In the winter, I developed a habit of sleeping in train. It was difficult to adjust with new time table. In winter, it gets difficult to leave the bed early in the morning. When I leave bed early in the morning in winter. I feel I haven’t slept properly. So to complete that sleep, I started sleeping in train. During winter, my schedule in the train was get into the train, find the comfortable corner, sit after adjusting the bag on the rack above, yawn and sleep. I didn’t used to even wait for the train to cross Maninagar. I used to be awake in the morning only once in a week. Dwarkesh Kaka and Mahesh Kaka used to take care of the seats for the people of Maninagar. Dwarkesh Kaka also developed that habit but he used to sleep after Maninagar.
I used to keep myself awake either to discuss some serious topic or to eat snacks. Sharmaji was regular in Anand memu during the winter. And he used to order the snacks once in a week. Whenever we needed to eat something in the train, Sharmaji used to call one of his friends of Mahemdabad after boarding the train at Maninagar. And his friend used to bring snacks in the train. “You stay awake only when we plan to eat something. Otherwise we always find you asleep. Don’t you sleep at night?” Sharma ji asked while eating fried balls at Mahemdabad. “In this cold weather, I simply try to complete my sleep. The timings of the train are such that you have to wake yourself up from the sound sleep in the morning.” I gave him the reason for sleeping.
In the second week of February, one news didn’t let me sleep. Dharmendra Sir got transfer. As soon as Dharmendra Sir completed three years, he got the transfer. I came to know about after he got the transfer letter from divisional manager. He showed me that letter on his last day at Anand office. He was relieved immediately by divisional manager. “What did you do to get the transfer?” I asked Dharmendra Sir to keep that thing in mind and to repeat it at the time of my transfer. “Nothing I just went and met with Regional manager once and he gave me the assurance that I will get the transfer as soon as I will complete the three years.” Dharmendra Sir showed me the way to follow at the time of my transfer.
“He stood by his words and gave me the letter as soon as I completed my three years. It was bit surprising that he stood by his words. Ultimately, getting the transfer at the right time mattered for me and I got it. I don’t want anything else. I have got it by the grace of god. I will go to Shirdi to thank the god for this.” Dharmendra Sir was very happy with the transfer. I lost another guide in the journey. “New batch is coming soon. So you might get transfer in that.” Dharmendra Sir gave me some kind of hope. I forgot yawning and sleeping in the train after the transfer of Dharmendra Sir. I planned a break of a week in the second half of February. The break was to actually plan out the transfer and prepare for another account closing.
Out of seven days, I spent four days in Goa. After coming back from Goa, I decided that it is better to wait till the end of the March and observe the steps, management is taking. If I would have done something at that time then it might had gone against me. Thus, I planned to wait and close that financial year before writing about the transfer to higher authorities. Though new batch of employees was recruited, there were lot of retirements as well. So to hope for a replacement from a new batch was not a good idea. When I started commuting after the break, I was back to yawning and sleeping in the train.
“So how was your break, Rishi?” Haresh Kaka woke me up from the sleep by tapping on my leg.
“Ya, it was good,” I replied in half sleep.
“Your leave was sanctioned easily?” He decided that he will not let me sleep.
“Yes,” I closed my eyes and tried to sleep again.
“You know I have had cancelled my vacation once because my leave was approved,” Haresh Kaka started sharing his story. “When you told me about your plan of Goa, I thought even your leave will not be approved by the authorities as it was on very short notice,” It opened my eyes wide.
“Your generation was different and our generation is different. We don’t even think twice before leaving the job. So if a company wants to reduce its cost of recruitment or want to retain the employees of our generation then they have to give us the leaves on short notice as well.” I gave that kind of reply to rest the discussion.
“You are being overconfident now. I am more experienced than you and trust me, this kind of attitude will harm you in the future.” Haresh Kaka was not in the mood of resting the discussion.
“See Haresh Kaka, I am a post-graduate and I feel even if company terminates me tomorrow then I am qualified enough to do something good with my life. So I don’t really care.” Haresh Kaka was kind of person who believed that everyone should agree on my viewpoint and everyone should follow my footsteps. I had completely opposite views and I often argued with on most of the topics.
After that discussion, I tried to avoid him and stuck to my plan of yawning and sleeping every morning. Yawning and sleeping was much better thing to do than starting a day with an argument.
i agree. we waste a lot of time in arguing with people of older generation, they will not change their stand no matter what. it’s better to be shut and live your life the way you want!
Let’s not generalize it, yes, some people are like that.