Uncle

UNCLE

                                                                                                            

The old man, well known in the building as Uncle, stumbled a little and stopped, balanced himself as took the support of the side wall. He took a couple of seconds to feel assured and then walked to the attached bathroom in the adjoining room. The TV in the living room was blaring giving nonstop details of the lockdown situation in different parts of the country and at times even Europe and America. Nandu, his 24 hour support was busy in the kitchen preparing lunch.

          Uncle came out of the bathroom with a wet pajama. “ Nandu….Nandu, where is my pajama?” Nandu, a man of fiftyish came running, opened the cupboard on the wall of the room and took out a fresh, ironed white pajama. In the meantime Uncle had removed the old one. Nandu looked at Uncle and said “wait I will get the new underwear too. And Uncle, please put on a diaper.”

 Uncle smiled “You are bent upon increasing my wasteful expenditure”.

“Wasteful expenditure? Uncle you need 4 pajamas and underwear every day. The cost of soap & water is more than your diaper cost” Nandu chuckled.

Uncles eyes shined with mischief “You want to reduce your work so giving me gyan? I have to deduct the extra cost from your salary”

Nandu was not the one to back out “better get the prostrate operated, you are pretty healthy otherwise” he kept the new undergarment and diaper on the table and went back to kitchen to get on with preparing lunch.

Putting on the new dress and properly packed Uncle came out to the living room to continue watching the news. After a few moments he switched the channel, same news with a different anchor with a different narrative was being telecast. A few seconds and the channel was switched again. This time it was a sports channel. Some old cricket match was on, Uncle pressed the ‘off‘button of the remote. The room suddenly quietened out. Uncle got up and went to the main door of the apartment. Outside he heard some voices of people talking. Opening the door he could find the two neighbors of the adjoining apartments, Sunil and Ramesh both in their thirties, standing in the door of their apartment and talking.

“Good afternoon Uncle, Lunch finished?” Sunil asked respectfully

“Good afternoon. Na, lunch is a bit delayed today. You two, no office today?”

“Work from home Uncle” Ramesh replied

“How can you work from home? Work at home is OK when you bring some ongoing work home but work from home? It is as good as no work” Uncle was shaking his head to show disagreement. Ramesh and Sunil laughed “Uncle with the advancement of technology it is possible and it is the trend now. With this Corona thing it is necessary also.” Sunil reasoned

“I understand this lockdown doesn’t permit you to go out to office but don’t you think this work from home is something like ‘home work’ you used to get at school? While at school you get all the knowledge for 8 hours, at home you recapitulate this in half an hour of home work. Same here, in office you do the detailing and some small left out items you can finish at home. Also, all paperwork, presentation is OK you can do at home but for putting it to work, for production you need to be there right at the place of action!” . Uncle had worked for 35 years in a manufacturing unit and was unable to understand the work from home concept.

“We are software engineers Uncle; we are not in production line in a factory. Even in office we do our jobs alone. For traveling to & back from office we lose time, also work from home increases productivity” Sunil was putting his points to convince Uncle.

Uncle shook his head “Sunil I understand your software development work but believe me all are not so independent in working, even in software development. We need social interaction, not just for gossiping but even for work related chat. It increases our productivity. I know you may be having video conferencing but it cannot replace personal interaction, at least for now. As people get more and more separated, with time in next generation it may be possible.”

Uncle’s strong arguments resulted in a difference of opinion between Sunil and Ramesh. While Sunil was not convinced, Ramesh was in agreement with Uncle’s argument. “Yes Uncle I don’t fear the task but I do need to talk to a friend just as a sounding board for my logic. And Uncle my close friend Faizal needs clear instructions to do his job. Over the calls it is not possible. ”

“See that is why I said Work from Home is less of work” Uncle was pleased with his victory.

Sunil smiled and told Uncle that he had work to finish and closed his apartment door. Ramesh stood for a couple of minutes without saying anything and then went in. Uncle too closed the door and came inside for lunch. He was happy and there was a spring in his step.

Days passed, almost a routine was set. Every day after lunch the three of them stood on the doors of their apartment and had a conference almost for an hour, discussing various things but mostly the deadly virus and its progression & cure. Uncle had made it a point to use diaper regularly, he did not want to miss the discussions for urge of need to use toilet.

 A couple of months passed. The disease was controlled and life was coming back to normal.  In the meantime Ramesh and Sunil started going to office. The routine of “door conference” vanished. But Uncle didn’t stop going to the door after lunch. He was getting used to seeing the locked doors of his neighbors. It had become a habit for him or was there anything deep inside? Nandu also had started to slip out daily at noon with the excuse of buying something. Uncle was missing the dose of interesting discussions. Last evening he was watching a debate on TV where the concept of work from home due to increased productivity was being strongly recommended by one of the leading IT Company CEO. Uncle chuckled silently remembering his own discussions with Sunil & Ramesh.

Today was Sunday. The offices were closed. Uncle finished his lunch and went to the door. He could find both Sunil and Ramesh’s apartment door open. A smile full of expectation lighted his face. Sunil came out of the apartment. He was wearing a jeans and a T shirt. Uncle was a bit surprised” What are you doing with the jeans at home Sunil”.

“Good afternoon, just going to a movie Uncle. “ Sunil seemed to be in a hurry to lock his door. At the same time Ramesh came to the door of his apartment. His hair was disheveled. He had put on his usual lungi and banyan. He smiled ‘How are you Uncle?’

Uncle smiled back ‘Good, how is the work’

‘Very high workload Uncle’

‘Yes you had lot of free days in the form of Work from Home, now must catch-up with all pending work’ Uncle started the discussion

‘Yes Uncle, boss is very demanding. ‘

‘You look very tired Ramesh, Is it only the work load or something else? Your health is OK?’ There was genuine concern in Uncle’s voice.

‘Yesterday was Saturday Uncle, a late night party with friends, came back very late. I must catch some sleep. Again the same pressure from tomorrow’ saying this Ramesh closed the door slowly.

Disappointment was writ large on Uncle’s face. He was wondering why they do  not work from home, after all everybody says work from home increases productivity!!

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