A charming patch of garden near the helipad in Electronic City. A friendly co-working space. Crisp, cold, December in Bangalore. After a full day's work, I would change shoes, wear heels, get Uber and go to Koramangala for dinner. Or someplace else for a movie. That was the 'work-life' balance.
The patch of garden outside this co-working space had a beautiful, large, white Buddha. The place would put up pale yellow lights around the Buddha every evening. It looked festive. It felt reassuring.
There are several things I remember about that place. Staying there until really late and having a cup of coffee on the bench way past midnight. Just me on a cold bench and a Buddha lit up by twinkling lights. Or reaching really early in the morning, getting Maggi for breakfast and reading a page of a book before work. A game of table tennis with strangers. A walk back home in the early evening through traffic. A date in a local pub called Grasshopper where they did a splendid mocktail version of the Moscow mule.
Around that time, I came across an app that dispensed wisdom of the Buddha, one pithy saying at a time. The last one before the app went defunct is what I often think of.
I had come into work at the office space one morning. The administration said that the co-working space was shutting down and moving. They weren't going to be a co-working space anymore.
I felt really bad. I didn't work in a regular office so that space gave me the steady little routine that I found soothing.
I like dressing up for work, especially on days when the work is hard to tackle. And this is where one could wear coats and heels and a slim string of pearls.
It was a sanctuary.
Anyway, I started scouting around for a new spot but there was nothing in Electronic City. I remember that night, I had a client call at 2 am and I was in the office alone. The call went on for an hour and I couldn't get an Ola after that. So I thought I would wait it out for a bit. Maybe catch the sunrise.
I sat on my spot on the park bench. It was this month. Close to Christmas. There were a lot more lights on the Buddha. They'd put up pink fairy lights around the flowers and bushes. It was beautiful.
The last message from that app was, "You lose what you cling to."
True that.
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