The new office

It's been a long time since my "first day" in office. But oh shit, what a first day. The very first day, I'm told "We usually wear formals in office, but on fridays, we wear casuals", this was my manager over here. And what was I wearing to recieve this comment, a Kappa sweatshirt, and a UMM jeans, !!!!!!

What on earth was wrong in that. I've worn much better (for some people, much worse) things than this to office, say ...... shorts, yes I had worn shorts in office, and floaters. But that was back in India, where no one gave a damn. In fact, if i came in to office wearing a shirt (with jeans), then it was obvious that I had a meeting, and if I wore the cull thing (shirt, pant and leather shoes), then it was obvious that I had a hangover. That was a certainty, you know, messages conveyed by the "body language"; but in a more literal sense.

But then I looked around, and I realised. I wasn't in India, I was in "England" (read as ENGLAND with a tougher upper lip and a high snobbish nose). This was the birth place of formal clothing. Shirt, pants, shoes, ties .... complete suits. WOW!!!!!! How do these people live.

And then, it was the ambience. I thought that I had come to someone's funeral. Everything was silent, not like the "silence befire the storm" silent, but silent. There was freaking more commotion in the room when I was giving my boards in 10th and 12th!!!!! And if we needed to talk, or yap (which was more relevant in our case), we had to go into one of the "silent rooms". And these rooms weren't sound proof, not one bit. Till date, I haven't understood the concept of a meeting room, which is NOT sound proof. Boy, did I start missing the macchhi baazar environment back on the 6th floor in Shell India.

Lunch time. Thank God some food. ........ IT'S NOT FREE!!!!!!!!!! What kind of an insensitive, money sucking pig "sells" lunch in office. Apparently, Shell UK does. The only part I like, is that they have a sandwich counter, which is pretty much similar to Subways. And then you can take the sandwich in a doggy bag up to your desk.

In fact, nothing in the Shell office here is free, except for coffee, water and bathroom entry. You even need to bring you own ball (s) (no pun intended) if you want to play foosball.

In a way, the office back in Bangalore was much much much better. I miss STI so much :( ......