And Spring turns into Summer...

Winter swept past with a flourish...
And nothing much besides.
Now spring has risen
From her bed of flowers
Fresh and dewy, and sweet

It already feels like summer
Though what has just begun
hasn't yet sunk in
Dreams of a frosted spring bloom
Might just wither in the heat

It's the strangest thing... I've been working here for three months now, haven't even been paid yet(not even once... wonder what I'm still doing here), and am learning all about all kinds of things that I wouldn't have otherwise had the time(even in case I did have the inclination) to even look at. I'm seeing the way the government works, and am fascinated by the kind of bureaucrats we have here - they are smart people, for the most part, and now more than ever, I am convinced that I should never try for the IAS... although just yesterday it struck me during a long-ish internal debate in the bus on the way back home that a government job of the kind that would entail dealing with the kind of stuff I get, really rates pretty high if you take into account things like the variety of matters that have to be dealt with and the mental gymnastics that can entail, the easy pace that prevails for the most part, the way lunchtime and holidays are inviolate, and the fact that it's perfectly understandable if you still have huge piles of work pending on your desk but will go home at the regular time...

Also refreshing in a most surprising way is the lack of a strange kind of peer pressure, that I never noticed, but which I think I am almost missing here... or maybe it's just a different kind of the same stuff... strange little things like the meaning of a 'party' or 'treat'... here and now, it means chai, samosa and one burfi, possibly on a paper plate, more likely served on a piece of newspaper because the peon who was sent to get the plates said the funds ran a little low, perhaps on account of his having pocketed them... point is, perhaps on account of not having been paid for so long, I quite appreciate all this economy... The whole idea of always eating in a 'Bhawan' instead of going for coffee at CCD, for instance, is a rather novel experience.

The other amusing and entertaining aspects of life here, including friends and soppy soaps, I shall talk about in another post. I have some fifteen files to deal with right now, of which about five are marked 'Urgent' and 'Immediate'. Sigh. As if.