Another day with a pair'a'dice

Do you enjoy going to work? As in, do you wake up in the morning and think - Yes! Today is a wonderful day to go into work, and put in a good productive 8 hours?

Not many people do and I feel that this has more to do with the atmosphere in the office than the work itself. Yes, I admit, somedays it's just about the fact that you would rather stay at home, in bed, under the covers, with a hot cup of tea (or coffee, or something else) and a good book, than you would like to get up, get ready and go to work.But then there are those times, when the work you are doing is really worth it... the times when you are just rearing to go, and you know what you need to do to get something done.

Of course, for me, those days are rarer nowadays than they ever were. And it is very clear that it has to do with the office atmosphere. My boss, is getting on everyone's nerves, not just my own. My colleagues are all bitching about the work atmosphere and other similar things. My team is telling me that they are planning to quit - nothing to do with me, they graciously admit.

But my situation isn't even as bad (putting it mildly) as N's. Her situation is the kind that one never ever imagines would happen in an office of an MNC with progressive, intelligent people. It is unfortunately, a problem that many people, not only women, face in an office environment. I don't mean necessarily that the men are subject to sexual harassment, but rather that the work culture does not allow for a happy, healthy working space.

If you are one of those people who feels vaguely (or not so vaguely) unhappy about the way people in your office behave, please make a point of it - fight for a better working atmosphere.

Or at least give N as much support as you can. She is fighting (as someone has said) for "all working women".

Every year, it comes around and each year I react somewhat similarly and somewhat differently. This year, on my birthday (which was yesterday), I was in my most blah mood.

Why? Because I had been working on the weekend before. Yes, Saturday and Sunday. So instead of feeling lazy, relaxed or (god-forbid) happy, I woke up on Monday morning, despairing the fact that my birthday was likely to be not-so-much-fun.

So, I woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head... Looking up I realised I was late, and rushed to work.

After a dull, dragging day at work, I got home, and found candles, and home made cake and Grover Washington Jr on the stereo, and A dressed up gorgeously (in only the way she can), and almost (though not quite) immediately, I felt happier. It was my birthday after all.

We didn't go out for dinner, like we thought we might. We didn't have friends over, like we often do. But somehow, feeling relaxed after a tense week(end) and day, remembering the good things of life, I feel that I had a birthday I could remember after all!

And I can still dream about beaches of Goa for my next birthday, can't I?