There I am, bent over my keyboard with ints and floats floating around in my head, lost to the world. I have already missed a deadline before and I can't afford to miss it again. I am wearing headphones to cut out all background noise, I have limited my eye span to 45 degrees, every nerve in me is directed toward the screen in front of me. I am completely focused. Nothing can disturb me.
Sniff sniff. Sniff. Hmmm. What's that smell now? Is that freshly made popcorn? Sniff sniff. Yes! Now, you should know something about delicacies and my workplace. Work, as we all know, is not pleasure. Any diversion from it, therefore, is not only welcome, it is eagerly awaited. When the diversion comes with good eats, it's a deal too good to resist. So, unsurprisingly, my chair moves back. I half get up. Popcorn, here I come!
Wait, remember the deadline? Sit. Work.
Work! With this smell wafting up my nose and messing up my brain?
Relax. It's just popcorn.
Just! Just! Just smell it!
Just Breathe. Through your mouth.
I sit down and breathe through my mouth.
The next day, it happens again. This time I don't mess around. Headphones come off. Chair rolls back. And I'm off into the sea of cubicles, searching for the source the smell. I go up the adjacent row, down the row after that, double back, check the rows on the other side. Nothing. Everybody is working as usual. There are some people looking around curiously and (I think) sniffing the air. But nobody is eating anything. The smell has disappeared. I return to my seat dejected.
The next day, the same thing happens again. Sniffing, elation, hope, action, search, confused faces, dejection. This happens again and again every day. Eventually, I start to feel slightly afraid that I'm hallucinating, imagining the smell. Until I hear my neighbour mumble, "I'll find him today. I'll find him today.", and I realize that there are others doing the same search as me. Others with noses on maximum dilation, trying to trace the smell down, carrying perplexed, even agonised looks.
Eventually, we talk.
"So what's with this popcorn guy?".
"Yes? What is up with him? Why is he so bent on hiding his popcorn?".
"He's like, torturing me to death, using my sense of smell as leverage.".
"I know we all tend to be protective of our food. We are, after all, ape-men first and software engineers later. But this is going too far.".
And so on. We talk a lot. But do, we don't. Our actions have already been rewarded with varying degrees of total lack of success and we are out of ideas. Some of us resort to desperate measures. Cries of "popcorn guy, come out" and "we promise we won't hurt you" are heard every few days when the mysterious smell wafts through the office. But there is never any reply. It seems as if the man has a heart of stone.
Weeks go by.
Yesterday morning, as we were drifting into work, we noticed some workmen messing around at a hole in the wall. The curious among us asked what they were up to. And they replied that there was some slight hiccup in the air conditioning. There was a general feeling of alarm at that along with a spate of speculation ranging from anxious to diabolical.
"What kind of hiccup? What's happening?"
"Is something harmful coming through? Something poisonous?"
"Has there been some chemical weapon attack by terrorists? Are we being executed by noxious fumes coming in through the air conditioning? Why oh why did Al Qaeda decide to target a little software development center in Hyderabad?"
Our alarm alarmed the workmen and they hastened to explain what had happened... Some fault in the air conditioning works had just caused a link up between the kitchens and our floor. It wasn't harmful in any way. In fact the situation had been like this for some weeks and us being still not dead was undeniable proof that there was no harmful gas coming through. We could deny that logic as much as we could deny our being not dead. So we were silent. But there were some mental gears turning, creaking, doing the math. And sure enough came the conclusion...
"I got fever last week! I almost died because of your stupid gas!"
That was ignored.
"Did you say that this has been like this for some week? How many weeks would you say?"
"6-7 weeks or so", one of the workman replied. And then added, "We were really short of men so we couldn't come earlier. Was there some inconvenience? We put this job on low priority as the worst that could happen was that some kitchen smells would drift your way. And whenever did smells of food cause anybody any problems!?", he finished heartily.
