Assam – part 2 – the English August connection




From the over sanitised NSE Building with its slick interiors and staircase less floors, Shivsagar (a sleepy little town somewhere in Upper Assam) comes as a major culture shock.
After the magic of the greenery around has outgrown you and you settle into the rhythm of life with load shedding every 2 hours, it starts getting to u.
Between wiping your brow with a hanky that needs to be wrung every 15 mins and dodging pesky little mosquitoes you literally have your hands full.
You get out of office and the heat strikes you. It’s bloody hot. The glare of the sun is so intense that is really difficult to move around outside without goggles.
And while talking about offices - dilapidated tin sheds are what pass off as the offices of India's most valuable company - wonder where all that profit goes or better still maybe that’s why there is all that profit. From the windows of these ground floor offices (there are no floors above) you cannot peep outside because the grass outside has grown to crazy proportions. There is even a vine coming in through the ventilator.
The fans trundle on (when there is electricity that is) faintly moving the still, hot air. Its sticky hot inspite of three baths a day. And oh yes the Sales and Accounts office has a frog (or is it a toad) that keeps sitting in one corner unmindful of the people who of course keep sitting in their chairs. Nice bunch of motionless humans and amphibians in perfect harmony. Cute picture aint it? The Marketing guy not to be left behind by his animal loving sales counterpart has this huge spider for company. Didn’t try to find out whether I could become Spiderman if the eight legged creature bit me,
Reminds me of ENGLISH AUGUST except for masturbating monkeys the other characters are all there. And I thought that was a gross exaggeration of what life in a Govt office was like.
The truth my dear friends are out here and it’s no stranger than fiction.
That’s that for now, onto Rajahmundry now. The charm of Assam is over. And ppl in AP say it promises to be hotter!

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