This blog was supposed to be about my trip to Jaipur, but the events in the last 48 hours prompts me to write about something else.
In this modern age of cut-throat competition where being an opportunist is the safest way to play, where does loyalty in terms of friendship stand? Is it prudent to quit a job because there's been a scandal in office and everyone handing in their resignation letters is the only way of showing solidarity, even though this job is probably everything you need at the moment to keep you sane, secure, financially and otherwise?
I've been working with a reputed Energy Drink Company for the past one year. This trip to Jaipur was supposed to have been an official one. At round 8 pm the night before I got a frantic call from my friend. It turned out to be a conference call and there were around eight of us involved. Needless to say everyone was impatient, and a bit scared to know what the deal was, after all the conference was called by our boss. After several rounds of girls going ‘what’s going on’ ‘whats happening’ ‘is everything ok’ sniggers and giggles our boss finally managed to shut us all up. There was brief moment of silence an then she uttered a sentence that led to a chain reaction of short phrases of ‘but why and noo you can’t do this and It’s not fair. She had filed in her resignation papers that morning and she’d rather we hear it from her than someone else break the news to us. I was silent. I didn’t know what to say. My mind started to flip through arguments and counter arguments; I’d miss her a hell lot without a doubt but I also knew that she’d taken the right decision. Opinions were put forward; abuses were hurled at the person whom we all thought was behind this decision. It was left unsaid but everyone knew what we had to do; we are a sisterhood, sticking up for each other is what we do.
I myself had been contemplating discontinuing with the company for a while but I never procured enough guts to actually do it. Also, the job was eating into my study time hampering my overall academic performance. This year particularly being my last and most crucial one, I had no other option but to give in my hundred percent and do what I had come to Delhi to do-study and graduate, get into a good job, earn ample money to send back home so that everyone would look at my mother and tell her how good a job she’d done raising me.
Here I was, three years after moving to Delhi, after having rather miserably managed to balance studying and a job, after having built friendships that I knew I’d cherish all my life, after having shared my life’s crests and troughs over a plate of burnt Ramen at four in the morning with my girls, forced to make one of the toughest decisions my 21 years of life had managed throw my way. What do I do? Do I bite my tongue (pocket/wallet) and take one for the team and actually quit the job? ‘Cuz if I hadn’t, my small-town guilty mind would not have let me sleep or face the mirror without persecuting me for betraying my team jus ‘cuz I needed to save my ass; not everything is about money. It was like I needed to tell myself that friendship and loyalty and dignity still held priority in my life. I hadn’t changed into a money-minded selfish bitch. But what bout the fact that I’d have to return to totally-broke days; so broke I’d cancel luncheons with friends cuz I knew I’d be unable dutch when the waiter brought the bill. And isn’t all this part of growing up? We all have to move on someday. And besides, one has to be practical at times. There is no place for emotional fools in today’s world. Everyone will jus take advantage of you, use you and throw you. Was I not losing an opportunity to learn skills about the corporate world? And what about my mother, wouldn’t I be letting her down? Wasn’t I getting back to being a burden on her again?
These thoughts kept playing in my mind over and over again till I realized it was already 6.30 in the morning and the sky was turning light pink. There were people in the park below my house practicing yoga and taking their early morning jogs already. I needed to get some sleep. I was to meet a friend at nine.
The same topic was discussed over lunch with her too.
As I write this last sentence, I have made my decision; one that I know my mother will be proud of: I stand for friendship. I stick by my girls. I stick by my team.
It’s not a tale of opportunities lost but of friendships gained.
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