Week In Review – Weeks 20 & 21, 2018

Let’s just say this post is a rant.

Now there are a few things I hate more than unannounced guests. Some people do not have the courtesy to call beforehand and check with you to see if you’re free. And when they just turn up at your doorstep, it is even more awkward. It is downright inconvenient as well. What if I don’t have biscuits to serve with tea or what if I don’t have tea itself? All these people will get from me is a frowning face and a glass of water, at best. Worst case…

Even worse than these people are the unannounced over-night guests. We’ve had a family stay for a few days the twentieth week of this year and it set off a weird reaction. There was a call on a Wednesday saying these people would be coming the next morning. And we had to go pick them up from the railway station. Alright, that ticks me off by itself. When a grown-up tells you they can’t handle a prepaid taxi cab and figure out a route by seeing Google map. Why bother about all this when you can get someone to drop their work and travel some 30 odd Kms to pick you up?

It gets worse from there on. You see, work from home is not a concept that most people understand. We need the space and time to get things done. And when I was working, I was also constantly being supervised by these guests. Even worse, they asked me to do their work for them, filling up applications, which they could have done from the comfort of their home. But no, again why bother when you can get a minion to do it for free.

As thanks to the work I did, they manage to drop a heavy wristwatch on my laptop screen, don’t ask how, and it now sports a very nice fingernail-sized black space. Those diodes died an unnecessary death. Three years I took care of it like my precious and this happens. At this point, there was steam coming out through my ears.

I have a few quirks that I enforce with everyone. It drives me mad when I see someone leave a fan or light on when they leave a room. It drives me crazy when people leave things wherever and not in its original place. Guess how many times I had to deal with it over four days. And who really needs a tube light and a fifteen-watt lamp to read the newspaper? Even worse was walking out of a room leaving the door open while the air conditioner is on. At this point, the steam is now coming out of the top of my head.

To cool down our guests were kind enough to leave us enough work. Their hour-long baths, per person, left a pool of water four feet in front of our bathroom. And since they bathed twice, I had to clean up six times a day. As an offer of help, the lady guest reached out to my mom and washed the vessels. Which left my mom fuming since she had to do it again as everything was just rinsed and not properly washed. Ugh! My mom was just too tired to even get angry by the end of the day.

My father was their official chauffeur. He took them around and stayed out for long. I don’t think he has driven around so much at a stretch in the past five years. It took a toll on him as well. Only my daddy doesn’t react. He doesn’t get angry ever! It must be one of the perks of living with me. And on Sunday evening they left. My father and my sister dropped them off at the station and came back home.

Monday morning, the last four days’ hecticness caught up with my parents. Both of them fell sick. Fever, cold, cough, body aches… What not. And my sister had work. I was home. We managed. By the end of the second week, they were feeling a bit better. Exhausted but getting better. Then came a call saying the same people were coming back to Chennai. Oh, you can just imagine how I reacted. If I was on a slow simmer the whole time, I turned into a full-fledged furious erupting volcano. My parents got an earful for their inability say no. It doesn’t make sense for me anyway. We live in a two bedroom flat. Five of us. If another three people come over that’s eight people in this space. Imagine the chaos. And if they are as insensitive and indisciplined as these people were, it would be hellish. Thankfully, my parents were still a bit under the weather and they made other arrangements. That family went to stay over at an uncle’s house.

 

In all, it was an awful two weeks. The sheer amount of irritating exhaustion was unbearable. This is what makes me hate people. I know not everyone is such, but if you were a houseguest at someone’s place, it doesn’t take much to be more courteous and sensitive to their needs. After all, you are the one infringing their territory, aren’t you? Some people are just scumbags.

End of rant.

And this is why, Dear Reader, I have been away. Just coping. Every time I switch on my laptop and I see that black streak it breaks a tiny bit of my heart. It was a gift from my mother and it’s now damaged. But, now that we are feeling a lot better, I am back at it. My laptop has a scar, but it still helps me faithfully. I have nothing against guests per se, just the unannounced ones and the ill-mannered. And yes, these guests were our relatives!