Out of touch

I went to office after a long time yesterday and it felt so different.

I was working from home for a few days as I did not want to stress myself travelling in peak hours and sitting alone in office for 6-7 hours without any company is so boring. I was relatively free to take rest whenever I needed it at home and also work as and when I could.

I had to submit medical bills and collect Sodexho meal passes from the office. I also wanted to meet my ex-colleague, Shilpashree, who was my first contact in Accenture, when I joined her team as a German translator. She was coming to my office for a training and we were meeting almost after 3 years. So, looking at all these factors, it was worth going to office.

As my dad drove me to the office in the car, I suddenly felt strange. Throngs of people were rushing to their work place, kids were going to school, there were so many vehicles on the road and it was just 7:45 am. It was only me who was travelling after a long gap and I suddenly felt that it was just a matter of 2-3 weeks, that I was working from home and I feel so out of place now. Maddening rush, traffic and chaos, which was a part of my life too suddenly made me nervous. Do we get used to good comfortable things so much that going back to the routine feels little difficult? Has the home atmosphere, the presence of my mother-in-law and father at home, relaxing mood, spending good time with my baby, who is due next month made me so laid-back?

From next month, I will be on Maternity Leave and then I will be out of touch of everything that is happening outside my home, in my office, in the world. Not that I am complaining! I will have my hands full with the baby and I am sure she will be keeping us on our toes. Contact with the outside world will cease. Daily habit of reading newspapers, watching favorite serials, going for leisure walks, chatting with friends will stop for a few months at least. I am sure the arrival of baby will give me 10 other topics to write on, but when I will really get time to put them on paper, is a different thing.

My career may receive a set-back, it is definitely going to be a big gap in my career spanning 10 years, but then it is worth it, isn’t it? I have been waiting for motherhood from a long time and finally God decided to bless me with it. Otherwise, I love working, I worship my work. I do not remember having taken a break for more than a month in these 10 years. I had gone to Germany in November 2010, when Atul was there, but I had come back in a month as I didn’t want to cause inconvenience to my project and company by my long absence. I will definitely like to continue working and earn after the baby arrives, but then I think, it will take a little more time, before I resume. I wouldn’t want to put a 6 month old baby in crèche. I want to catch up with every little development in my child.

All this while, I was out of the league of mothers, who talked about their kids, their eating habits, toilet training, playschool, school admissions etc. I was the odd man out, no sorry odd woman out and felt why they don’t have anything else to talk. I now know why they do not have anything else to talk. Kids fill their entire routines, their entire lives. I will soon be joining them to explore an entirely new, different, exciting world, the “baby world”, the kids world!

How time changes our priorities! 

Oh this line could be an impetus for my next write-up.

J