Chapter 17

People who used to visit Mr. Naman or his parents for the first time always showed regret to see that Mr. Naman was at home. They always assumed that he was unemployed and was unable to find any kind of work. I think by seeing Mr. Naman at home everyday on a weekday, anyone could assume this but what made it special was that the confidence of these strangers on their assumption. They were willing to even place bets of amount equal to their one month salary claiming that Mr. Naman was indeed a good for nothing person. It is not clear what gave them such confidence, was it Mr. Naman or was it just vibes that he emitted.

But it was not always like that. Mr. Naman's boss, the editor had made it mandatory initially for Mr. Naman to sit on an office desk and write his articles from there. It was only when people sitting close to Mr. Naman's office desk said that they will resign unless Mr. Naman leaves that desk or they are given a desk in some other room. What force could have prompted a normal middle class security loving person to take such a drastic step, offering to sacrifice his career. The editor was shocked to hear such an ultimatum and decided to allow Mr. Naman to work from home, as desired by him in the first place. Mr. Naman although was surprised by the editor's change of heart but took the news in a positive manner. He reached home and told his mother
"Ma, From tomorrow, i do not have to go to office. The editor allowed me to work from home."
"But why? He refused initially na?"
"Yeah, he did. But some of my colleagues threatened to resign if he didnt do that"
"Oh God, Why would your colleagues take such extreme steps, were you troubling them?"
"No ma, I think the correct term here is office presence."
"oho, now what is this office presence?".
"It seems like you do not learn from all those movies and tv series that you watch. Haven't you heard off the term screen presence? Screen presence - when an actor dominates the screen just because he is in the camera frame, often good actors have this ability. I have the same ability when it comes to office. Not everyone is able to handle it. In movies, it often makes the other actors sharing the screen jealous. I think the same thing happened here as well. Ofcourse, you can not blame me for being such an exceedingly good employee".

Mr. Naman's mother eventually stopped interrogating her son and went to pray to thank god that atleast her son still had a job. But, what was the thing that Mr. Naman did or rather not did that within one month of his joining, his colleagues acted as they did.

Had it been a Akbar birbal story, i would paint the scenario in Birbal like manner where Mr. Naman asked his colleagues deliberately to act so, giving them the confidence that they will not be fired. If Mr. Naman gives an ultimatum that he would resign if he was not allowed to work from home, then surely he would be fired. But if his colleagues did that, there is a possibility that he can still keep his job and get what he wanted. But, the sad part is that it is not an Akbar Birbal story. This is about Mr. Naman. And it has everything to do with Mr. Naman.


While Mr. Naman was coerced to work from office, he was given a desk, and fortunately for him, it was next to a window. It was a third floor office with glass window facing to the beautiful hills of Ugar. The control of the window was completely in the hands of the person who sat next to it, yes in hands of our very own Mr. Naman and his first act in his new desk was something that had never been done since the window was constructed - He opened the window. Gush of wind blew in, fresh, cool air with bright sunlight came into the office and it blew all the unclipepd papers lying on all the desks in that room. Everyone was quite annoyed by the air except for one person and who was looking at his new colleagues with a smiling face. It was not a smile of mockery but a genuine innocent smile of receiving the wind at an altitude of 40 feet above ground. Not bothered by the commotion of his colleagues who were rushing to pick papers, he raised both of his hands as if he was flying. It was the first time that Mr. Naman was standing in front of a window of a third storey building with such a beautiful weather.

With that gesture everyone knew that the window will not be closed until Mr. Naman was there. But they accepted it as they also felt good with fresh air coming in. But what annoyed them the most in the coming days was Mr. Naman's way of working. Mr. Naman used to stare out of the window for most of the time during the day. As if his article was hidden behind those far away hills. Wind was his secret messenger, a spy that would steal one word, one line or one para sometimes from the hill and would bring it to Mr. Naman. He sat holding a pencil, a pad in other hand and just stared outside the window occasionally scribing something on his pad. All others around him were very puzzled by his modus operandi. But it was not limited to this only. One common habit Mr. Naman had while writing his article was that he would smile several times without any reason. He smiled whenever he felt happy within. Although Mr. Naman didn't like the idea of working from a desk, but still he found immense happiness staring out the window. The window was his escape from the usual office life. He used to laugh whenever a strong gush of wind hit his face. He would smile and nod, as if the wind had whispered something interesting in his ears. Then he would scribe something on his pad. Everyone around were immensely puzzled by his behavior. At first they thought that he was crazy but when they read what he had scribbled, they were shocked. His article was beautiful creative.

Mr. Naman's colleagues used to ask him about his habit of staring outside the window but Mr. Naman declined to reveal the secret outside the window. This annoyed them much. But what really made them cross the white line against a white background were Mr. Naman's innocent offers. Mr. Naman thought that others should also see the beauty around them, he would often call them and encourage to see outside the window, sometimes even persisting strongly to ensure that spend atleast half an hour everyday with nature outside. In their busy office lives, a luxury of half hr breaks was not permitted, especially if one is not trained to do so. Believe me, it requires great practice to do nothing and Mr. Naman was an expert in this art. Sometimes he would just sit with his legs hanging outside the window, hands folded across his chest and just look outside the window while sitting in his chair. I think i forgot to mention but he was also wearing kurta-paijams. He would just stare outside, not even writing anything, just stare and smile, smile and stare. He would urge others to join but for others this was a "un-official" thing.

What puzzled them most was that their productivity was equal to Mr. Naman's productivity. Clearly, they believed that Mr. Naman's productivity was not very high, it meant that their productivity was also not that great. They blamed Mr. Naman for it, as they thought that he was acting as a distraction to them. And so they complained to resign or change rooms or change Mr. Naman's desk. Little they realized that in that one month, their productivity had actually increased. Little the realized that in that one month, they were sometimes happy while working. Little they realized that by closing window, they were closing their thoughts as well.

Thus, it was a window seat that got Mr. Naman a free ride to work from home. There are some days when he decides to sit at his desk, days when he is reminded of that third floor window air, days when the clever wind decides to sneak out more messages from that hill. On those days, his colleagues too, knowing that it is just going to be one day in a month, enjoy the wind and do not work. Now, they look forward for Mr. Naman to work from office, it is on those days that they relax.