The Bond that Binds!!

It’s been 8 years now that I have rooted my career and life in Karnataka. It’s never more an unfamiliar place to me now. But when I first set my foot on Mysore and started my job, I still remember the barrenness and heftiness I felt. There were several grounds for this emotional trauma - staying away from my parents for the first time in life, new place, new faces, new culture, starting a professional life and many more(😉). But the major challenges among all these was to tackle or leastwise captivate to understand the language kannada because anywhere outside the office environment (when you travel in a bus/auto or you go to a grocery shop or to ask route to a localite) demands you on minimal understanding of the language so that you don’t sense the stillness when the world around you passes a conversation. So in the initial days of my joining, I had been very enthusiastic to learn the kannada language (since I am a non-kannadiga) and would never miss a chance to exhibit my proficiency on the kannada language even though I didn’t grab the real meaning of the word. This had resulted in many hilarious moments.

We were a group of 5 friends (Arpitha, Madhuri, Smitha, Moumita and Myself) in office. Three of us(Arpi, Mad and Smitha)were born and raised in Mysore. Moumi is from Kolkata and Myself from Kerala. Our lunch time were mostly fun-filled due to the diversity we shared, especially in the language. Seeing my interest in learning kannada, Arpi, Mad and Smitha were “generous” enough to be my kannada faculties and every day during the lunch break they would teach me a few new words in kannada. And they always played the prank of teaching me an incorrect word/sentence(something I wasn’t aware of then 😊). Moumi would undoubtedly gear up the situation in favor of their statements to reassure me that they taught it rightly, as she thoroughly enjoyed the whole screenplay. During one such chit-chat, somebody mentioned out the phrase “Baavige Bilona Ba” and they convinced me that it means “it’s my pleasure”. I was so happy that a new phrase was added to my kannada dictionary and obviously was waiting for a chance to use this phrase. So when my team member (who is a Kannadiga) acknowledged my support for a task completed, I replied to him saying “ baavige bilona ba”. My colleague appeared puzzled and was taken aback. He immediately jumped up and shared with all the others around on what I had said, and everyone started to laugh out aloud.

It was only then I realized that I had been pranked once again, all courtesy to my dearest friends. Much later my colleague told me that, what it actually means was “come let’s go and jump into the well”. Many similar incidents in the team finally led me to buying a kannada to English dictionary myself and learning many of the kannada words to ensure I wasn’t prey to anymore of their pranks.

Now, walking down these memory lanes, I perceive that it’s the friendship and compassion we have, jokes we share, enrich the working environment - interesting, spirited and composed. It’s this unsaid link we share within the team, invariably makes a huge difference in the work place that always instill a streak of confidence for me to get through a bad day. Moreover, in any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond.