April 2006
No Laughing Matter

Balancing work and family

Wake up at 6 am and at around seven o'clock the dhobi, the postman, the sales man, the security guard, the electricity meter reader, the plumber, the neighbour and other people who you thought existed only in TV serials show up at your door!

After settling bills and various other pleasantries with everyone else you start for your office. The traffic problem is always there-sometime usual and many times unusual. Reach office by nine but still you cannot impress the boss of being on time. Read the newspapers. The headline says 'Real estate prices become quite unreal' 'Operating costs of organisations look like Godzilla to chartered accountants' etc.

The Sun has this irritating habit of being very regular. It shines cheerfully through the window and on to your face, but you cannot be as cheerful due to your own problems at home and at the office.

However, you can still hear the twitter of the birds despite the grumbling of your wife. "Can you look after the baby while I finish the ironing?" You also remember how a female neighbour approached to you with an unreasonable request "We need a packet of milk urgently, and since you're going to the shop…".

The first thing you do in the office is check your e-mail. It takes much longer now than last year (or the last month for that matter) as spamming is growing in an exponential rate though your company's business is taking lessons from snails. You are still calm. The email you sent have bounced back to you while the bounced cheques are already lying on your table. At last you can abuse the mouse on the table! For a psychiatrist it's a new challenge. The Internet is a revolutionary new medium when it works, but when it doesn't it can create panic. You can send a series of mails and not be sure if any of them have reached the person you intended them for.

In the meantime the boss calls you: "We're having a client meeting in 30 minutes, you didn't send me that report." Your eyebrows touch your hairline: What report?

You hear a snarl: "You didn't get my mail?"

You quietly look at the mails. Some of them tell you how to make a bomb at home. You also have business proposals and lottery announcements from as far as South Africa and Ghana.

At the same time a roaming salesman peeps in with an encyclopedia set to sell. He says in a menacing voice that if you are not interested in buying the encyclopedia, he will show you a set of knives and he reaches into his bag very slowly. You quickly conclude that it is a better idea to buy the encyclopedia.

The driver comes to ask you if you are going out any time soon. If not he wants to go to search for fuel in the market. In fact it is for both-the fuel and the cigarettes, though you don't know which one is the main motivation.

You call some of your clients. The receptionist on the other end speaks with you as if she has just arrived after a whole night's quarrelling with her husband.

You go to attend a chamber meeting and ask the office boy for some photocopies after the meeting ends, and a cup of tea. He forgets about the tea.

Back home at seven after all the day's sorrows and headaches, your wife starts threatening you with divorce. You did not accompany her to buy a gift for some neighbors' daughters' relatives' friends.