Coffee Break

Haris: “Yaar Nasir, tell me something, do you think the boss minds that we talk in Urdu all the time.”

Nasir: “Nahin yaar, we are always careful enough to leave a trail of English words that gives him a gist of our conversation.”

Haris: “Haan, that’s why he always butts into our conversation and tries to say something.”

Nasir: “I don’t like him waisay.”

Haris: “I don’t like him either, motaa saalaa, comes in at 9:45 and leaves at 3:45 and expects us to come in on weekends, when he’s getting hammered.”

Nasir: “Haan, everyone here is like that. They expect us to do all the work. Come to think of it, did you realize that we didn’t even receive any training, first day, boom, they said here is this application, here is this software, we want these components by the end of this month, now start working.”

Haris: “Yaar, you are absolutely right. But yaar, the other intern, the chubby white guy got a whole week of training and everyone treats him like he is some manager. Why is that?”

Nasir: “Dekho, its simple, we are desis, brown people you know, we are the worker bees of this society, the non-social-get-the-job-done-people. Everyone expects us to know all the stuff and to get all the tasks done. We are the 13.34% spike in the company’s graph that is presented at the annual company dinner, which we don’t get invited to. ”

Haris: “Haan that is so true, but one reason why we are not invited at the annual dinner might be that we are interns here only for four months and the dinner is only for vice presidents and senior managers.”

Nasir: “Haan I know that, but that is irrelevant, you are not getting my point.”

Haris: “Yaar, I am getting your point, and it is making me sick, we will be stuck in this job our whole lives, we will never be managers. Managers make the most money you know. I need a smoke.”

Nasir: “Haan I know that, but that is not necessarily true. Good engineers make lots of money too. Worry not my friend, this is just a temporary internship, once we graduate, we will go into a company which values its hard working employees.”

Haris: “But I still need to smoke.”

Nasir: “Yaar, cigarette is not the answer to our problem. It is ok when you are stuck in the lab for 12 hours and have 6 more hours to go, but don’t make it a habit. That reminds me of another bad habit, I saw your sweetheart Ivana talking to John. Do you know they take the same train to work everyday.”

Haris: “Yaaaaar, Ivana, why don’t I ever bump into her. Whenever I see her my day goes much better. Have you seen her green eyes? Whenever she talks, I just keep looking into her eyes, I don’t even know what she’s talking about, I just keep looking into her eyes. ”

Nasir: “Yeah, it is pretty hard to make out what she is saying with her heavy Russian accent.”

Haris: “Yaar, I have told you she is from Hungary, not Russia.”

Nasir: “It’s the same thing, Ukraine is right next to you, once you are there, bingo, Russia is staring at you from almost all corners. By the way, don’t you think she is a bit chubby.”

Haris: “Yaar you can’t be perfect, have you looked into her eyes?”

Nasir: “No, but I am sure Auntie will love her eyes too!!! You fall in love with every second girl you see.”

Haris: “Yaar 12 years of same sex education can do this to you. You know I saw her in a dream a few days ago.”

Nasir: “Yeah, I heard about it from you the next day, something about her and a 2005 Ford Mustang. I wonder why you guys didn’t take the 34C in your dream, would have saved you a lot of money.”

Haris: “Yaar, what a sorry state of affairs, crossed the seven seas, and the only difference is that I am riding the 34C instead of the 11C. I swear, as soon as I graduate, I am getting a brand new Ford Mustang with 0% financing.”

Nasir: “I don’t even know what 0% is.”

Haris: “Don’t worry, will tell you some other time, I think we should head back to our floor.”

Nasir: “What’s the rush, its 4 pm, our manager is most likely gone. Lets play a game of pool before we head back. Do you remember the score?”

Haris: “No, I have lost so many games, I stopped counting.”

Nasir: “Haha, inviting Ivana might stir up some good luck for you.”

Haris: ”Haan, she is my lucky charm, but then we won’t be able to talk in Urdu.”