Ties

Over the last month and a half, I've been part of an intensive training programme, that is compulsory for new employees of the company I work for. When I joined the organisation, I did so with a great deal of optimism, but also prepared myself to start interacting with people at a level that would be less emotionally charged than the ties that I shared with friends from my student days. This was probably based on my observations of how older people conduct themselves with colleagues as compared to friends and family. I told myself that such a shift in interaction styles would be natural and in fact adaptive...but somehow I could not bring myself to believe those thoughts. A small voice whispered insistently that even in the workplace, one does not have to be bereft of an interpersonal closeness, colleagues can be as good as friends and one can find a way to rise above petty differences and evolve as a person when placed in a professional environment. I was not able to decide between the two viewpoints so I decided to simply go ahead and take one day at a time...

Today, I can safely say, with immense pleasure that the little voice emerged victor by a wide, wide margin! Over the last several weeks, the office became a place where I met some really remarkable people, watched intelligent minds blossom, felt my own horizon's expand, and above all, forged some friendships that I pray will last forever. I had never dreamt that I would experience this in a workplace, which I had envisioned as a sober, competitive and altogether "professional" environment! It's yet another of the Universe's blessings that I give thanks for each and every day.

Yes, there were some teething problems...the initial awkwardness of meeting people for the first time and being shut away in the training room with them for hours on end...waiting for someone to extend the first pleasantries only to find that they were probably waiting for you to do the same...watching others carefully maintain a guarded discretion in their conversations... But all that soon gave way as a steady closeness grew between different group members. Little cliques formed and shifted amongst the batch, but overall there was a sense of mutual understanding and cohesiveness. Countless spates of helpless laughter, muffled giggles, heated arguments, short-lived "cold-wars" and a sharing of each other's lives and experiences coexisted with the formal training that everyone was going through. Call it what you will, but I think of it as one of God's infinite miracles that happen in the subtlest yet most palpable ways...

This afternoon our batch said goodbye to one of its members,who had to leave in order to join another branch of the company. We had known from the start that she would be leaving us once the training was complete...what we had no inkling of, was how difficult it would be to say goodbye at the end of our time together. The human heart forms attachments so quickly!

We managed to get away for short while, so we could enjoy a nice lunch outside the office, as a kind of happy send-off for our friend/colleague. Lunch was a delightful affair, full of the usually peals and guffaws that characterise the times when all of us are together (there was good food too!). None of us seemed to be aware of the fact that we'd soon be parting ways with one of our friends, for a long time to come. It was only at the end of the meal, when she had to head for the airport and we had to make our way back to the office, that many of us felt a lump rise in our throats...before I knew it, some of us had silently let their tears fall, and the one who was leaving us was crying openly while exchanging hugs, handshakes and parting pleasantries (most of which sounded a bit garbled when delivered in choked voices). To my mind, this was yet another feather-in-the-cap for the "little voice" I mentioned earlier (which, by the way, is practically bellowing now!).

Affection is a curious thing indeed...you have absolutely no idea when and for whom it will form. The idea is to go with it, celebrate it and let it show...I will never forget the overwhelmed look on our friend's face when we gave her a small token of our affection...a painted clay figurine and a card. In that wordless instant I witnessed how strong the ties were that had been forged subliminally in just a couple of months. It was simply wonderful.
:)