Rocking in the Free World

My initial plan was to start this post with how living alone for most of my forty months in Bangalore has affected my outlook towards the time when I actually have to interact with people either at the office or outside.

But then, as I sat and thought about it, I figured out that this post should be more about the things that I have had to experience when NOT at home, that have significantly prompted and further reinforced my decision to live alone, rather than with company.

As a standard disclaimer, this post doesn’t intend to offend my former flatmates, because they’ve been, for most part, the most awesome company that a guy could ask for. Nor does it indicate that I have adopted permanent Bhramacharya (by choice, although it might have to be adopted by compulsion if circumstances in the future deem so!).

My office cubicle location has never been constant for more than four months at a time. I have changed places seven times already, while having worked here in this particular office for twenty eight months or so, and I have always felt this sense of having been uprooted from the place I made myself most comfortable at.

Thankfully the floor on which I have worked hasn’t changed at all, and some cold comfort lies therein.

It is in my current situation where I am sitting and typing away on notepad in front of my system as two or three people behind me are vehemently arguing about the merits and demerits of some ‘cross-complier tool used for a particular UI framework’ like one would argue vehemently about whether Shiites or Sunnis are the ones who have the correct ideological bent, so far as choosing the Prophet’s successor is concerned.

The loud noise of conversations, combined with the somewhat horrible ‘scent’ or ‘perfume’ that some inmates in my office wear, is enough to drive one nuts. I have discovered at an early age that I am allergic to most perfumes, and in this regard, I must thank God that I am a guy, because I have heard that women have a heightened sense of smell and this fact has been scientifically proven.

Now, noise, weird odours and generally intolerable quirks of people makes me want to run away from all the madness, and a general dislike for prolonged exposure towards all but a small set of people just reinforces that further.

Office space and the air-conditioned comfort that it provides is something that most of us seem to take for granted. It is a blessing in summer, especially. However, in winters, it is not really necessary and the fact that it is a closed environment for both odour and sound just makes things worse.

The only solution for such issues reeks ominously of the suggestions put up ‘for the greater good’. Otherwise, it only seems pertinent to ignore or blank out such occurrences and live and let live.

As a post script, the guy in the cube next to me is playing some soft santoor and sarangi music, which is quite welcome, actually!