The Office Corner

It is at the farthest end of the office space; and it is not a separate demarcated area. Invisible boundaries, if you will, define that space of somewhat 6’ x 6’. Special qualities this spot has, for people, their thoughts, their words undergo a dramatic change within it. It is often said that the computer is a window to the world, where one can go miles away and do things at a click. But this spot, a few feet away from the “window to the outside world”, is a window to the world within.
We frequent this spot with cups of steaming coffee or tea. While cribbing about the current state of affairs is a daily ritual; it is also a platform that oftentimes veers the discussion towards each one’s aspirations; sometimes towards trivia drawn from the richness of experience. In speech they sound similar to the great deeds of men of history. We live those moments of past and also conjure a life beyond the present moment. Even if it is for the briefest moment, we give the larger landscape of our lives a genuine thought – we dream! The spot may be just a few tens of meters above the ground, but it has the potency to deliver us into a world of our own; albeit for a flash of the moment.
I have seen people become less guarded and diplomatic, more open, liberal and ever more expressive. I have seen them in a different light here – ordinary techies transforming into unordinary people who have sold big ideas to CIOs, been the one man army during difficult times only to be sidelined in good times, I have seen dreamers who shall own a restaurant and tapas bar someday, dreamers with immense confidence in their solutions to national issues too! I have heard words spilling out that would otherwise have been safely guarded.
Why, you would wonder, does this topic even deserve to be in my blog, or devour character space at all? It is humbug, hogwash... emotional atyaachaar “literally”!!
Well, I just had a few intriguing thoughts about this office corner. Is it solely the complexity of nature-made human mind that pans out such transformations? Or does the man-made office corner have an unfathomable effect of its own? Most of you will say, “Clearly, it’s the former”. Hold on a minute - stop and think of those spaces which have brought tranquility or agitation each time you visited it. Some of you would have witnessed that a particular place brings back the same or similar thoughts (not memories mind you, but thoughts which are barely associated with that place). Recollect those times when you felt the surroundings come alive; when you thought – “This place, there’s something about it!”
While you look for your “office corner”, I am headed to mine… Tell me if you have already found yours :)