooking and has time for other hobbies.
• He is now able to spend a good time with his family.

Writer’s opinion

Hope you were able to relate yourself to our character.

We all are caught up with our work and busy schedules. But when was the last time you spent some good time with your family. What is the point of earning money and getting rich without being happy/connected with your family?

At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, a parent.

Barbara Bush

Staying at home doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t stay alone in your room. Maybe this is the right chance to spend some quality time with your family.

With COVID-19 wrapping the entire globe with its tentacles, we hear so many talks about the world adapting accordingly; especially in terms of trade, economy, and lifestyle. Masks😷, 🚶social distancing🚶, sanitizing, and work from home is now considered as “the new normal”. But do you really think “work from home” is relatively a new concept? Certainly not!! The US Presidents, for example, have been working from home for ages efficiently and effectively. However, when we work from home, the efficiency and the effectivity of it will be “quite different” in the above funny way. Nevertheless, this may not be the same story for all IT employees. Many do extend their work hours and keep the business running. In return, companies should also acknowledge and appreciate their employees’ work in this situation and support them in all possible ways.

Stay tuned at JAL for more intesresting contents!!