The Last Day

I have now started work, and it's been a grand total of two days. But this is about how I spent the last day of my sabbatical, so let's just focus on that.

It was a Monday - deliberately chosen because I just didn't want to start work on a Monday, and had decided to finally do something that I had successfully put off for ten whole months.

You see, early on in the sabbatical when I had been leafing through some papers, I had found two cheques issued in favour of Vijay by an organization called Arogranite Industries or some such thing. During his ''investment'' phase, Vijay had bought shares and they had issued dividends through these cheques - which were valid for only 3 months from the date of issue.

Being quick and observant, I had noticed that they were from 2008 and 2009. Therefore, thousands of moneys would be losts if I didn't get them revalidated at an address that I noted with interest, happened to be one based in Delhi. What better time to undertake such an errand than a sabbatical, I thought - and promptly hid them under some other boring papers for several months.

So I had decided that there was no way I was ending my sabbatical without at least making an attempt to correct and reverse the effects of the carelessness on my husband's part. After all, I thought, someone had to be responsible - so what if he's been bringing in the bread and butter for so many months while I've been on a long break - I could definitely get his cheques revalidated.

On Monday, therefore, I woke up bright and early. I was a Man on a Mission. Okay, so I was a woman on a mission, but a Man on a Mission just sounds better in a certain alliterative sense and I've always wanted to say that so bear with me. Anyway, so I used my trusty driver Kamal and trustier Google Maps to get to Green Park Extension, which must be differentiated from Green Park, please. Both Kamal and Google Maps, however, gave up as soon as we reached Green Park Extension. It was beyond their capabilities to find S block.

I have always depended on the kindness of strangers, which is probably one reason my life has been so messed up. In any case, after being misdirected by several auto-wallahs and rickshaw-wallahs and meandering around that particular congested part of Delhi for about an hour, we accidentally stumbled upon the correct area - miraculously, I found that I was a mere six buildings away from dear old Arogranite Industries registered office. I got out of the car and practically danced on air all the way to the second floor of the building - the sleepy guard on the ground floor informed me that there was no such office on the floors above, but I took one look at his face and knew him to be the liar that he was. Sure enough, on the second floor, there was a sleepy little office with some sleepy little people, who accepted my cheques readily enough.

I had been all prepared with my spiel about how it was all Vijay's fault, but no one really seemed to care. Apparently this kind of thing happens a lot and they accepted my cheques without batting an eyelid. It all seemed ridiculously simple - they just asked me to write down the new address and I did. The entire procedure took about five minutes and that was it. I felt a little foolish. This was something even young Kamal could have managed, assuming after about seven or eight hours of searching, that he would have located the office by himself.

Nevertheless, I left their office with a feeling of having truly accomplished something. I was thrilled, in fact.

I sent Vijay, who happened to be in Jaipur that day, a message that read

''I'm responsible, you suck! I'm responsible, you suck!''

After allowing him to puzzle over this for a while, I called and explained to him what I had done and ensured that he was duly impressed. This simple yet vaguely heroic act of mine had saved us several thousand rupees! Yayy!

I had a beatific smile on my face almost all the way home. I then noticed the time. It was lunchtime. The first half of the day had gone. And then it hit me. On the last day of my sabbatical, I had spent over three hours visiting Arogranite Industries Registered Office in Green Park Extension to get a Cheque Revalidated. The sheer unadulterated boring-ness of that hit me like a ton of bricks. This is how I had chosen to spend the last day? Seriously? What was wrong with me? I quickly entered a state of depression, which lasted until I ate a Twix, which thankfully was soon after.

I then got a call from Vijay who drily informed me that he had received a call from Arogranite Industries Registered Office and they had said that while some crazy lady had breezed in triumphantly waving a couple of cheques, they needed something known as Address Proof and a couple of other boring documents whose unworthy names I have forgotten.

He said ''I wanted to tell them...it's my wife...call her instead...she's responsible...I suck!''

So that was that, I thought, demoralized all over again. It appears that we have to make another trip to Arogranite Industries Registered Office with the documents that they have requested in order to have our revalidated cheques sent to our new address.I felt like weeping but philosophically reached for another Twix, instead.

And decided - I would ensure that we went back to Arogranite someday to get this over and done with. We had waited since 2008. We could wait a little longer, assuming Arogranite Industries is the robust company that Vijay believes it to be, and will not shut down in the next couple of years.

So the next time I take a sabbatical, I'm totally doing this. And early on, not at the fag end.
By the second last day, at least.