A Monday Of Ice & Fire

The cuckoo comes out of the wall-clock half-asleep, rolls over its eyes, turns around and checks the time again in disbelief. It is astonished at being out so early. In its entire life, it has never seen the sunrise. It taps on Mohit's shoulder and asks "Are you sure? ICYMI the snooze button still works!", Mohit smiles and replies, "Shall we begin?". It dawns upon the cuckoo. Literally and figuratively. GoT season 7 starts today!

Laptop gets switched on. The cold and the hot stars align themselves on the screen. The theme music begins. And within seconds, an hour passes. Dazed and smitten, the cuckoo goes back inside the clock and Mohit gets up from the bed. Those who say, 'Red Wine leaves the worst Hangover', should try tasting Game of Thrones.

Mohit picks up the brush, switches off the bathroom bulb and swings the tooth-pick like a sword. The tooth-brush has a name engraved. 'Needle', it reads. The mouth doesn't smell now, the commode does. The tea kettle is mounted upon the gas. "Dracarys", Mohit orders as he fires up the stove. The roommate gets up with a jolt.

"Shit! Is it over?" he frowns as he watches the clock striking 8 AM.

"Yes", Mohit smirks.

"What happened?" he asks.

"Many things!", Mohit replies with a cheeky smile.

"Many things?"

"Many things.."

Mohit spruces up. It's time to head to the office. The friend aka roommate aka team-mate aka petrol-partner aka unlucky-GoT-Fan-who-missed-the-episode is also ready.

"No spoilers on the way, please! I am having a terrible day anyway. Missed the episode and then Dad called & bashed me for missing the LIC premium deadline. He thinks I am vile, appalling." the friend looks down.

"All engineers are bastards in their father's eyes", Mohit consoles him.

"Hmm," he replies.

"Never forget you are an engineer." Mohit continues, "The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor and it can never be used against you. Pay the LIC premium online." Mohit opens the android app and hands it over.

"Haha yay!", the friend pays the premium. "Chalo," he says, "It's time to head to the King's Landing. We have a Client's visit today."

And they ride off to the office.

The traffic is unbelievable. Buses, bikes stacked up one after the other.

"Hordes of vehicles out there. Such chaos. We can never reach on time." Mohit says.

"Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. We will be the earliest to reach the office", the friend chirps and vrooms the bike onto the footpath. Everyone following the rules, on the way, is overtaken. They reach before time and are greeted with an empty ODC.

A little later, the GL arrives. Showing his face after months. Of course, since it's a client visit. Team lead Krishnan rushes off to welcome him. Krishnan introduces GL to every team member. They walk towards Mohit.

Krishnan starts the introduction, "You now stand before Girbaan Singh of House BFS, the father of Audit Reporting, rightful heir to the Principal Consultant throne, breaker of Timesheet chains and Khal of the Toastmaster Club "

Mohit stands stunned. His friend intervenes, "And he is Mohit Aggarwal.", pauses, thinks and mumbles, "He is a Javascript developer".

"Ohh Mohit! I have a huge pile of Client Appreciation mails for you. Keep up the great work!".

They shake hands.

The client visit ends. As the clients are leaving the premise, the lead whispers to Mohit near the gate, "Hold the door!". And Mohit recognizes his value in the team. He gives back a wry smile, "That's what I do. I code and I hold doors", he hits back. The client leaves. As the team strolls back to the ODC, a fresher from behind says jubilantly, "Client was very happy today. I don't think there will be any more escalations."

Mohit whispers under his breath, "You know nothing, Jon Snow".

The GL leaves as well. "What kind of leader he is if he is not willing to risk his own ratings fighting for our allocations?", says a shadow resource. "A smart one" replies Mohit.

The team leads signals, everyone, to gather in the meeting room. The lead declares, "There is an enhancement we need to deploy before tomorrow evening. So, I have decided that everyone has to spend the night in the office. This can be the make or break for your appraisals guys." Basically he means, "Bend the knee and join me or refuse and die!"

The team disperses. Mohit stays back and approaches the lead.

"Sir as I had planned earlier, I will be leaving today for my hometown for the Ganesh Festival"