Hey, these are the ways you can get yourself into and out of panic mode. The first part sets the premise, the next two sets are the attacks. It feels like a variant of the once-a-famous smartphone game – Dumb Ways to Die
The Mail
Right after an internal mail about the letting go of people came, I called my best friend to ask if they had read, here’s the transcript of the telephonic conversation. Minutes after reading it.
Me: “Hey…did you see the mail?” in a half expecting them not to know and shocked and emotional voice.
Them: “What is it about? Are we getting fired? Are they laying off?” laughing and jokingly.
Me: “Yeah? You read ?” still surprised that they really did read it.
Them: “What?? Really?” they realising the depth and getting hold of the situation.
Later they read the mail on the call. A few days ago, I was discussing with them again, how did they really could say something like that without really knowing. They said, they just said something “outlandish” and it fell on it. Ya later they said, we are both gonna get 1 million USD each. (So I am waiting for that to happen :D)
The Call
Later the same week, an internal call took place to shed more light on why and what’s happening. As I tired to login, a server error came. And the immediate thought that came to me was, this must be it, I must be out. I tried another internal site to be rational about the whole thing and not jump to conclusions, and that too gave a server error, I checked my wifi connection to be on the safer side. After desperately refreshing and giving in to my fear for 6 times, I refreshed the tab for the 7th time and it worked, I was still part of the system. Phew, close call. Turns out it happened with a lot of other people and that’s what they thought as well.
The Missing Phone
Better to know thy phone’s features – it’s a hassle carrying one phone around, let alone two. For business reasons, the company provides a corp phone. I came home from office and I was looking for my corp phone, I forgot to take it with me that day to office. It was past midnight, I expected to have just misplaced somewhere around the house. So I gave it a call from my personal phone, and the call hangs up with the usual – “The person you are trying to reach is busy”. My heart skipped a beat, the person I am trying to reach is me. Many panicking thoughts rushed through my head, knowing my self, I am always afraid of losing stuff. “Did I really lose the corp phone?” “How will I pay back?” Especially expensive stuff, even more so, expensive corporate stuff. I called a friend to tell that I can’t find the phone. I skip the part about the call. Because saying “stolen” has greater implications, anyway they ask me to call again. I do so again, expecting to hear the hang up voice again, but the call gets through and my phone rings and vibrates through the blankets. I later realize that’s one of the features of iPhones, it was night and DND mode got activated, in DND the first call doesn’t get through but if the same number calls the second time, it allows. I had known about DND customizations and I had set DND in my personal Android phone as well where it shouldn’t ring at all, this was little panicking.
Words for this month
cinch – a simple and easy task (read from the bookshelf of Rolling Stone on a Friday dinner with a friend, in the book Mr Putter and Tabby Bake the Cake)
equivocate – ambiguity to hide the truth, lie by omission (latter’s easier way to remember it), a colleague was marvelling at one of the character drunk delivery of a really good dialogue from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
acquiesce – reluctantly agree to do something without protest (my best friend who learnt from her friend told me)
The Sword of Damocles still hangs. let’s hope the verdict is out soon, either way. Will hopefully by the time the next post releases.
Thanks for reading!
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