-Brian Mendonça
The annual staff outing is an event everyone looks
forward to. This is a time set aside in the office calendar to chill out and
enjoy oneself in an informal setting in the company of colleagues.
In my editorial days in Delhi, our publishing
house used to go for the annual product briefing. All editors used to set out for an exotic
locale where we would be housed in a star hotel. The managers and directors
would make presentations on the new books on the anvil and how our sales were
faring.
We visited many places by way of these jamborees.
In all or most of these places I wrote poems. They have now been knit together
in my volume of poems A Peace of India:
Poems in Transit. The volume is an
ode to places like Kufri, Musoorie, Varanasi, Gwalior, Benares, Ballia, and
Srinagar among others.
In Goa my working life is more staid. We have a
day-long outing /picnic to a spot in Goa from 9.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. This gives
us just enough time to tolerate each other amiably.
This time the organizers had chosen a serene place
surrounded by water. Boating was to be the main attraction, but the lone boat
capsized.
There was a duck pond nearby with an amazing fountain. There were ingenious games which had everyone
yelling for all they were worth. Some tried their hand at fishing.
I was a bit out of my depth. When the first game
began I found myself penning a poem for a colleague who would be retiring soon.
For the second, I chose to sit with a senior colleague who was sitting alone
and seemed to be lost in her thoughts. Life is so brief, she was saying. How are we to complete what we want to do?
I began to realize that though I didn’t run with
the pack, I was making some interesting moves.
I took a walk by myself skirting the lake. I saw
some of our group fishing. I took photos of the Waldenesque locale (not selfies)
and posted them on our staff group Whats App.
When I got back, I happened to see the staff
member who would be retiring next month (for whom I had written the poem). I
sat with her and told her how she was an inspiration to me. I was struck by her
simplicity, honesty and humility. ‘I would have even been a sweeper, if I had
to feed my family,’ she said.
I tried to be frugal as far as the food went. I
devoured the chicken sandwiches but gave the next round of snacks a miss. For
lunch I skipped the dessert. For beverages I stayed with water (room
temperature). No drinks.
I dropped staff to and from the venue in my car. The
songs I played on my guitar had others joining in.
I felt I had participated in the staff picnic. There
were some who chose not to show up.
But at the end of the day, I was glad to be
able to socialize – if, in my own way.
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