Mon and Tue were fairly uneventful days for me, considering that K went to office while I remained cooped up in our hotel room.Mon shokale I watched several sitcoms on TV, amader niye asha DVD r modhye theke Mr Black Mr White bole akta jhul film dekhlam,amar b'day te Appa dadar dewa 'To Sir With Love' boi ta besh khanik ta pode phellam,kichhu undergarments keche room er fan vent er opor shukiye phellam, pranayam and free hand exercise korlam, snan korlam, dupure Sushmit er phn call attend kore (tokhon he had come home to have lunch with Namita) phatiye ghumolam from 4-5.15 pm, uthe bhabhlam, "Dur chhai, jege thekei ba ki oshadhyo shadhon korbo", ebong as expected of an insomniac like me, abar ghumiye podlam ! Ghum bhanglo phn er awaaj e around 6.10 pm…it was Namita.We talked for over an hour, on various issues such as house-hunting, husbands, medical insurance in USA, the side-effects of pregnancy (naturally ekhane Namita was doing all the talking and me the listening !), utensils and cooking websites, microwave friendly recipes etc. Within the span of time that we talked, three times it struck me that someone was knocking at the door but twice I interrupted Namita and got up to find that it was only the reverberation of other doors along our corridor, which were being either opened or shut by their respective occupants.The third time, just after 7 pm, it was actually K. Namita finally hung up, according to her, to give us some quality time with each other .
K was not in a very good mood.As it turns out, he had had an exceptionally unpromising first day. He had been assigned a cubicle for two , where there were already two ppl preceding him, who had shown their displeasure at this undesired addition to their private domain by trying to discuss with him what could be done to convey their displeasure to the concerned authorities. His laptop too would take some time to actually reach him (which had annoyed him enough to make him determine that he would not be taking his personal laptop to office hereafter). They had made him partake of an early lunch and then sent him to pass urine for a drug-clearance test. His protests to the effect that he did not feel the urge to micturate right at that point of time had been dismissed with the peremptory suggestion that he drink some water to make him feel the required urge !!! He had been instructed to pass at least 45 ml of urine in the given container and the rest in the commode, without flushing it out. Then they had dropped some tablet into the unflushed water, and there had been no change of colour. I suppose he had forgotten to mention that he had not passed more than 45 ml urine in any case, so the commode experiment was bound to have produced the results it did !!! Anyway, after that they had started a background check (which it would take a few days to complete) while they sent him to attend an internal meeting. Some smart-Alec had, during his delay in arriving in the US, emailed the client representative, to the effect that they did not have enough experienced resources at their disposal to successfully realise the given project. The outraged client had naturally asked him to promptly prepare a presentation on the exact data, stats and experience records of the ppl involved in this project…hence the meeting. Mane plain and simple bawaaaaaaaal !
Jai hok, dujone mile boshe boshe bhel mix khelam tv dekhte dekhte.tarpor ami Sun related oi bishal email ta likhe phellam, K hotel er complimentary copy of the 'USA Today' ta khanikta podlo, tarpor dujone dinner kore shuye podlam at 11 pm.
Tue breakfast er por theke amar unusually drowsy lagchhilo…ektu net surf korlam, Titai er shathe online ektu chat korlam,10.30 am nagad housekeeping er lokjon eshe room clean kore dewar por I went off to sleep and woke up abt 12.30 pm. Uthe abar boi podlam,TV dekhlam,ppr podlam,pranayam korlam,snan korlam and breakfast theke carry over kora muffin and yogurt diye mini-lunch sharlam (jodio K says ebhabe carbs kheye, ta jotoi kom hok na kyano, I'll never lose weight !). Tarpor abar net e boshe ketu blog related kaajkommo korlam.Ei shomoy, abt 4. 30 pm, K phn korlo, bollo office theke he had called up Kalikapur and talked to Mamoni and Bapi.Also said he'd taken a cab and gone to inspect two apartments in the Brookside Gardens area of Somerville. Akta ground floor e ,shob miliye ota or bhallageni...aar akta dekhe eshechhe on the 2nd floor...sheta shob miliye kharap noi...552 sq feet,one bedroom, one toilet, kitchen, living space,3 closets, ACs in living space & bedroom,heating in winter include kore abt $900 monthly rent,microwave kinte hobe aar laundry ta 10 mins walking distance away bolchhe...or office er lokjon achhe oi dike...transport er oshubidhe hobe na...dokan tokan achhe kachhakachhi...offer ta contemplate korchhi...floor plan ta dekhlam...kharap lageni...let's see. But he was very irritated je cabs ekhane ato expensive, jete $10 ebong office firte $10 khorcha hoyeche,so naturally….ekhane gas er price holo abt $4 per litre by the way.Sabya bolchhilo je o jokhon prothom eshechhilo, tokhon it had been abt $2.98 per litre.K was taken aback je ami shonge shonge phn dhorlam, othat dupure ghumoini. I reassured him by telling him je ami shokale ghumiye niyechhi. Hei bhogobaan, amar neejer bore r ki impression hoyechhe amar shombondhe!!!
Jai hok, phn chhadar por, I got up to do some serious work. K er articles of clothing had been distributed in 3 suitcases, je jonyo roj shokal e or office er puro jamakapod er set ber korte (shirt, trousers, undergarments, socks,hanky) ami nakaal hoye jachhilam for the last two days. So I overturned the contents of all 3 suitcases and rearranged them so that ALL his garments would remain in our biggest suitcase while I divided my garments into two halves and distributed them in the other two. Woollens served as the protective underlying layer in all three. Ei shob korte abt 2 hrs laglo, so that it was abt 7.30pm when K interrupted my sigh of relief with a brisk knock at the door and entered, armed with a cup of decaffeinated coffee from the lobby in one hand. Abar beriye amar jonyo arek cup of the same niye elo tokhoni. Jamakapod chhedar por we sat down to eat kebab rolls.Khub khide peyechilo dujoner, tai two per person. Bollo aaj shei regulation internal meeting akta shuru holo abt 5pm, shei jonyei deri hochhe phirte.Bechara thanda lege besh kahil hoye ache, kebol naak jhadchhe.After that, aktana 9.45pm obdhi TV dyakha chollo, prothome Seinfield, tarpor re-runs of a very old TV serial, 'Family Ties', jekhane actors der modhye a very young Tom Hanks, Courtney Cox and Michael J. Fox o chhilo !!! Tarpor khabar pala. Kaal raat er menu chhilo pre-cooked palak rotis with mutter paneer. 11 pm er modhye lights off.
I mustn't forget to mention je thanda lagle K er snoring pattern gets even worse. Ami bhor er deeke chomke uthe boshe bhablaam je sthg must be seriously wrong with him, ato jore jore naak dakchhilo. Tarpor birokto hoye ak khnocha mere ato awaj bondho korte bollam karon ami shotyi ghumote parchhilam na. The snoring subsided with suspicious promptness.I am yet to find out what that was all about !!! Till then, tata !!!
No comments:
Post a Comment