CILLA KHATRY
In the course of meeting people for assignments, one thing that always infuriates me the most is how laidback government officials are. They are hardly ever at their desks, and if by some odd chance they are seated at their place, they always, always have to take a five-minute break (that will stretch to at least half an hour) before they come back and make a show of shuffling papers on their desks before they finally decide to even glance your way.[break]
My bureau editor has a fun theory. He blames this on the heavy meal of daal bhaat most Nepalis have before heading to work. His concept is that the meal weighs you down and makes you sleepy, which is why they are not in the mood to work till about midday.
That would be fine if tea breaks at midday didn’t stretch for an hour or two. When they get back, it is nearly time to head home. So when do they work? The next day? Isn’t that also going to be a mirror image of the day that just went by? It invariably always is.
Which brings me back to my question – why are they so laidback?
A semi-genius friend of mine who once told me to keep my monologues and ramblings to myself instead of tormenting her with them has another theory, a slightly more serious one. She’s of the opinion that they don’t value their jobs – for them a job is something that pays the rent. That’s it. There’s no importance of it besides the cash inflow. They are not striving to better themselves or take away anything from their work. They are living one day at a time without working towards a goal.
This makes a little more sense to me than the daal bhaat theory which did make me burst out laughing. But having faced situations where appointments got cancelled at the eleventh hour, people showed up late (once by two freaking hours!) for a meeting that was scheduled to begin at four in the afternoon, I also think that professionalism and work ethics are what are lacking in the majority of people these days.
There is no sense of responsibility and commitment as they prioritize phone calls, tea breaks and even incessant gossiping over work. A break is followed by another break – a longer one this time. A phone call never ends – ani? comes in the place where goodbye should’ve been.
I can’t find a realistic and logical explanation for this kind of attitude. For me, if you’ve taken up a job, you have to do it well, whether or not your heart is into it. If you choose to wake up in the morning to get to work, be prepared to do your share or just simply stay at home and spare us innocent souls the misery, please!
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Working late
ASMITA MANANDHAR
“My family finally feels that I’m alive,” said a friend and a colleague who had recently quit her job. She had been working in a call centre during her high school years and afterwards worked as a reporter for more than two years. Both jobs required her to work at odd timings, thus leaving her almost no time for social or family gatherings.
But now she is the mistress of her own time and she definitely loves the change. And as she was talking about this family function where everyone greeted her with surprise, her family too are all smiles.
When I had just started working for the newspaper, my seniors had warned me about the unusual work time and chances of my social life falling into jeopardy. Honestly, I didn’t take them seriously then. Well, a slight error in judgment, I must say, if not a mistake for not listening to the veterans of the job market, I was just a rookie. Now, I am known in my family circle as “busy” and for “working late” after I missed many of the family gatherings.
And due to such reputation I earned in my family, nowadays I get a bailout of family functions easily, even though I don’t go by choice. Well, relatives are such people who remember and forget you at the same time. But my odd timings were a big adjustment problem for my parents.
First, reaching home late at night and around midnight at least once a week took away their peaceful sleep for six months. Both my parents would lie awake in their bed and no matter how slowly I tried to sneak into the house, they would be there waiting for me, unable to sleep until my return. And to make matters worse, I even used to call my dad to pick me up late at night when the vehicles provided by office could not accommodate me.
My very wise friend and a dear colleague had shared the same problem with me. She said that though we tell our parents that it our job and we have responsibilities to take care of, why make our parents endure with the eccentric timings? Yet it is also another fact that if you cannot handle odd timings and still be a daily page reporter, you’ll have to face a lot of criticisms from fellow professionals.
But no matter how best you try to adjust or how good you are at the job, working late isn’t that easy. On such busy nights in the office, I heard a night desk editor calling his wife and asking her if she had dinner. And though some of the reporters were just filing the news and he knew that he had tons of work on his part, he said, “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
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One way ticket to Nepal
NISTHA RAYAMAJHI
One of my relatives has been in the US since forever. As long as I remember, she has always been there with her family, happy living her western dream. Like many of the Nepali students who choose to study abroad, it was one of those decisions for her and like many of those who don’t decide to come back for good, she became one of those.
But surprisingly not too long ago, she made a decision to come back to the country. She said it was not out of whim but her conscience told her that it was the right time to be here and do something in her own homeland. She was really glad with her decision and was uber sure about it until the comments from many of her so called well wishers started pouring in. And those comments were not about wishing her luck in her new endeavors but were more of a mockery of how she must have chosen to come back due to failure to do something in the land of opportunities.
It is sad but true that many people assume the decision of coming back as a failure. Lately, I have been noticing a lot of people choosing to come back to take a break from their hectic life in the States. Many of my friends, cousins or acquaintances who have come back for good have to bear a lot of criticism and though reluctantly owe a lot of explanation to their own cousins, friends and even strangers who ask them how and why they have come back. They say that it is that same bunch of people who talk big of the ongoing brain drain and how the youth should stay back and create opportunities for themselves and for their country.
I always thought that the idea of studying abroad was for a better education and then coming back to use that expertise learnt there would be a good decision for them and for the country as well. However, it is up to the person because everyone has the right to lead her life the way she wants to. My relative was put off by those ridiculous and insensitive comments that she got and was more determined than ever to prove that her decision of coming back is absolutely right. I recently got a message from her, saying, “I’m buying a one-way ticket to Nepal,” and that made me smile.
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