The past year has been a professional pivot. Moved back to the city. Now part of "Corporate". In the current role, I manage the executioners of projects in locations across the oceans. In essence, I manage me in my previous avatar. It entails downing copious amount of black, unsweetened coffee, while sitting through the endless number of daily meetings. Spreadsheets have become default, PowerPoint presentations, dejeuner. Folks harangue over font size/type & cell colour. It is a given that any data received has undergone Arithmetic jugglery to fit the sender's own definition. Parsing through the 3rd degreed data becomes a cerebral resource intensive endeavour. In brief, recurring moments of questioning, the process presents itself as a giant exercise in purposelessness.
Commutes are another ordeal. 15 odd kilometres each side takes up to 2 hours on the way back if the Gods are adequately displeased, which I feel [s]he is often nowadays. Moving at a 5 kmph, the perpetual clutch-brake interplay has become part of muscle memory. Sitting inside the quasi-static transport, I have finished off 4 hours long TSTU podcast episodes [at 2X speed] before reaching home.
Some folks have termed the current state of affairs as part of growth, that I would have to ride out. Taking their word for it, for now.
The photo on top, I took a 8 PM on a road, near home, that is normally choc a bloc with traffic & unwieldly parked vehicles belonging to individuals who would be at home in an Insta Reel. It happened to be on the day of immersion of the deity. Office got closed early, on account of abysmal attendance.
Godspeed
Also Read: Ship MV Wisdom on Juhu Beach in Mumbai [& some PDA]