Navigating Life; the GPS Way

“I think we are lost. And this sudden downpour is making the matter worse.” Shirish muttered with growing impatience.

“No problem. I will open the good old GPS on Google Maps.” Manisha replied reaching out to her mobile phone.

Once they were back on the familiar road, Shirish heaved a sigh of relief and told Manisha “Now you may turn it off. I know this route.”

“Isn’t GPS a life savior?” Manisha quipped.

Shirish, who prided himself on his navigational sense, replied “I wouldn’t go that far. Yes. It’s a convenient tool.”

“For me it is.”

Hearing Manisha’s words from the backsea, their daughter Gunjan, who had been busy browsing on her mobile phone till then said “That’s true Pappa. For Mamma, it is a life saver.”

“How so, Beta?” Shirish asked tongue in cheek.

“Because she would get lost in the by-lanes, right next to our house. You know na Pappa what happened when I walked fast and reached home ahead of her during one of our walks last month?”

“I forgot Beta. What happened?”

“What else Pappa? I had to go back and get her home.” By now both Gunjan and Shirish were guffawing.

“Okay. Okay. You people never get tired of making fun of me. You jolly well remember the story. You asked her so that you can laugh at me once again.” Manisha retorted as she blushed in embarrassment.

Shirish said trying to put a straight face “Jokes apart, I am glad that thanks to GPS, I can rest assured that you won’t get lost.”

“Is that so? Now who got lost and saved by GPS?”

As her parents banter went on, Gunjan put her ear phones on with a smile. She was glad that there were still quite a few things in life that they could laugh at, like in old times.

As soon as they got back home, they went about washing their hands religiously. This had become quite automatic for everyone in the house by now.

Over the last one year, as Shirish worked from home, the boundaries between work time and personal time had been overlapping quite a bit. Sometimes he found it more exhausting than when he was going to office, as he found himself working into the wee hours of the morning many a time.

Despite that, he knew it was a relief not to waste time on commuting anymore. It was the very first time in his life that Shirish spent so much time by being physically together with his family and he was beginning to enjoy it.

While Manisha worked for a private school, Gunjan was in the first year of her graduation. With Gunjan and Manisha occupying the two bedrooms in the house for their online classes, one for teaching and one for learning, Shirish settled down in the hall for his Zoom meetings and conference calls.

It was Manisha who mandated that they have their meals together and Shirish looked forward to that time of the day. He was getting to understand the meaning of the age old adage “the family that eats together, stays together.”

The forthcoming week was a very important one for Shirish who worked at a reputed private company in the middle management level. He knew during that week, the performance ratings and the promotions to the next level would be announced across the company. Shirish had got his promotion 3 years back and was expecting one that year. He had been a fast-tracker and was used to getting promotions at regular intervals. He knew, but for COVID-19, he would have got elevated during FY2020. 

Knowing what was on Shirish’s mind, Manisha tried to steer clear of the topics related to work. She tried lightening the mood by cooking up silly jokes, but noticing that Shirish was getting irritated, she let go of it after a while.

That Friday evening, Shirish’s Boss called him to let him know about his performance rating, which to Shirish’s great relief, was on his expected levels. As he waited with bated breath for his Boss to continue his talk for the news on his promotion, he could hear him sigh at the other end and say “this year too, the organization has decided that very few people would get elevated from your level, and that too in the high revenue earning departments. As you know ours is not one of those. But this doesn’t undermine your contribution Shirish. I am hopeful the tide would turn next year for the better.”

Shirish was crestfallen. He tried arguing with his Boss, but other than words of solace, his Boss had nothing else to offer.

That whole weekend Shirish sulked. On Sunday night as Shirish tossed and turned in the bed, he heard Manisha say “Do you know GPS could be of some help to you too.”

Shirish was stunned at such tangent words coming out of Manisha. As he was about to retort in anger, Manisha continued “Please hear me out fully. You know when there is too much traffic, GPS prompts us to take a different route, albeit a longer one. No matter what the condition, it’s always showing us a way to reach our destination.

This year the whole world has had it bad Shirish. So your promotion is delayed not because of you, but because of the conditions out of your control. You are lucky to have a job and get a good performance rating during these trying times. Remember, you are still very much on route to your destination.”

Shirish was dumbstruck as he found the logic in Manisha’s words to be undisputable. After a long pause, he said “Now I know why your students adore you. You are meant to be a teacher Manu.”