Conversation with Madan Kumar

I see him everyday at the park while I am on my routine walks.  Madan is well dressed, polished shoes, tucked in blue shirt and black pants and carries an office bag. While I walk circling the park, I see him settled on a park bench, making calls, eating oranges and taking notes from those calls. I assumed either he must be a hard working man, seeking a change from working at home or he has got his folk back at home into a false belief that he is going to work. 

He asked me for five minutes of my time. Curious, I obliged. He was polite and said he was seeking advice from me! I  removed my earphones, and  got ready to listen to the pyramid scheme he was going to introduce to me. If not why would anyone stop a stranger to talk right?  I had time to kill, so I was all ears. 

He told me he was  a facility manager for the Embassy group and he resigned the job, because they were not willing to give him a leave for 2 months to get married. He was looking for a job. Helpless, said he will even clean places to make some money.  He also told me he was planning to start a mushroom farm and he had already found a bulk buying opportunity. He also had some ideas for investing and he asked my opinion. I just told him he may need to take calculated risks. 

I usually opinionated especially on the topic about money, but this time, I forced myself to listen. Anytime I wanted to say something smart, I just forced myself to listen again. This went on for sometime and I was interrupted by a call. After attending the call, I politely told him I had to go. He asked for my phone number, I refused to give him mine, and gave him my email id instead and walked away. 

As I walked away, I realised I was right, assuming that he had left his home pretending to go to work. I have done this when I bunked college back in the days. 

So, Madan spent his office hours at the park bench, eating oranges, his lunch, making some calls, chatting with people and went back home after this. I hope he finds a job soon so that he can help his wife and family financially.