Scent of the Bench

For those who do not belong to the fast-growing Indian IT industry, "Bench" is a state in which the person is paid for not doing any work as there is no project for him to work on. He/she who is in Bench is provided with 2 hrs lunch time and an hour break after every 15 mins of staring at the blank computer scren. Sleeping in the dormitory in the office hours is a bonus subject to the vacancy available due to the increasing number of bench (non)workers. The term "Bench", I believe is derived from sports where they call the reserved players as "The Bench". A fast check in Wordweb dictionary tells the same.
Every person working in Indian IT industry would have experienced the taste of Bench at least once in his career. Though being in Bench appears to be a luxury for most persons, there are some unlikely persons like me who find it otherwise sometimes. Belonging to the side with very few persons of Satman's What if theory, the day without work appears very difficult to accept for me. Though few days of bench time is acceptable to me, when it extends more, it becomes a different situation. For example, when I returned to Bangalore from UK and was waiting for the US VISA, I was not allocated to any project which in other words, "I was in Bench". The first 2 days went fine as I was busy chatting with all my old friends. But when I pinged them on the third day, there came the unexpected reply, "Busy now! Will chat later". Then when I tried to get my colleague from previous project to the canteen, he replied "Can we go after an hour. I have a meeting now". It was as if the whole world is away to save the world and you are left playing with marbles. Not ready to use the bonus of using the Dormitory, I wandered around the campus watching my fellow "bench-sitters" doing the same as me. Finally, I had to spend the rest of the week reading John Grisham's "The Broker" and Chetan Bhagat's "One night @ the call center" under the comfortness of the bench(real park bench) beside the trees. Blissful! someone might say. Sitting under the trees with the breeze blowing softly over you brings sleep too. I do enjoyed it for a while. But when the books were finished and days passed, it appeared so different that I felt I was not in office at all. The guilt of getting paid for reading novels started to awake in my mind(damn it) and it also created an envy on all my colleagues who would rush to work early from lunch. Finally, I went on to the managers to hunt for some work to keep me away from getting mad at myself. Yeah! I know what you are thinking. I am a big LOSER.

While I went away from the "bench days" soon after, sometimes I face the bench in hidden forms even while working in a project from onsite. This includes the last few days in which the important work I had done in office is writing proverbs on the white board of my cubicle and finding out how much time it takes to walk from my cubicle to Srikanth's. But still, when Satman asked while returning from lunch at 2 PM, if I want him to drop me at home instead of office, I said no.

I had left the ipod in office and I need it in home.