I work in a team where people from various ethnicity are present and it's always a challenge in deciding on activities such as team lunch and team events, where everyone seems to have an opinion that is best to their knowledge. This includes me and some of the fellow Indians around.
Let me now introduce you to Mr X. He is a shy Asian guy in our team who never talks to people other than the ones from his community. Nobody knew what he was like. The only thing that we were aware of him was he brings the same lunch every bloody day. A glass box with some plain sticky rice, a brown sauce, some lettuce and loose steamed corn. There was also this secret ingredient in there which gives out a pungent nasty smell which lingers in the floor for about an hour. The bad news is that it doesn't end there. The green tea which he drinks post that "elevates" the flavours of the lunch he just had. As it goes without saying, the entire team of ours were aware of the pleasantly obnoxious hit that comes out of his lunchbox. My good friend who sits next to me always used to chuckle when the pop of the lid echoes through the floor.
One fateful day, I was assigned to a project in which Mr. X was a part as well. We two had to work together for the project and I had to bear the brunt of his lunch and the aftermath. The thing that annoys me is when he comes to ask questions to me. For reasons best known to him, he leans to the screen I'm working on. It was getting overly uncomfortable for me. I couldn't say that to him in person. I wouldn't complain about his personality in general as he is always quite helpful. But I had to put an end to the trauma I was undergoing.
It was soon time for Christmas and the work in our team was winding down. Christmas was quite eventful in our work place and it was time for the traditional Secret Santa. We had our own version of it where people can "steal" other's gift if they like by swapping what they received originally. I realised this was an opportunity to deal with Mr.X. I planned to get a bottle of Listerine, got it nicely wrapped and put it in the mix of gifts. It was then the day I was badly waiting for! We all gathered around the Christmas tree and were allocated the number by randomly. I saw people getting interesting gifts from poker sets to Nerf guns. Mr.X had already chosen his gift and he received a nice pair of earphones. I had my eyes on the bottle of Listerine. it was soon my turn, and after some "thought", I picked the gift which I had put there in the first place. I ripped open the gift wrap and the people who were standing next to me were quite amused to see what was sitting in my hand. Rebecca, one of the testers in our team was like "Hey! are you planning to use that?". Without a moment of hesitation, I walked towards Mr.X and swapped the bottle of Listerine with his pair of earphones. The chuckle of the entire team turned into loud laughter. Mr. X looked rather bemused. It was an embarrassment which he never expected.
To my surprise, he stopped bringing lunch from the next year onwards and started having lunch outside.
Let me now introduce you to Mr X. He is a shy Asian guy in our team who never talks to people other than the ones from his community. Nobody knew what he was like. The only thing that we were aware of him was he brings the same lunch every bloody day. A glass box with some plain sticky rice, a brown sauce, some lettuce and loose steamed corn. There was also this secret ingredient in there which gives out a pungent nasty smell which lingers in the floor for about an hour. The bad news is that it doesn't end there. The green tea which he drinks post that "elevates" the flavours of the lunch he just had. As it goes without saying, the entire team of ours were aware of the pleasantly obnoxious hit that comes out of his lunchbox. My good friend who sits next to me always used to chuckle when the pop of the lid echoes through the floor.
One fateful day, I was assigned to a project in which Mr. X was a part as well. We two had to work together for the project and I had to bear the brunt of his lunch and the aftermath. The thing that annoys me is when he comes to ask questions to me. For reasons best known to him, he leans to the screen I'm working on. It was getting overly uncomfortable for me. I couldn't say that to him in person. I wouldn't complain about his personality in general as he is always quite helpful. But I had to put an end to the trauma I was undergoing.
It was soon time for Christmas and the work in our team was winding down. Christmas was quite eventful in our work place and it was time for the traditional Secret Santa. We had our own version of it where people can "steal" other's gift if they like by swapping what they received originally. I realised this was an opportunity to deal with Mr.X. I planned to get a bottle of Listerine, got it nicely wrapped and put it in the mix of gifts. It was then the day I was badly waiting for! We all gathered around the Christmas tree and were allocated the number by randomly. I saw people getting interesting gifts from poker sets to Nerf guns. Mr.X had already chosen his gift and he received a nice pair of earphones. I had my eyes on the bottle of Listerine. it was soon my turn, and after some "thought", I picked the gift which I had put there in the first place. I ripped open the gift wrap and the people who were standing next to me were quite amused to see what was sitting in my hand. Rebecca, one of the testers in our team was like "Hey! are you planning to use that?". Without a moment of hesitation, I walked towards Mr.X and swapped the bottle of Listerine with his pair of earphones. The chuckle of the entire team turned into loud laughter. Mr. X looked rather bemused. It was an embarrassment which he never expected.
To my surprise, he stopped bringing lunch from the next year onwards and started having lunch outside.
2 comments:
Good one Shri!! I know who the guy is :) The climax is you even made him to go to another project :)
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to start my own BlogEngine blog now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings rapidly. Your write up is a fine example of it. Siro Yarn
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