Pritam's Blog
The Whimsical Weed Philosophy
It was night shift. And I ran out of cigarettes.
I was then working at a call centre, before my engineering results were out.The training period was just over.And we were sent to the floor to pick up real calls. It was tiring especially when it’s night shift… Tiring and frustrating. Imagine, you are damn sleepy, but you can’t sleep; and when someone calls, you have to be extra-polite and say,“Thank you for calling reservation.My name is Murphy.How may I help you today?”
I remember one of the most frustrating moments when a guy called up to book a hotel and as I was looking for the hotel as per his requirements, he was having sex. I could hear the girl screaming(Yes, it really happened. I am not making it up). I got so turned on…I needed to smoke after the call ended.
So one night, I ran out of cigarettes. The shops were closed too.A few guys were smoking weed and so I joined them. I had given up weed but I thought it’s OK. A few puffs won’t do any harm. I had probably forgotten how it felt after smoking weed.
Anyway, I got so high. When I came back to the floor, everybody was laughing at me. And it scared the shit out of me. I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself. So I told the team leader that I was going to the toilet… When I think about it today, it still laugh my heart out. Why would I need to ask my team leader to go to the toilet? It’s not as if I was a school student…
Anyway, I came out. And I ran.
I was caught by the security guard at the gate. I told him the truth. That I was fucking high. And I was leaving. Probably he felt pity for me and let me go.
It was 2 am. And I stood there on the roadside, waiting for an auto. I got one at last. He asked for triple the meter amount. I said fine.
I went to a friend’s place, scared. I told her that probably I was going to lose this job. She listened to everything and said,“That’s so cute :) You look like a mischievous kid who ran away from school…”
Anyway, I slept off. And there in my office, everybody was looking for me.
Next morning,I called up my team leader. He told me to call the HR. So I called her.
Now,she was so dumb-she had never heard of weed. She asked me to spell it. And I was like,“W as in Whisky, E as in Echo, E as in Echo, D as in Delta…”
They had just taught us these things, you need it to confirm the client’s email id like this… And I used it to spell WEED.
Anyway, she said it was OK… I was not fired.
As I write it today, I can see a resemblance between me and most of the parents. Like I forgot how it felt like smoking weed, most of the parents too forget how they had lived their childhood once they have their own kids, and they impose their beliefs, their ideas and ambitions on their kids. And when pointed out, they say that they are just worried about the kid’s future.
In this case, I was the parent who had forgotten his childhood. There was one difference though-I still didn’t stop myself from smoking weed. Yes, I was also the kid in this story who had to suffer because his parent’s experience didn’t help him. I was scared and worried about losing my job. But I didn’t lose it.
I don’t know if this comparision is making any sense. But I think that no parent should forget how they had lived their lives. And they should talk about it to their children,the good, bad and ugly things they learnt from it. But that doesn’t mean they will stop their kids from making mistakes. You see, bad experiences are always good. And there is a lot of difference between ‘knowing’ something and ‘realizing’ it…And to realize something,one should experience it.
That was the last time I smoked weed.