First Day First Show

I hate first days. First day at school, first day at college, first day at work, first day in a new city, first day at almost just about anything. There is always pressure to perform, to impress, to look intelligent and to be the best at whatever you do. And even walking up to the loo becomes an excruciatingly painful task. Everyone looks at you like you’re from another planet or so you think.

I changed my job recently so my first day on my second job gave me a rather queasy feeling. I had moved from an organization with not more than 30 people at any point to an organization with 250 odd people. In my first job, I knew every individual by name, history and geography and suddenly I found myself in an ocean where I couldn’t identify with a single face.

It’s almost like the fate of a Bollywood movie, the first three days of its release makes or breaks it. And the producer undertakes a pilgrimage in the interim.

I maybe exaggerating, but I would be lying if I claim that I am super excited about my first day at a new job, the second time over. True, I’ve gotten over the apprehension about jobs in general, a feeling I went through before my first job, but I still sweat at the thought of having to start again.

So on my first day, I got a huge bouquet of peach roses hmm… sweet! I must admit, but then I saw at least 3 other tables with identical bouquets. I felt even better, I had company!

Then I got sweets, my obvious guess ‘birthday’.

‘Happy birthday’

My boss chuckles and everyone around me seemed to be snickering. Ok, my first slip.

‘It’s my third day sweets.’ Replies the unidentified object rather bashfully.

‘Your what?’

‘Oh! it’s a tradition here. On your third day, you give out sweets to everyone and introduce yourself.’ My team mate was quick to explain.

Hence, three days later, there I was, doing the exact same thing. So before I get my paycheque, I’ve already spent a bomb on sweets, but it’s worth it if I am going to get to know people before I start.

Next is induction, which in my opinion is a boring monologue of the company’s values, its achievement, yada yada. A lot of people walking past my cubicle ask me whether I have been inducted, I couldn’t help noticing a mischievous grin on their faces. So I inferred it was obviously not any normal induction, another reason for me to worry.

All the newcomers assembled at the induction room at a given time with writing pads and pens to copiously take down notes. Treatment imparted to us was similar to that of sacrificial goats. A huge gathering of people from various departments assembled to watch the show. We had a round of personal introductions and then the latest item numbers in various languages were played at full blast and we had to dance just the way item girls do!

I was pretty much left with no choice, and so I did my bit of grinding and jahtak mahtaks. Now, I am on my second week and I still feel awkward approaching people, pushing them to do work. Besides, I get the ‘you’re the new kid on the block and your telling me how to do my work’ look all the time. In a month it wouldn’t matter, but this would probably be my longest month here.