I was once professionally associated with the Dial-911 styled organization in India, which goes by the number 108, by the way. My company was their R&D partner. I helped them on automatic vehicle location and GIS (Geographic Information System) software. Our offices were quite apart; particularly this emergency response office was in the outskirts of the city. We visited them only based on their occasional needs. On one such a visit, when me and my colleagues reached there after a long travel, it was already lunch-break, so we decided to have lunch first. This was my first time at their cafeteria which is quite a long hall with more than 300 chairs. It was the peak hour, but we could grab an empty table for ourselves. The next ritual for me has always been to wash my hands. Many of my colleagues know about my habit of elaborate hand washing. One of my friends always teased me whenever he passed by while I was washing my hands by saying “don’t start bathing please.”( नहाना नहीं, रवी!). Anyway, I saw an attached washroom at the far end of the cafeteria as a wash basin was visible through the open door. As I didn’t want to delay the others, I sprinted to the washroom.
After washing my hands, I stood in the door of the washroom briefly, while wiping my hands dry. I was shocked to notice that the entire cafeteria was looking at me. Even the decibel level had dropped significantly. I just did not know what was going on. Even in that nervous moment, I found the scene in front of me quite similar to something; guess what! Well, I sneaked back to our dining table where my colleagues were waiting for me. I looked at them nervously with a question mark on my face. While I was settling in my chair, my colleague whispered into my ear, “That is the ladies’ washroom where you had been.”
