A Valentine's day tale

On Valentine’s day I walked into the office to spend an evening with my boss and teammate surrounded by blazing lights, staring soulfully at a LCD monitor late into the night.I had bought myself a sandwich for dinner since it wud be late by the time I got home.The one thing that cheered me up was that my better half had sent me a beautiful bunch of flowers the previous night along with a love note.He had intended to have them delivered on Saturday morning but I reached home late on Friday night to find the long box outside my door.Anup was quite cross that they had been delivered early but I kinda understood that the delivery guy had tried to deliver it as close to Saturday as possible and to drive the point home,had stuck a dozen neon stickers on the box,proclaiming “Saturday” in bold black letters.I suppose the delivery guy thot that he cud brainwash me into believing it was Saturday.

Anyway I was munching on a sandwich when my teammate,Sai,walked in with a big bag and set it on my table.
Sai: Your dinner.
Me: (Surprised) What abt urs?”
Sai: I ate.I got that for u.My wife made Biriyani.
Me: But I bot a sandwich.
Sai: Never mind.Take it home and eat it when u want.
Me: Thanks ,Sai.

Silence.

Me: Sai? Anup sent me flowers.
Sai: Anup sent u flowers?How?He is in India ,right?

For a rather nice guy,sometimes Sai behaves like he has a cabbage for a brain.

Me: Sai!!!He ordered it over the internet.
Sai: Oh,he ordered it over the internet?ok.
Me: What did u do?
Sai: Praveena gave me a perfume.
Me: Ok.But what did u give Praveena?(Praveena is his wife)
Sai: (a bit desperately) Praveena gave me a perfume.
Me: Sai,what did u give her?

I had been reminding this guy every day for the past 2 weeks to get his wife something

Sai: You know what?Am going for a smoke.
Me: Sai!!!
Sai: We’ll talk abt it later.

Runs away.

Me: The rogue.

Sai comes back and we work some more.The boss walks in.

Boss: (looking at the sandwich bag and Sai’s bag on my table)You bot dinner?
Me: Well,I bot a sandwich and Sai also got me dinner.

Boss holds up his right hand with 2 sandwich bags in it.Apparently,the kind man had gotten himself and me sandwiches for dinner.

Me: Oh dear.
Boss: He he…

Silence.

Me: Krishna,Anup sent me flowers.
Boss: Wow!!He sent it by mail order?
Me: Yes.
Boss: What flowers?
Me: Tulips.30 tulips.
Boss: Wow.

Pause.

Boss: I also got a gift.My wife gave me a gift.
Me: What did you get?
Boss: ( puffs himself up with pride and quite sentimentally) I got one rose and a perfume.1 single rose.
Me: And what did you give in return?
Boss: Nothing.
Me: (Outraged)Nothing?Huh!!!Both u guys are complete nincompoops.Didnt give anything.Sai also didn’t
give Praveena anything.
Sai: I got a perfume.
Boss: I also got a perfume.
Sai: You also got a perfume?
Boss: I got a perfume and 1 rose.
Sai: I also got one rose.Just one
Boss: Yeah.What perfume did you get.
Sai: Curve
Boss: (frowning) I also got curve.
Me : (Gasping with laughter at their crestfallen expressions) : Oh,I just remembered your wives always go
out shopping together ,don’t they?They probably found a deal on Curve.Buy one ,get one free.
(falls off the chair)
Boss: (grumpily) Humph !!!
Sai: (looking outraged) Wait till I get home.

Valentine’s day.Spent at office.2 men got me dinner.Lots of laughter.And a warm fuzzy feeling inside at the thot of those flowers a lovely man sent me...Not bad.Not bad at all.

Today(For lack of a better title)

Last week,the climate was perfect and for no darned reason,I found myself waking up one nice bright morning with a sore throat.I immediately treated it with a salt water gargle.But in spite of the gargle,by midday I found myself feeling feverish and my voice disappeared rather rapidly leaving me resembling a gaping gold fish.The sniffles weren’t far behind and before I knew it ,the rhinovirus was threatening to wreak havoc on my sinuses and bronchial tubes.Hah!!But I wasn’t abt to give up so easily and bombarded it with horrible concoctions of garlic,ginger,pepper,mint leaves and lemon( and I must admit the witch’s brew has kinda grown on me) and a few scalding sessions of gargling with salt water.I diligently fed myself capsules of Vitamin C to keep the immune system up and buzzing.It took a good 3 days. I worked from home for 2 out of those 3 days in spite of the boss’s protests.(He had to make a choice between me working alone from home or me and the virus working together at office.)But the witch’s brew,it worked..And the rhinovirus was booted right out.And as a bonus I got in some good amount of crafting in the time which wud otherwise have been spent in office staring at the system waiting for some loser to send me some work.Advantages of working from home,u see.

Today I walked in the rain.Or lets put it this way.I got out of a nice hot bath to find that it had started raining and I was left with the dreary prospect of walking in the rain,reaching office all wet and cold and then having to spend a long day at office ending with sniffles and a fever.Considering I had just abt managed to chase away that rhinovirus which came around knocking last week ,I was in no mood for another bout.I dressed,pondered the idea of looking thru my suitcases to find that umbrella which am not sure if I left in India on my last trip there,gave it up as a waste of time and energy,pulled on a ski cap and a fleece jacket and walked out.I stood for a second at the threshold and wondered for an instant if I shud ring up the boss and ask to work from home.But then the thought of that nice-but-at times-tiresome man giving me that same monologue abt how the Directors of the company don’t like anyone to work from home was enuf to scrap the thot.Yeah. Right.As if any director is even gonna realize that poor me is missing from my seat.
But then as I stood looking at the miserable climate,there came a wicked thot…So I walk in the rain…So I fall sick….So I end up working from home…So the boss complains…So…maybe…just maybe they’ll send me back home…And I grinned gleefully as I trotted out into the rain,stood for 20 min under a dripping tree which started out as a dry spot but started getting wetter and wetter as I waited for the bus, trotted all the way to office and nodded happily at everyone who asked me “Got drenched?”.
And now here I am a good 5 hrs later.Dry as a bone.Not even the sniff of a sniffle…and the darned rhinovirus is nowhere to be seen when needed…God does have a sense of humour!
But truth be told,once I got over the worry of falling sick,I rather enjoyed the trot in rain. :-)