I was leaning back on the super soft sofa of a huge reception of a software conglomerate. I came here for an interview. The ambience was great with a huge monogram of the logo of this company was gleaming at the top of the wall when you enter inside.  There’s a reception desk towards the extreme left wall and a table at a height which may be like a small hillock for a kid, behind which sat a bob haired girl (or lady?) with a designer set of lips bearing overtly applied lipsticks and a visibly artificial English accent. When I went to her and announced the purpose of my arrival, she politely, but with a poker face, pointed at the sofa and asked me to rest my back there. She seemed to be very busy and the silence was broken whenever the EPABX console rang and she whispered into the ears of the callers, as if she was spying for one of those James Bonds! Rest of the time, the snarling sound of the powerful air conditioner prevailed there, like a dog aiming at its prey. I, for some unknown reason suddenly thought about the high decibels of sound which was used to control pest! I felt that the noise levels at public places and this snarl at such a relatively silent place were at par in terms of pollution per se!

I got up and picked up a publication from a neatly organized stand and went back to my little abode (sofa) in that huge jungle of silence, whispers and the snarls. After the completion of the cover story on the telecom boom in India, the magazine appeared so boring to me and I was feeling dozy.

By then, I was there for more than an hour and felt terribly sleepy as I had nothing much to do. I slowly got up and walked into the wash room behind the reception. There was a house keeper at work and I felt as if I entered in to an exhibition stall of a ‘Save Water’ campaign!

I went to the reception desk on the way back from wash room and now, she had a stupid expression on her face with some tint of guilt. I was literally annoyed at the delay of action and asked her whether the meeting was scheduled or not. She, with an artificial expression of apology said me that it was scheduled and assured me to call back and remind the concerned person, who was supposed to meet me. For the first time after I entered the room, our eyes exchanged straight looks and I personally enjoyed this game of looking into the eyes and I could see her mask breaking apart and before she could take her eyes away I conveyed that I mean what I talk…! The effect was tremendous and the entire mannerisms and body language changed at once. While walking towards the sofa again, I could hear her whispers over my shoulders. In another 5 minutes, I was asked to go in and an admin staff guided me through a congested aisle towards a conference room.

Plumpy Plum!

By the time I sat on one of those chairs, a man of huge size with a small head directly plugged into the shoulders came in. He had a very cute face with a soft, gentle voice. He wished me and excused himself for the delay. He tried to fit himself to one of the chairs and in his third attempt, he could manage to sit and his flesh under his coat oozed out through all the sides of the chair. Though gentle, his dialogue delivery was little tricky as if he had a thick tongue which blocked the words with some unnecessary air blown along with each word. His face was of a 20 year old and the rest of the body was of a 50 year one. His extreme lower levels of melanin on his skin was evident on every exposed part of his body, and a thorough observation proved that he also had a fat neck which just seemed to be thick enough, in line with the shoulder muscles to hide it from a first look.

Later, during my days of work in this company, the woman in the reception and this obese baby faced man were my best friends.