LIFE OF A WORLD

Swearing (in some languages, chiefly English) has the power to shock a listener into paying attention.

Of course, they could be doing just that

I understand the saying that the past is like a shadow—you can never run away from it.

That’s exactly the thought that came into my mind late yesterday. There I was seated before the computer, trying to update my blog and into my new newsroom walks my new boss accompanied by my old governor. If that’s a trifle confusing, let me attempt an explanation.

My new job is in the newsroom of a newly established news organisation. My new boss owns the new news company I work for. My old governor is the former governor of the state I left to come to take up the new job in my new location. Get the drift now?

In case you are still uncertain, the old governor is none other than former Edo state governor Lucky Igbinedion. He is kinda embattled at the moment, what with the anti-graft agencies seeking to come down the back of his neck like a ton of bricks for improprieties allegedly perpetrated during his term in office.

Point is, I thought leaving Benin City behind was same as leaving everything else behind. Since moving to my new location, I haven’t seen anyone to remind me of Benin City.

So how come the first person to remind me of where I left, the first person to strike that chord, the first person that I should run into should be the former governor of my state?

Is that my past? Or is this a one-off?

KAL HUAA HAMESHA HUMEIN PAKADTA HAI KYA?

Main samajhta jo baat vo kahte hai ki guzara huaa din ek sayaa ki tarah. Is se koi dhaud kabhi nahin sakta.

Yah sochna jo mujhe aaya hai kal. Main baitha huaa computer par, mera blog ko poori karne ki koshish karke, aur jo aata hai mere naye newsroom mein—mera naya maalik aur mera poora rajshri raja. Main bataaoon.

Naya khabaar organisation ki khabaarkamre mein hai meri nayi naukri hai. Jo nayi company ka maalik hai mera naya maalik. Mera poora rajshri raja hai jo rajshri se chala huaa main isliye main naukri kaam shoor karta hoon ki. Samjha ab, hai na?

Agar tumhein samajh nahin aata hai, poora rajshri raja vahee hai Edo state ka governor Lucky Igbinedion. Yahee ek ladaai ke beech mein. Anti-graft agencies ko uska gardaan mein jump karna chahie. Kis liye yah to daulat chor ki jab yah to sarkari mein.

Maine socha ki jab maine benin city se chala maine sab kuchh chod diya hai. Jab se maine pahunch gaya mera naya sthan, maine nahin dekha koi jisse benin city ki yaad aati hai.

To kaise ki pahla aadmi jisse jahaan main chala huaa ki yaad, pahla aadmi jo mar vah chord, pahla aadmi jisse mila mera rajasthan ka former governor chahie.

Vah to mera guzara huaa din? Ya ek baar-baat hai?

I have heard so much about on-the-job training, but never had to do it until recently.

You would that when a new company comes on the market, which they do always, they want the best. They do anyway.

They put you through several levels of rigorous interviewing, pick through your credentials and experience with a fine toothcomb and chuck out anyone they think will pull down the standard of their work and the core values they represent on the market.

Then they mail out appointment letters, and barely forty-eight afters after you start work as a new staff an in-plant training is afoot.

You spend nearly all of your working day on your bum listening to a course facilitator contracted to put you through the wrenches of college learning once more, complete with handouts and ultimatums like "switch off your phones in class" and "do not disturb this class in anyway." There are even class reps.

Anyway, it does not matter that much. So long as the purpose of the training is achieved. The employer is happy he is getting his money's worth, the staff get to keep their jobs, and the facilitator smiles to the bank after executing one more contract.

Hello, hi, chodiye, jai mata di chodiye.

I’ve never known exactly what that means but I’ve always wanted to use it.

I guess this could go for another welcome-back entry on this blog. I really haven’t been that active for the past weeks—few and several and everything in-between.

That’s because I was in the middle of changing jobs—workplace, rather, since I’m still in the media business of writing, reporting, editing.

Precisely what I have been doing before now except that I now have a place with somewhat steady internet connection, which means the entire blogdom will be reading more frequently on these pages.

So once again, welcome back to THE VOICE IN THE DESERT.