First

I thought someone had switched the small bulb on and I opened my eyes. It wasn't the bulb but the grayish light coming inside from both the curtain-less windows. I kept myself on the bed, It was cold and there was still some time to start my day. Although I had slept only for four hours, I wasn't feeling like sleeping anymore. I kept staring at the fan revolving above me, In the same room I could listen the snores of my roommate but that wasn't the reason to make me awake. I wanted to get up on my own legs but the bed seems to be more inviting or I was habituated to being idle, I don't know.

Generally I make a plan how to spend the day to complete all of my task, but from some days I never did so, as there was nothing much there to plan. There were many thoughts in my overcrowded mind, but not a single focused. I could see the calender in front of me, it was Tuesday, 30 of January, 2007. I had completed three months in my new company, well it wasn't new anymore now.

Beep beep...... The sound fell on my ears, my cellphone was trying to wake me up as I had set alarm of 7 o'clock, it was third time in a row this week that I was already awake before clock stroked the alarmed time. I switched the alarm off and got myself out of bed. I went to the gallery most of the world I could see was still in fast sleep, but I was awake like I never slept.

I could have started my day later but it was habit, also in morning I would get lesser traffic for my way to office. Although if I would reach at office even in early hours, I won't make any difference to the economy of the company. It doesn't mean I don't play any role in this company, I do. I am in the group which has the most fascinating name in my organization “The Talent Pool”.

Actually it hurt me a lot when I was told to be in Talent Pool (TP), until I get a project. I had one year of experience when I was asked to join and was habituated to work. So when I eventually came in TP I didn't know the luxury of staying idle. It seemed as the aimless life but in these three months I have realized greatness of being on bench.

For the whole year I never knew how much people loved me as I never read their forwards,as I was too busy to read those. But now I have read each and every mail they had forwarded me. When I started there were plenty of them which I never deleted and I feel proud for this intelligence of mine. It was three months training for me about the world which exist on web. I learned so much out of it that I had improved my personality in a short time.

There is my friend I would rate him the best friend of mine as he never let me be bored. Tushar I read every mail of yours, I don't even care how many times I have already seen them, but I read it up to the end. But dear I never found the eclipse, you told me, will happen on 3rd January, 2007. I am enjoying my life to full extent as you told me world is going to end in 2009. I had also dropped all the tax and saving plans keeping the doomsday in my mind. But still I don't make my well wishers sad when they ask me for an appointment to advise me about tax planning. I don't have a penny to invest in their company but still they make me millionaire when I listen their plans. I always amaze why they speak alien language, which I never understand, but I never show them my illiteracy about that. Rather I had learned words like Dividends, equity,.....hhhmmm, ...etc.

I made myself ready to go office and I left the room. In mere twenty minutes I was in office. By now most of the people whom I encounter daily at this time are familiar with me (I was exception to arrive so early). They all wished me good morning and I had time to reply all of them. I reached at the training room, it was locked. I went to canteen they had just started. I don't know I was early or they were late. I saw in my watch it was 8:55 am, I had my answer.
After a long wait I had my breakfast. I never waited so long even for my girlfriend, wait do I had any? No, may be that's why I don't know 20 minute is not so long to wait. Anyway it's a big difference between girlfriend and breakfast, although that time both were same for me.

By the time I returned, training room was opened. I could see the familiar faces and empty places in the room. Every face was busy in looking at the monitor and every face had different expression on it. Some were laughing, some were stunned and some were just asking, “Forward it to me too.” I filled the place which was beside telephone, I had chosen this place for I was able to call anytime if I wanted. The secret reason was also I liked to listen to people when they talked to their girlfriend or boyfriend, most of them were Marathi who never knew I know Marathi. There was another reason too, when any call came I used to attend and announce it in the hall and I had an honor to have a special attention of busiest people on the earth for that second.

I logged in to gmail, yahoo and my company email id. Tushar had sent no mails.

What the hell? What I gonna do for the whole day. So what, I sent him a forward, after 10 minutes I had 20 mails from him and my day was made. 10 of them turned to be already read. 10 mails were enough to send me for coffee break or the last mail I read made me to do so, I don't know.

