Office Office

Yesterday, I had absolutely no work in the office and I was going to make a post cribbing about it. (Did anyone notice that I crib a bit too much?) But I left for lunch before posting it, and after I returned to my desk, asked the youngest member of the desk (after me, of course) for some work...and then was swamped with loads and loads of work that got over just now.

Even though a friend I was speaking to on phone on Sunday made fun of me when I talked about 'the first week of my working life', I think I am learning a few things that any person who first starts off working does. Or maybe this is just how things work in an internship. For one, I am learning to not feel uncomfortable if I don't have any work to do. Everyone else on my desk is busy and I can't expect them to think up jobs for me to do all the time. I have got a fair amount of work, I am picking up the tricks of the trade gradually, experiencing work-life first hand, and that's about all that an intern bargains for.

I also feel I spoke too soon when I called my work here pointless. By my stringent definition then probably very few jobs like a doctor's or a teacher's would be worth anything. I might have been on the verge of making the same mistake I made with Chemical Engineering. I realised very late that a job or a field is what you make of it, and you don't need to change the world or even make a very significant difference to a person's life for your work to be worthwhile. That does not mean that I have fallen in love overnight with sitting on the trading floor and staring at the screen, or that I would not be on the lookout for things I feel are more suited to my expectations, but after a long discussion with a Mathematics PhD from Australia on my desk last evening I think I respect the field a whole lot more.

I didn't intend to write that last paragraph actually when I started off, but let it be there as a reminder for (many more) occasions when I am in the mood to crib about my work. After I got done with the work assigned to me and before I started writing this, I was reading GreatBong's blog. That man is hilarious. Of course most of you already know that. I think I'll be more regular now, depending on how much time I get in my office. I only hope my antics on the net are not being monitored by someone from the IT Help Desk in the office.

Another important reason, apart from the really great people I am working with, for settling down well at work is the fact that we have discovered this Indian eating joint at the nearest hawker centre that serves really authentic Indian food. Most of the people working there prefer conversing in Hindi, which adds to the home-effect and it's really nice to find properly cooked Indian food amidst the chaos of boiled Chinese food at a hawker centre. As you would have guessed, I have still not regained the courage to try out new stuff after I recovered from my brief illness. I am sticking to Indian, McDonald's or KFC food.