Official!

When I opened my eyes this morning I knew that there is something that is waiting to happen today. Well, the premonition was quite accurate.

I had my morning cuppa of chai and was just planning the day as I read the papers and mumma darling comes up to me to ask what may I be doing today. As usual my answer was “I don’t know but I have this project on my hand and that’s it… nothing planned… why?”. So mom sits down, picks up her paper and staring at the headlines just passes a statement saying “Dad wanted to take you to the office today”. I wondered why the hell would he want me to go to the office with him. And if at all, why is mom telling me this. But mom continues her incomplete statement by saying “today is Gudi Padva and is an ospicious day so he might want to do some ritualistic pooja or something”. The statement put me at ease and I continued reading my paper with some sense of relief. I was thinking about the last time I went to office, as in for some work, not just as “the boss’s kid”. Not quite surprising…. I couldn’t remember when.

Then papa came along, sat in his chair in my room and switched his P.C. on, which is in MY room. Then he called me in and said, “get dressed, we’re going to the office from today”. Little did I notice the “from today” bit and by the time it hit me, he finished with a very assertive “you have to go everyday with uncle in the morning and come back with him at night”. Now this was unasked for man…. I’m not a businessman. I know that all the generations that preceded me have all been “true blood Vanias” but I just was a huge mistake. Dad knows that I am more inclined towards a creative job profile rather than any kind of finance or marketing or some such thing… but he is of the belief that no matter what I do, I’ll still return to being the “banya”.

So anyway, I went along with him and reached the office at 11.30ish. The office is under renovation so it was all quite broken. But the table and the phones on the table, the sample books, the cash register, and the chai cups lying around… all took me back to the typicality of offices. Dad asked me to sit on his chair and I was feeling the guilt of not being worthy of that chair. I could almost see his ploy quite clearly but it just was not working. I respected it like the honor and responsibility of being able to run a small kingdom but it was not my prerogative to accept it or decline it. it was almost an order. I took the seat and uncle and dad walked out leaving the office to me. “Attend the calls, we’ll be back in a while”. And almost like a plot, the phone rings… “do you have XYZ samples of ABC type and code 1234” came the voice on the other side… “the manager is not in, who is calling… ok… ok… just a sec…” and I played on. I picked up the file strategically placed in front of me and scanned through it… no mention of the XYZ and type ABC… so I picked the receiver and said, “sorry, we don’t deal in the XYZ.” After a few minutes they walked in and I narrated the incidence to them with absolutely notable signs of deliberated disinterest. Pop was all impressed with the story and said, “good, we don’t like that man too much anyway.” And uncle gave an approving smile.

Somewhere in the whole time I was there, I felt needed more than me compulsorily being there. i thought of taking up the family business only as a contingent plan. For a while I thought all my aspirations of being an ad guru were in schism. I could picture myself in that chair, day in and day out, breaking my head over what delivery and when and how much to charge and what to sell…. Not a pretty picture I tell you. But then I pushed myself into believing that they would never force me to do something I don’t want to do… they never have. We went home for lunch and mom sat me down and reconfirmed my faith in the fact that I can still do what I want.

It was a day of never-before-done introspection. For once I felt serious about choosing the right career and really working towards doing what I want to do. But on the brighter side, I saw the contingent plan was not as bad as I thought it would be… I have a choice and there always will be. So it is only about making the right choice more than hunting for options. Yup! That’s the thought for the the day, maybe the weak or even more.