Page 125 - Musings 2021

whenever she was bored. He felt furious with his office. For sixty thousand rupees they
seemed to have purchased him outright. He reprimanded himself for ignoring his wife and
daughter. Even the wife could have her own friend circle and so on. She was, after all, a
grown-up, but what about the child? What a lifeless, colorless existence was hers! He felt he
was betraying his own daughter every day. They kept him at the office till nine or ten in the
night and when he came home late, the child was always asleep. Even on Sundays they
wanted him at work. Why did they think he had no private life? No one empathized with him.
They gave him no time to take his daughter to the amusement park, mall or the cinema. He
was going to show them that he was not an object for them. Yes, he was ready to even argue
with his manager, no matter whatever the outcome. Even he had his own needs and emotions.
He said firmly, “I will take you to the cinema this evening. Be ready at five.”

“Really! Mother! “Aadhya exclaimed.” Father is taking me to watch a movie this evening.”
Aadhya’s mother smiled cynically, “Don’t make false promises to the child.”Anand looked
back sharply at her, and replied, “Keep your mouth shut. What do you think, you are the only
person who stays true to her words?”

He told Aadhya, “Be ready at five, and I will come and take you for sure. I will be very
disappointed with you if I find you not dressed up properly.”

He walked to his office, filled with determination. He would do his job and get out of the
building. If they started any old trick or excuse of theirs, he would retort and say he was
done. “Here I put forward my resignation letter. My kid’s happiness is more important to me
than the labor that you make me do and all the mere amount of money I earn here.” All day
the usual heap of papers made their way to his table. He had to perform the same monotonous
tasks day in and day out. He was corrected, rebuked, and sometimes scolded. He had a break
of only twenty minutes in the afternoon for lunch.

When the office clock struck five and his colleagues were leaving, he went up to the manager
and said: “May I go, sir? “The manager gave a perplexed look and laughed, while saying,
“You!” It was unthinkable that his department work stopped at five. “How can you go?”

“I have some emergency at home today,” he said, memorizing the lines he had been
rehearsing since the morning: “Herewith my resignation.” He visualized Aadhya standing at
the door, dressed, and excited to finally go out with her father. “There should not be anything
more urgent than the office work; get back to your seat; we are paying you enough. You
know how much time I spend at work?” asked the manager. The manager came to the office
at least one hour before the opening time and stayed for another hour after closure, sometimes
even on Sundays. The people working in the office quipped among themselves, “His wife
must be quarreling with him every time he is at his home; that is why this old owl seems so
fond of his office.”

“Did you finish scanning the tenders that were handed over to you?” asked the manager.

“No sir, still a lot of them are to be checked. I thought we might do it some other day.” Anand
replied meekly.

“No, no, this won’t do. You must finish off your work as soon as possible.”

Anand softly replied, “Yes, sir,” and slumped back to his chair. The clock stuck half-past five.
It meant three more hours of laborious scanning and checking. Most of his colleagues from

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