Ending Conversations

I also got chance to join a whatsApp group recently. Old friends’ network, nice talking to them after a long time. That evening I wished people here and there. Time was reaching midnight. Then two other friends joined the group chat. I was the only one left along with them in the chat session.

“Hi how are you? – first-one.

“I am fine,  living with my wife in Delhi, how many kids you have?”- second-one.

“Two, a son and a daughter” – first-one.

“Ok goodnight”- second-one.

“Good night” – first-one.

The conversation ended abruptly even before I could get into a conversation and know more about them. Probably the second-one got reminded that he has only one kid. He was not still that late. And he was not in a mood to talk anymore!

I came to know from one of my relatives that my talkative aunt is not keeping all that well. Mild asthma. Not able to breathe properly. I decided to call her and cheer her up. I spoke to her. But only I spoke! I deliberately avoided asking her about her health. I didn’t want to remind her of her problem and make her feel worse. I spoke all good things happening around the world. Not much response from her. I thought her asthma was making her talk less. I hung up after a while.  My relative calls me “what did you do to the aunt? She is angry, she says you are so healthy, wealthy and happy and didn’t even bother to enquire about her health. So she didn’t even bother to talk to you”. I was so sad that I could not ease out my aunt’s breathing a bit by making her talk. Though I felt happy that there is at least one unhappy person in this world who thinks I am super happy.

Those were the days when I used to clean up, fix problems in computer programs, that too written by others that too many years back. Thanks to ENGLISH language structure, the COBOL programs used to run into pages. Only way to understand and debug those programs was to take a print out. COBOL was such that, even a small customer enquiry program would look bigger than any one chapter in Bhagavad Gita! 

As usual in the morning, I took the bundle of printout from the only printer kept in the farther corner and walking towards my workplace. We had only a few customers,  even fewer dollars getting from them, so cost reduction was a necessity. Taking huge printouts was not considered as a waste though. If we stopped that too then we feared we would lose the existing few customers.

I found it extremely difficult to get through the door on the corridor. Many reasons for that. Reason one I had a reasonably growing belly, initial days in my colourful career. Reason two, the door which was broad once, cut into half,  one half got converted into a storage space to keep office stationery – of course under a lock & key to avoid unauthorised misuse. Reason three, the huge printout that I was trying to hold in my hands.

Then I saw my HR lady coming from the other direction. Young, giggly, very pleasant. My normal smile to her used to fetch me ample dividends in terms of nice, series of sentences from her, which would give me enough energy to go through those boring programs.  Looking at the bundle in my hands, I wanted to hear much more of such words from her. So I decided to comment on something rather than giving her a usual smile. “This door needs to be broader”. I could see her face turning red. She went across even without a smile. In that enthusiasm, I had forgotten that she was a bit obese for her age! Needless to say the printout remained on my desk for the whole day with no much progress made!

It looks like it’s rather easy to break a conversation than to build one. I wish while talking, I always had that art to adjust myself and my words, to suit the other party’s state, mood and interests.