Two BOXES

That was a UNUSUAL day…unusual in the sense, my watch was showing Half past NiNE at night…and I was still in the office…CTS, #8A ICC, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune…

That was the first occasion for me to be in office that much late…there was a genuine reason for that…because it was CUT-OFF date for my dummy project in PeopleSoft…

Finally, having finished up with all of my work…I came out of my CUBICLE cursing the life of a software engineer…Remember, that was my first dummy project!…Subsequently, I came out of my Office…and pressed DOWN BUTTON of the LIFT…

Making me wait for sometime the lift arrived …and slid its doors out to take me inside…LIFT…a 3x4 feet BOX...

As soon as entered inside…

“Which floor?” That was the lift-person asking me where would I like to go.

“Ground floor, please.” I said and…took a look at him.

He was not that USUAL lift-boy…he was a lift-man…

“When do you come?”, I asked.

“At Eight”, he answered. The expressions on his face were indicating that some thinking process is going inside his brain. He might be wondering that why I am asking him all this.

“And when do you go?”…my second question.

“At 8 in the morning.” This time he seemed quiet.

“12 hours shift!!!”

“Yes” , he smiled.

Meanwhile, ground floor had come…and again lift slid its doors out…this time to allow me to go out…

I smiled at him and came out…I did not have anything to say…because my mind was busy in performing UNUSUAL task on that UNUSUAL day…It had started comparison between the TWO BOXES…

First one was LIFT…and second one was 5x5 feet BOX…called as CUBICLE by software engineers…

One has its own roof…other does not have…One has door…second does not have…One is CLOSED…other is OPEN…One has its own Speed and Momentum…while other does not have…People working in first one are known as liftmen…and those in second one are known as Software Engineers…But both of them only press buttons/keys through out their working hours…Liftmen work for TWELVE hours…Engineers for NiNE…Liftmen have stools to sit…Engineers have Comfortable Executive Chairs…

Finally…I arrived at a conclusion that Engineers live a better life than Liftmen…that made me happy for a moment…but at the next moment a thought came…what about the life of LIFTMEN…???

I did not have any answer and still do not have any…I stepped into the PMT going towards Katraj…and said “One Chaitanyanagar please” to conductor.