I took a cup and had cafe Latte as I was already bored with Cappuccino, I had enough of it in last few days. Behind the coffee machine it was written, “Lot can happen over a coffee”. I looked at my coffee and suspected the authenticity of the statement. Today I was alone to have coffee as Shweta had got a project and relocated to Mumbai. Lot could have happend over a coffee but before it could happen I got a mail. The last mail I got was from Shweta she told me very happily that she patched up with his boyfriend who was in Mumbai itself, they just met this weekend casually and the boy made proposal to be together again. Shweta had left Pune before just a week before, before that we were such a good friends. She all the way used to be with me. She had already told me about Kunal.

The empty cup brought me to real world. Sometime I thought everything goes so fast Shweta's affair, my coffee, then why the hell my life had stopped. I would have gone in depth of this question but I had to attend Tushar's mails and I had to find another proxy to access orkut as yesterday 'ghostproxy' was blocked.

I logged in to the machine again. No mails, nobody was on-line. Everybody was so busy in his work. Most of the time I thought am I wasting time when I should be working, but that wasn't my fault. Anyway I never thought I wasn't doing anything for the company, but I was the Potential Energy of the organization. It was me and many like myself were seating idle, so that organization tell customers we still have potential to do much more. So I consider me and my friends the most important factor of this company. This always helped me and my friends to buck up, it was our feel good factor.

I was in my thoughts and somebody pinged me. I clicked on the minimized window, it was Shweta.

“Hi! What's going on?”, she asked.

“was waiting for someone like u to ping me up...”, me

“It is really u.”, her

“so, very happy??”, me

“why?”, her

“I read ur last mail.”, me

“oh, that. Yes very very happy. Never believed it will happen. ;-)”, her

“I am sad ;-(”, me

“Why?”, her

“I was in queue too”, me

“Why dint u told me so B4”, her

“was waiting for time to come, but..... ;-(”, me

“Ok, enough! U will never change, no”, her

I was very famous for my flirting and humorous nature, but believe me I couldn't do much better with that.

“what can I do, It's difficult to improve perfection.”, me

“very Filmi, u would never be serious”, her

People always thought I highly influenced by Hindi Movies, it was true, but why they say I am never serious. And what do u mean by being serious, just being with a hanging face and speak sophisticated words to express them, then sorry I can't be serious.

“how was weekend”, her

“nice”, me

“only nice”, her

“For me weekend and weekdays are not much different”, me

“Lucky people”, her

Why people always thought it's lucky to be on bench, ask me.

“ok, bye will see u soon, have to work now.” her

“bye, don't miss me much... :-)”, me

The conversation ended, and it was time for lunch. I locked the machine and went for lunch.

I filled my tummy full, but still I am feeling empty. I was tired of checking mails and chatting. I always carried a novel for backup, in case nothing helps. I started reading, but that bothered one of my neighbor.

“Which novel is this? Is it available in our library?”

I always find people very curious about something which is available for free (by company), Like books. I answered his every question patiently. When the number of questions were increased I quit answering them, fortunately they got that. But reading (may be anything) from a book was objectionable action in this 'hi tech' room, and how could I be forgiven for this act. I had many friends who were much curious about my reading. I had no option other than to stop and go for a coffee.

Coffee is the best friend of mine for these days, as I wasn't expecting (and accepting) anyone now to be with me. I liked to be alone as each sip of the coffee melted as a new thought in my mind. Sometimes I thought coffee is much like one's life. It's always up to you how you want to have it, a cool or hot. It is always bitter if you just have it without milk and sugar. It doesn't matter how small or large cup you drink but how testy it is. May be thats why they say 'lot can happen over a coffee'.

My cup was empty again. It was 5 o'clock and I still have one and half hour to spend. I returned to training room and logged on again. There was one mail from HR, I was called urgently in the cabin. Such mails were common in my company, as everybody thinks his work is most urgent. Most of the time these are for updating resumes and about filling time sheets.

I went there and introduced myself and explained about the mail I just got. They asked me to seat. It wasn't for the updating resume or time sheet, but they introduced themselves as project manager and a tech lead from a x-development team. I was there for interview for getting into some project. It was started with my introduction and ended after hour of question and answer session. After interview was over, I returned to my place and opened the mail box for checking it for the last time as it was time to leave, I was about to log off, but I got a new mail. That was from HR and I was offered to join the development team from the very next day.

My bench time was over now. The emptiness was gone. I was happy that I will also be working from tomorrow, but at the same time I realized there would be no time for reading mails, chatting or long coffees. I had whatever I wanted, but I can never forget the time on bench, the time I spent on nothing but myself, the time I spent on strange conclusions and contradictory results. I am out of the bench now, but who knows I will return again on bench and that time I could do better.